Individual Details
Nicolas Lebel
(1632 - Bet 19 Sep 1677 and 6 Feb 1679)
Nicolas was one of the first to receive a concesison of land in La Pocatière, Kamouraska, 4 arpents in 1675.
From Thomas Laforest, Our French-Canadian Ancestors, Vol. XVI, pp. 147 ff.:
For a century, the descendants of Nicolas Lebel tried to identify the name of the village where he was born, sometime between 1630 and 1632. Msgr. Cyprien Tanguay wrote in 1871 that Nicolas was a native of Dyville, diocese of Rouen. In his marriage contract signed before Aubert on 29 March 1665, Nicolas, son of Clément Lebel and Françoise Lagnel, stated "Hilleville diocese of Rouen."
. . . [Registries of Illeville-sur-Montfort note:] "On 7 September of the said year was baptized Colette Le Bel daughter of Clément and of Françoise Lagnel. . . ." This invaluable act was recorded in the year 1622. We are int he presence of a sister of Ancestor Nicolas. Therefore, it was at Illeville-sur-Montfort that the first of the majority of the Canadian Lebels lived before coming to America.
The community of Illeville is located near the famous forest of Montfort. In its territory, the imposing hill of old Montfort is none other than the feudal land which supported the cahteau, a hidden vestige of a glorious past. After the French Revolution, Montford-sur-Risle, to the southeast, became the capital of the canton in the present arrondissement of Bernay. After passing through the Orne and the Eure, the Risle River empties into the mouth of the Seine.
Such was the Normand region that Nicolas Lebel was familiar with during the reign of Louis XIII and the regency of Louis XIV.
CHÂTEAU-RICHER
Did Nicolas Lebel leave his country from the closest port, Honfleur? Or from Le Havre? These are pure hypothesis. Was he hired for the account of Pierre Gagnon or Jean Cauchon? What follows lets it be understood.
On Sunday, 13 May 1657, Nicolas appeared for the first time in our civil archives. At the home of Pierre Gagnon at Château-Richer, the notary Audouart and the witnesses Nicolas Verieul and Claude Auber surrounded their friend Lebel. He would be one of them on the Beaupré coast, since the master of the house willingly gave him as "fin d'heritage" a half-arpent of frontal land which he detached from his own farm. Concessionaire Lebel was committed to building his home in a year and to work there by the coming autumn.
Furthermore, at the same time, Jean Cauchon, junior, called Le Jeune, still more generous, made a gift of two arpents of frontal land by a league-and-a-half in depth, bordering the half-arpent all expenses ceded. The conditions were the same. Each year Nicolas Lebel would pay Cauchon 42 sols and 1 capon for the rents and the cens owed to the seigneurs of Beaupré. He could not sell to other residents without the permission of the first owners, etc.
Why were Gagnon and Cauchon, old residents of the Coast, so magnanimous? Undoubtedly, because the immigrant was kind, hard working and unpretentious. They appreciated him and wanted to make him their excellent neighbor. The case is unique in our annals for that time. Nicolas had undoubtedly worked for these two benefactors for more than two years. We can almost conclude that he arrived in New France in the summer of 1654.
Nicolas Lebel began working on hi land at Château-Richer, located between friends and neighbors Gagnon and Cauchon. His property is today located nearly 22 arpents to the east of Sault à la Puce. . . on the Chemin du Roi.
AT WORK AND IN AFFLICTION
In the winter of 1660, the zealous missionary Thomas Morel organized the well known ceremony of Confirmation at Château-Richer. Msgr. de Laval, probably traveling on snowshoes, went to the small church in the coutryside, where on 2 February, Chandeleur Day, he confirmed 173 people including Nicolas Lebel, all decked out in their Sunday-best clothes.
After years of preparation, Nicolas could dream of starting a family. Marriageable girls were exceedingly rare. Near la Rivière aux Chiens lived a worthy family, that of Robert Drouin and Marie Chapelier. Nicolas courted Marie. The young girl had been baptized at Trois-Rivières on 18 September 1650. On 27 September 1662, notary Claude Auber went to the Drouin home to sign Nicolas and Marie's marriage contract. The parents promised to give their eldest daughter a gift of 100 livres in cash, a milk cow, some clothes and some dishes. Nicolas offered a generous dowry of 400 livres. The numerous witnesses were named: Étienne Racine, François Bélanger, Pierre Maheu, Romain Trépanier, Nicolas Quentin, among others.
The next day, on Wednesday, 28 November, the nuptial blessing was given by Father Thomas Morel at the church of Château-Richer. François Bélanger signed as witness with his initials.
The year 1663 was marked by an earthquake of a magnitude greater than that we experienced on 25 November 1988. According to the Journal of the Jesuits, the tremor lasted for a period of 2 minutes, beginning at 5:30 o'clock on the evening of 5 February. All of New France felt the shock, particularly the Beaupré Coast. Various aftershocks were repeated until 15 March.
The supreme ordeal swooped down upon the Lebel home on Friday, 2 MAy 1664. Marie Drouin probably spent the night at her parents' home, near la Rivière aux Chiens. Early in the morning, it seems, accompanied by her mother or one of her sisters, she was going toward the church of Sainte-Anne du Petit-Cap in order to "hear the Holy mass on St. Jacques and St. Philippe day and with the intention of making her devotions."
A Catastrophe! She fell into the icy waters of the stream and drowned. Great emotion on the Coast! The curate Morel moving wrote in the registry of Château-Richer:
"I have buried a number of christians and children of the church."
In a single day, Ancestor Lebel had seen all his dreams crumble like a house of cards
RECONSTRUCTION
It was necessary to rebuild what the waters had carried away: a future. Widower Nicolas Lebel turned to the west and crossed the Rivière du Sault Ile-d'Orléans,. He stopped at Beauport. There he discovered the honorable family of Jean MigNaud dit Chatillon and of Louise Cloutier. Eight living children enlivened this happy home at that time. The eldest of the daughters, 14 years old. was noticed by Nicolas. Thérèse had been baptized at Québec on 15 September 1651 by the Jesuit Jérôme Poncet. She had even attended the convent of the Ursulines of Québec for a while.
Gradually the fabic of their love grew. On Sunday, 29 March 1665, the solemn drafting of their marriage contract took place at the home of Uncle Jean Cloutier, a resident of Château-Richer. A large gathering of the MigNaud family and friends had been summoned. The notary Claude Auber presided. Pierre Gagnon and Jean Cauchon stood up for the groom. The MigNauds made a gift of 150 livres to the couple, not counting the wedding dress, linens, dishes and other utensils. At the bottom of the contract, Nicolas made his mark: an X in the middle of a circle. Thérèse drew a heart or an apple with its stem.
Nicolas the laborer and young Thérèse had their three marriage banns published. The nuptial blessing at Château-Richer was celebrated on 2 April 1665, in the presence of the family, friends, and Father Morel. The Lebel home seemed destined for a generous future.
The censustakers for the year 1667 reported that the 35 years old Nicolas Lebel and the 16 years old Thérèse MigNaud owned one head of cattle and had 8 arpents of land under cultivation. It was not a mine with gold nuggets everywhere. . . . Nicolas had to earn his living by his wits as well by his labor.
On 29 December 1668 our ancestor resold to Pierre Gagnon the half-arpent of land that he had received from him 11 years earlier. For this voluntary return Gagnon paid 100 livres in principal and 10 livres "for property and pins for the said wife" Thérèse MigNaud. In addition, he left the Lebels the part of the land where their house was built, that is to say the space between the north-west of the royal road and the top of the first hill by a width of 5 perches, a half-arpent.
At that time the Lebel cradle was still empty.
LA POCATIÈRE
About 1675, several people from the Beaupré Coast, Beauport and the Île d'Orléans settled on the south bank. The regions of Rivière-Ouelle and the Grande-Anse exerted a special attraction: fertile lands, forests abounding with wild game, clear streams and a river full of fish, as well as numerous available concessions. At the same time, father-in-law Jean MigNaud and his 3 sons-in-law, Pelleltier, Grondin, and Lizot, moved to La Pocatière.
Nicolas Lebel, perhaps at the same time as his brothers-in-law, obtained a concession at this place, lot number 18, 4 arpents of frontal land by 42 deep, a piece of land on which one day the Collège de Sainte-Anne would be erected. But before moving, he had to sell his property at Château-Richer at a good price.
On 30 September 1676 Pierre Gagnon bought the Lebel property with house, barn, and 15 arpents of cleared land. The buyer immediately paid 500 livres of the 800 promised. However, the seller reserved for himself the right to live "with his family and animals on the said homestead until the feast of pentecost of the next year." The sale was signed by the notary Becquet in the hall of the Seminary of Québec.
In the spring of 1677 the Lebel family moved to La Pocatière. . . . Joseph Lebel, son of Nicolas and Thérèse, was born at the Grande-Anse on 3 July. Father Thomas Morel baptized the child on the 9th of the same month, without mentioning, it is true, the parents' place of residence. But the baby's godfather and godmother were local people: Thomas Langlois and Madeleine MigNaud, wife of Noël Pelletier.
MIGNEAU-Lebel GENERATION
Nicolas and Thérèse had only 4 children: Jean, Angélique, Nicolas, and Joseph. The first 3 were born at Château-Richer; the last at La Pocatière. All reached adulthood, founded families, and have a respectable lineage.
BRANCHES
The Lebel descendants have multiplied, slowly but surely, beginning in the region of La Pocatière and going to several Canadian provinces and even numerous American states; there instead some of them bear the family name of Bell or Labelle. . . .
The first two Lebel priests were born at Kamouraska: Antoine-Cyprien (1811-1885) and Antoine (1816-1871). Msgr Robert Lebel, son of Wilfred from Trois-Pistoles, Bishop of Valleyfield, president of the conference of Catholic Bishops, claims the honor of being the first with this last name to accede to the episcopate. His half-sister Annette Lebel, daughter of Wilfrid and of Alphonsine Lagacé, became suoperior general of the Servantes de Notre-Dame, Reine du Clergé on 5 August 1980.
Joseph-Marie Lebel (1881-1951), under the pen name of Jean Fréon, the only French writer from Saskatchewan, published 37 novels, the most famous of which was La Metisse. Gérard Lebel (1930- ) was the first Lebel representative to sit in the Legislative Assembly of Québec on 6 December 1966. He later became Speaker, then President of the National Assembly on the first of January 1969. Since 1987 he has been a judge of the Superior Court for the district of Québec.
The Lebels even have a song sung on the Îles de la Madeleine, a ballad about Daniel Lebel. In 1911 Daniel Lebel, his son, his son-in-law and 3 others from the Îles Madeleine ostensibly defied the sea in order to go hunting for sea-lions "but the greedy sea held them in its breast." Lebel or not, it is always wise to respect the forces of nature.
From Thomas Laforest, Our French-Canadian Ancestors, Vol. XVI, pp. 147 ff.:
For a century, the descendants of Nicolas Lebel tried to identify the name of the village where he was born, sometime between 1630 and 1632. Msgr. Cyprien Tanguay wrote in 1871 that Nicolas was a native of Dyville, diocese of Rouen. In his marriage contract signed before Aubert on 29 March 1665, Nicolas, son of Clément Lebel and Françoise Lagnel, stated "Hilleville diocese of Rouen."
. . . [Registries of Illeville-sur-Montfort note:] "On 7 September of the said year was baptized Colette Le Bel daughter of Clément and of Françoise Lagnel. . . ." This invaluable act was recorded in the year 1622. We are int he presence of a sister of Ancestor Nicolas. Therefore, it was at Illeville-sur-Montfort that the first of the majority of the Canadian Lebels lived before coming to America.
The community of Illeville is located near the famous forest of Montfort. In its territory, the imposing hill of old Montfort is none other than the feudal land which supported the cahteau, a hidden vestige of a glorious past. After the French Revolution, Montford-sur-Risle, to the southeast, became the capital of the canton in the present arrondissement of Bernay. After passing through the Orne and the Eure, the Risle River empties into the mouth of the Seine.
Such was the Normand region that Nicolas Lebel was familiar with during the reign of Louis XIII and the regency of Louis XIV.
CHÂTEAU-RICHER
Did Nicolas Lebel leave his country from the closest port, Honfleur? Or from Le Havre? These are pure hypothesis. Was he hired for the account of Pierre Gagnon or Jean Cauchon? What follows lets it be understood.
On Sunday, 13 May 1657, Nicolas appeared for the first time in our civil archives. At the home of Pierre Gagnon at Château-Richer, the notary Audouart and the witnesses Nicolas Verieul and Claude Auber surrounded their friend Lebel. He would be one of them on the Beaupré coast, since the master of the house willingly gave him as "fin d'heritage" a half-arpent of frontal land which he detached from his own farm. Concessionaire Lebel was committed to building his home in a year and to work there by the coming autumn.
Furthermore, at the same time, Jean Cauchon, junior, called Le Jeune, still more generous, made a gift of two arpents of frontal land by a league-and-a-half in depth, bordering the half-arpent all expenses ceded. The conditions were the same. Each year Nicolas Lebel would pay Cauchon 42 sols and 1 capon for the rents and the cens owed to the seigneurs of Beaupré. He could not sell to other residents without the permission of the first owners, etc.
Why were Gagnon and Cauchon, old residents of the Coast, so magnanimous? Undoubtedly, because the immigrant was kind, hard working and unpretentious. They appreciated him and wanted to make him their excellent neighbor. The case is unique in our annals for that time. Nicolas had undoubtedly worked for these two benefactors for more than two years. We can almost conclude that he arrived in New France in the summer of 1654.
Nicolas Lebel began working on hi land at Château-Richer, located between friends and neighbors Gagnon and Cauchon. His property is today located nearly 22 arpents to the east of Sault à la Puce. . . on the Chemin du Roi.
AT WORK AND IN AFFLICTION
In the winter of 1660, the zealous missionary Thomas Morel organized the well known ceremony of Confirmation at Château-Richer. Msgr. de Laval, probably traveling on snowshoes, went to the small church in the coutryside, where on 2 February, Chandeleur Day, he confirmed 173 people including Nicolas Lebel, all decked out in their Sunday-best clothes.
After years of preparation, Nicolas could dream of starting a family. Marriageable girls were exceedingly rare. Near la Rivière aux Chiens lived a worthy family, that of Robert Drouin and Marie Chapelier. Nicolas courted Marie. The young girl had been baptized at Trois-Rivières on 18 September 1650. On 27 September 1662, notary Claude Auber went to the Drouin home to sign Nicolas and Marie's marriage contract. The parents promised to give their eldest daughter a gift of 100 livres in cash, a milk cow, some clothes and some dishes. Nicolas offered a generous dowry of 400 livres. The numerous witnesses were named: Étienne Racine, François Bélanger, Pierre Maheu, Romain Trépanier, Nicolas Quentin, among others.
The next day, on Wednesday, 28 November, the nuptial blessing was given by Father Thomas Morel at the church of Château-Richer. François Bélanger signed as witness with his initials.
The year 1663 was marked by an earthquake of a magnitude greater than that we experienced on 25 November 1988. According to the Journal of the Jesuits, the tremor lasted for a period of 2 minutes, beginning at 5:30 o'clock on the evening of 5 February. All of New France felt the shock, particularly the Beaupré Coast. Various aftershocks were repeated until 15 March.
The supreme ordeal swooped down upon the Lebel home on Friday, 2 MAy 1664. Marie Drouin probably spent the night at her parents' home, near la Rivière aux Chiens. Early in the morning, it seems, accompanied by her mother or one of her sisters, she was going toward the church of Sainte-Anne du Petit-Cap in order to "hear the Holy mass on St. Jacques and St. Philippe day and with the intention of making her devotions."
A Catastrophe! She fell into the icy waters of the stream and drowned. Great emotion on the Coast! The curate Morel moving wrote in the registry of Château-Richer:
"I have buried a number of christians and children of the church."
In a single day, Ancestor Lebel had seen all his dreams crumble like a house of cards
RECONSTRUCTION
It was necessary to rebuild what the waters had carried away: a future. Widower Nicolas Lebel turned to the west and crossed the Rivière du Sault Ile-d'Orléans,. He stopped at Beauport. There he discovered the honorable family of Jean MigNaud dit Chatillon and of Louise Cloutier. Eight living children enlivened this happy home at that time. The eldest of the daughters, 14 years old. was noticed by Nicolas. Thérèse had been baptized at Québec on 15 September 1651 by the Jesuit Jérôme Poncet. She had even attended the convent of the Ursulines of Québec for a while.
Gradually the fabic of their love grew. On Sunday, 29 March 1665, the solemn drafting of their marriage contract took place at the home of Uncle Jean Cloutier, a resident of Château-Richer. A large gathering of the MigNaud family and friends had been summoned. The notary Claude Auber presided. Pierre Gagnon and Jean Cauchon stood up for the groom. The MigNauds made a gift of 150 livres to the couple, not counting the wedding dress, linens, dishes and other utensils. At the bottom of the contract, Nicolas made his mark: an X in the middle of a circle. Thérèse drew a heart or an apple with its stem.
Nicolas the laborer and young Thérèse had their three marriage banns published. The nuptial blessing at Château-Richer was celebrated on 2 April 1665, in the presence of the family, friends, and Father Morel. The Lebel home seemed destined for a generous future.
The censustakers for the year 1667 reported that the 35 years old Nicolas Lebel and the 16 years old Thérèse MigNaud owned one head of cattle and had 8 arpents of land under cultivation. It was not a mine with gold nuggets everywhere. . . . Nicolas had to earn his living by his wits as well by his labor.
On 29 December 1668 our ancestor resold to Pierre Gagnon the half-arpent of land that he had received from him 11 years earlier. For this voluntary return Gagnon paid 100 livres in principal and 10 livres "for property and pins for the said wife" Thérèse MigNaud. In addition, he left the Lebels the part of the land where their house was built, that is to say the space between the north-west of the royal road and the top of the first hill by a width of 5 perches, a half-arpent.
At that time the Lebel cradle was still empty.
LA POCATIÈRE
About 1675, several people from the Beaupré Coast, Beauport and the Île d'Orléans settled on the south bank. The regions of Rivière-Ouelle and the Grande-Anse exerted a special attraction: fertile lands, forests abounding with wild game, clear streams and a river full of fish, as well as numerous available concessions. At the same time, father-in-law Jean MigNaud and his 3 sons-in-law, Pelleltier, Grondin, and Lizot, moved to La Pocatière.
Nicolas Lebel, perhaps at the same time as his brothers-in-law, obtained a concession at this place, lot number 18, 4 arpents of frontal land by 42 deep, a piece of land on which one day the Collège de Sainte-Anne would be erected. But before moving, he had to sell his property at Château-Richer at a good price.
On 30 September 1676 Pierre Gagnon bought the Lebel property with house, barn, and 15 arpents of cleared land. The buyer immediately paid 500 livres of the 800 promised. However, the seller reserved for himself the right to live "with his family and animals on the said homestead until the feast of pentecost of the next year." The sale was signed by the notary Becquet in the hall of the Seminary of Québec.
In the spring of 1677 the Lebel family moved to La Pocatière. . . . Joseph Lebel, son of Nicolas and Thérèse, was born at the Grande-Anse on 3 July. Father Thomas Morel baptized the child on the 9th of the same month, without mentioning, it is true, the parents' place of residence. But the baby's godfather and godmother were local people: Thomas Langlois and Madeleine MigNaud, wife of Noël Pelletier.
MIGNEAU-Lebel GENERATION
Nicolas and Thérèse had only 4 children: Jean, Angélique, Nicolas, and Joseph. The first 3 were born at Château-Richer; the last at La Pocatière. All reached adulthood, founded families, and have a respectable lineage.
BRANCHES
The Lebel descendants have multiplied, slowly but surely, beginning in the region of La Pocatière and going to several Canadian provinces and even numerous American states; there instead some of them bear the family name of Bell or Labelle. . . .
The first two Lebel priests were born at Kamouraska: Antoine-Cyprien (1811-1885) and Antoine (1816-1871). Msgr Robert Lebel, son of Wilfred from Trois-Pistoles, Bishop of Valleyfield, president of the conference of Catholic Bishops, claims the honor of being the first with this last name to accede to the episcopate. His half-sister Annette Lebel, daughter of Wilfrid and of Alphonsine Lagacé, became suoperior general of the Servantes de Notre-Dame, Reine du Clergé on 5 August 1980.
Joseph-Marie Lebel (1881-1951), under the pen name of Jean Fréon, the only French writer from Saskatchewan, published 37 novels, the most famous of which was La Metisse. Gérard Lebel (1930- ) was the first Lebel representative to sit in the Legislative Assembly of Québec on 6 December 1966. He later became Speaker, then President of the National Assembly on the first of January 1969. Since 1987 he has been a judge of the Superior Court for the district of Québec.
The Lebels even have a song sung on the Îles de la Madeleine, a ballad about Daniel Lebel. In 1911 Daniel Lebel, his son, his son-in-law and 3 others from the Îles Madeleine ostensibly defied the sea in order to go hunting for sea-lions "but the greedy sea held them in its breast." Lebel or not, it is always wise to respect the forces of nature.
Events
| Birth | 1632 | St. Léger & St. Louis de Rouen, Normandie, France |  | ||
| Marriage | 28 Nov 1662 | Château-Richer, Québec, Canada - Marie Drouin | | ||
| Death | Bet 19 Sep 1677 and 6 Feb 1679 | Ste-Anne-de-la-Pocatière, Québec, Canada | |
Families
| Spouse | Marie Drouin (1650 - 1664) |
| Father | Clément Lebel (1600 - ) |
| Mother | Françoise Lagnel (1610 - ) |
Endnotes
1. Diane Lebrun , "Ancestors of Marie St-Hilaire," pp. 1-205; Unpublished family tree, 2025-02-09, Al Perreault, Calgary, AB, Canada.
2. Diane Lebrun , "Ancestors of Marie St-Hilaire," pp. 1-205; Unpublished family tree, 2025-02-09, Al Perreault, Calgary, AB, Canada.
3. René Jetté, Professor, historian, demographer and Quebec genealogist., Genealogical Dictionary of Quebec Families Dating to 1730 (Montréal, Quebec, Canada: University of Montreal Press, 1983), .
4. Diane Lebrun , "Ancestors of Marie St-Hilaire," pp. 1-205; Unpublished family tree, 2025-02-09, Al Perreault, Calgary, AB, Canada.
5. René Jetté, Professor, historian, demographer and Quebec genealogist., Genealogical Dictionary of Quebec Families Dating to 1730 (Montréal, Quebec, Canada: University of Montreal Press, 1983), .