Sebastien Nolet
Sebastien was the first Nolet to emigrate to the New World. His father was Vincent Nolet and his mother was Jeanne Martel. The family lived within 40 miles of the Atlantic ocean in the Poitou province in western France. They were from the parish of Sainte Pexine, near the town of La Roche-sur-Yon in the diocese of Lucon. It was and is an area of dispersed population and small farms. A farmhouse would consist of a one story house with a thatched roof. The exterior of the houses were lime-washed. It was a conservative Catholic area that later resisted the French revolution. Many in the area were killed fighting against the revolution. Although this region is still known as Poitou, after the revolution, the area officially became part of the department of Vendee.
I do not know when he arrived in Quebec, but he was confirmed on the 11th of August 1665 in the city of Quebec. At the time of enumeration of 1666 he was employed in Quebec city as a domestique of Galium Feniou.
I know of no physical description of him but we can guess. Virginia Eifert says in her book on Louis Jolliet that “the men of western France were usually rather stocky, short, and wiry, had gray or brown eyes, and dark hair; they were strong men.” It is actually a good description of my father Alden Nolette.
On the 26th of October 1671, he married Jeanne Auger. They were married in Quebec city. Jeanne Auger was from Paris which was part of an area known as the Ille de France. She was known as one of the King’s daughters. The King’s daughters were women who were given a dowry and sent to the New World. In the 1600's the King sent more than one thousand women to the New World to become wives. They usually married within days or weeks of arriving in Quebec.
On the 29th of October 1672 their first child a son was born in Lauzon. He was named Francois. At his baptism in Quebec city, one of the witnesses was Claire Bissot, who later married the explorer Louis Jolliet in 1675.
After another son and two daughters, their third son was born. His name was Louis and he is the ancestor of David Nolette. By this time Sebastien had moved a few miles east and Louis was born in Beaumont, Bellechasse. One of the witnesses at this baptism was Guillaume Cuture, a well known character at this time. After Louis, Sebastien and Jeanne had four more children for a total of nine. The King encouraged lots of children. If they would have had one more they would have been entitled to a monetery gift. When a couple had ten children they would recieve 300 livres a year, if they had 12 children they would recieve 400 more. So Sebastien and Jeanne missed having a considerable sum of money by having nine children instead of ten.
Somewhere along the line Sebastien acquired the dit name of Lariviere, meaning -- the river. Dit names were nicknames or names associated with places of origin or work. In some cases the dit name supplanted the original surname. In Sebastien’s case, he probably either lived by the river or worked on the river.
On the 15th of April 1708 Sabastien died in Beaumont, Bellechasse and was buried the next day. Jeanne Auger lived until the 18th of October 1735, outliving her husband by 17 years.
At his death his age was listed as eighty. That would indicate he was born in 1628. But in the enumeration of 1666 he was listed as twenty two years old, indicating that he was born in 1644. If we take his death age, he was married when he was 43. If we take the enumeration age, he was married when he was 27 years old. Although several internet sources have accepted his birth date as 1628, I think a birth date of 1644 seems more reasonable. But whatever the year he was born, 1628 or 1644 or a different year altogether, we know that the Nolette family has lived in North America for 350 years. Although the name Nolet or Nolette is uncommon, the descendants of Sesbastien Nolet by his male and female heirs number in the thousands and have spread across all of North America.
David Nolette
March 8, 1999
March 26, 1999
December 12, 2000
Sources:
Dictionnaire genealogique des famile du Quebec des origines a 1730 by Rene Jette
Louis Jolliet Explorer of Rivers by Virginia S. Eifert
Encyclopedia Britannica Online
Répertoires des actes de baptêmes, mariages, sépultures du Québec ancien
Dictionnaire généalogique des familles canadiennes ", by Cyprien Tanguay
A complete list of the King’s daughters by André Therriault / atherria@lightstream.com,Copyright 1999-2005 by David Nolette
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