For this month’s #12Ancestors theme, I’ve chosen “War and Peace”. I’ve had a number of military ancestors, but my most recent military discovery is my eighth great-grandfather, Simon Pleau dit LaFleur, the first Pleau in North America who experienced both war and peace.
Of course, I didn’t just discover Simon; I knew he was part of my lineage (mentioned here). But as I’ve been digging deeper into my French-Canadian ancestry, I discovered that he was likely a soldier in the Carignan-Salières regiment, a key part in Quebec’s history.
Born about 1641 in Chatillon-sur-Loir, Loiret, France, Simon volunteered to enlist for three years, starting about 1664. King Louis XIV arranged to have a number of soldiers go to New France to assist the residents there in their difficulties with the native Iroquois. Simon somehow made his way to La Rochelle to board the ship Le Brézé on April 15, 1664 as a member of the Berthier company. He seems to be listed among the original role of soldiers as “LaFleur”, his “dit” name.
Before landing in Quebec City on June 30 1665, Le Brézé departed Guadaloupe on April 15 and St. Domingue (in modern-day Haiti) on May 25. What difference in weather that Simon must have experienced!
The following is a very abbreviated account of the action that the Carignan-Salières regiment saw. For more detailed information, see this Wikipedia article and in other resources.
The regiment spent some time building fortifications along the Richelieu River and strategizing. Peace talks were attempted but all five of the Iroquois tribes did not agree to them. In January 1666, five hundred the regiment planned to launch an attack on the Mohawks, but this was a mistake. The soldiers ended up getting lost and attracting the attention of not only the Mohawks who they fought, but English settlers who didn’t take to kindly to seeing the French in their territory. They eventually found their way back to Quebec, but the winter conditions took the lives of additional soldiers. Fortunately, Simon was not one of them.
A second campaign was launched in October of that year; however, it turned out that the Mohawks decided to abandon their villages, which the French ended up burning down. A sad turn of events for the Mohawks, but they did agree to peace talks in the following summer. It was a peace that lasted nearly twenty years.
And now back to Simon…
Whether Simon was involved in any of these campaigns, I do not know. However, he and others were given an amazing opportunity, offered by King Louis XIV. Wanting to increase the French population in Quebec, the king offered any soldier who wished to stay “a seigneurie, a year’s worth of provisions and [a sum of money]. . . the king also granted a piece of land, a year’s provisions and the equivalent of a year’s salary.”
How could Simon refuse such a good deal? He and a number of other soldiers then settled in what became Neuville. I suppose he worked the land that was given him and established himself well in the community. On November 28, 1680, 39-year-old Simon married 15-year-old Jeanne Constantineau at the relatively new church, Saint Francois de Sales. Over the next twenty-five years, they may have had about twelve children.
Simon passed away on October 1, 1711 and was buried on October 9 in Sainte-Famille Cemetery in Cap Sante, a short distance from Neuville.
Beautiful Water Genealogy 