856. Louis LECONTE (LECOMTE, LECOMPTE) Sieur Dupré was possibly born on 22 August 1654 in Pouzauges (Vendée) (Pays de la Loire Region), France (have not yet found his baptismal record). However, his burial record indicates that he was about 72 years old in 1715 which would place his birth c1643. On the other hand, the 1681 census lists him as 27 years of age which would seem to confirm his 1654 birth date.^{1770,1958,1959} On 28 April 1668, he signed a contract to travel to New France as an engagé before the notary Pierre Teuleron. He was engaged by Pierre Gaigneur and signed a three-year engagement at an annual salary of 80 livres with an advance of 30 livres. He was to be employed by Nicolas Gauvreau as a arquebusier (gunsmith) at Québec. ^1,3029 On 28 January 1672, he was cited at Trois-Rivières although he was actually living opposite Trois-Rivières at Bécancour. By 1679, he was involved in trade and agriculture at Champlain. He was still in Champlain by 1681 because he appeared there in the census. He had three heads of cattle, a musket, and 18 arpents of land. On 26 October 1681, he purchased the Terrebonne seigneurie from Sieur André Daulier Deslandes. Dupré signed the purchase agreement in Quebec City before notary Pierre Duquet. He payed the sum of 500 livres. He was listed as only 27 years old. On 1 September 1696, Dupré entered into a trading society agreement with Paul LeMoyne de Maricourt (brother of Charles Le Moyne de Longueuil) and his wife, Marie-Madeleine DuPont de Neuville, for a period of three years. LeMoyne's investment included all of the funds he obtained from a company he previously held (with 5% interest) while Dupré was given the same terms for any money he invested in the venture. The sole obligation of Louis Leconte was to "make an inventory of all the years of the effects that will belong to a lad (?) society in order to know the loses or profits ...". Within a month, Dupré invested 8000 livres. Sadly, the company would not become successful. On 29 December 1703, LeMoyne's inventory of the community property he had shared with his recently-deceased wife, showed that the profits of the company amounted to 14000 livres while debts were 16710 - a loss of 1355 for each man. After LeMoyne died on 21 March 1704, the case was brought before the Soverign Council who ordered Dupré to pay 49917 livres with 5% interest to the succession of Paul LeMoyne. Our ancestor appears to have been a man of substance and was often referred to as a 'bourgeois' in various documents. He was buried on 13 July 1715 at Nôtre Dame in Montréal (Québec Province), Canada.^1,1960 Tutorship documents were filed after his death beginning on 20 March 1716 on behalf of the children of the deceased Leconte and his surviving wife, Marie Catherine Rolland de Saint Georges. His estate was in succession on 28 July 1717 until 3 June 1723 in Montréal (Québec Province), Canada. His succession documents were quite extensive - numbering more than 250 pages. ¹⁹⁶¹ Marie Catherine ROLLAND de SAINT GEORGES and Louis LECONTE (LECOMTE, LECOMPTE) Sieur Dupré signed a marriage contract on 1 August 1683 although it was not recorded until 4 November 1704.¹⁷⁷⁰ They were married on 4 August 1683 at Nôtre Dame in Montréal (Québec Province), Canada.^1,3030

Regarding the Terrebonne Seigneurie ....Dupré appears to have been a very busy man. As a result, he had very little time to devote to the Seigneurie of Terrebonne. Between the time he purchased the seigneurie and 1701, the seigneurie was considered to be in the heart of the deadly conflicts with the Iroquois. As a result, very few colonists dared to locate there. However, in 1685, Dupré did hire a surveyor to establish the boundary of the seigneurie with the intention that he would, eventually, be able to concede land. After the peace treaty was signed with the Iroquois in 1701, Louis Leconte began verbally granting land to a few settlers but he neglected to legally record these concessions and failed to collect the rent on the properties. By 1707, there were ten settlers established along the river. In order to survive, they demanded that Dupré build a flour mill to ensure their sustenance. However, Dupré did not see profitability in the venture and, as a result, the case was turned over to New France Co-Indendant Jacques Raudot. Raudot found that Dupré was negligent in his duties as Seigneur of the Terrebonne seigneurie and, therefore, granted the settlers the right to build their own mill. Unfortunately, the settlers did not have the money necessary to build the mill. In late 1710, Dupré began documenting the verbal concessions he had made years earlier by formalizing the boundaries of each existing grant. However, the number of new grantees was almost null between 1710 and 1718 - only 2 plots of land were ceded. Dupré, finally, built a flour mill in 1714 (although another source indicates that it could have been built under the guidance of his widow shortly after his death), but, sadly, Louis Leconte did little more to establish the seigneurie such as building a road, rectory or chapel. Therefore, the colonists had to worship at Lachenaie and the chapel of Saint-François-de-Sales located on the eastern tip of Île Jesus.

SURNAME: LECONTE, LECOMTE or LECOMPTE... WHICH IS IT?....Although the baptismal record of Louis has not been located, it appears that Louis signed his name as LeConte beginning with the first document that I have of his - his 1668 contract of engagement to immigrate to Canada. He also signed the same way in his 1683 marriage record although he was referred to in the document as both Lecomte Dupré and Lecompte Dupré. In his burial record, he was referred to as Louis Leconte and Louis Lecomte Dupré. In the tutorship document filed after his death, he was referred to as Lecompte Dupré. In a 1701 document, he was referred to as Sieur Dupré. In the 1702 baptism of his son, Jean Baptiste, Louis' eldest son, Jean-Baptiste Louis, signed as Dupré Lecomte. In the 1720 burial record of the same child, the deceased is referred to with the surname Dupré - without any reference to Leconte/Lecomte/Lecompte. The following year, however, youngest child Thérèse signed her marriage record with the surname of Leconte. On the other hand, Louisiana progenitor, Jean Jacques DUPRÉ dit Lecomte, went by the surname DUPRÉ as an adult although the Leconte, Lecomte, Lecompte surnames did appear in his succession documents.

857. Marie Catherine ROLLAND de SAINT GEORGES was baptized on 21 October 1662 in Montebourg (Manche) (Normandie Region), France. This date has not been confirmed, however, because records for this timeframe are not available on-line.¹⁷⁷⁰ Although the date of her passage to New France is unknown, she likely arrived shortly before signing her marriage contract with Louis Leconte. Although not proven, many believe that her mother died c1675. However, her father did not die until 1696. Therefore, it appears that Marie Catherine's father, Adrien, sent two of his daughters - Catherine and Adriane - to New France before his death. (Adriane married Jean Soulard in 1692.) A third daughter, Marie-Madeleine, was also in New France prior to 13 October 1698. On this date, she married Raymond Amiot at Montréal. However, it is unknown how long she had been in New France prior to her marriage. In early October 1718, the widow Dupré made the decision to sell the Terrebonne Seigneurie. When meeting with the purchaser, François-Marie Bouat, at Montreal, she acted as the seigneuress of Terrebonne as well as guardian for her minor children. She had also obtained a power of attorney from her two adult sons who were both out of the city. Another son-in-law, Jean-Baptiste Charly, husband of Marie-Charlotte Leconte, was present at the sale. The seigneurie was sold for the sum of 5268 livres. Several years later, the widow Leconte (Lecomte, Lecompte) and her family suffered a devastating loss as did about half of the residents of Montréal. After the cancellation on 12 June 1721 of a celebration of the feast day of Corpus Christi due to bad weather, plans were made to reschedule the celebration on the 19th of June. In preparation for the event, the Sœurs Hospitalières decorated the chapel with multiple candles. According to a description (originally in French) of the tragedy by Sister Marie Morin, the sisters "showed their zeal in adorning the church to the best of their ability and transformed it into a glowing chapel as found in Rome...". When the procession was leaving the chapel (but before arriving at the parish church), gunshots were fired in a show of celebration from 'canons' set up in front of both the church and chapel. As Sister Morin described, "...some unthinking individual fired a major gunshot into our church portal, which set fire, in an instant, to the roof of the said church and to the vault, which flared up at such great speed that many of our friends present at the time could not extinguish it, although they are quite able and knowledgeable. This caused the alarm to sound to alert people to come to our aid, as it was a lost cause. A good number appeared at first, but not for long, because the fire also spread to the house where we housed the ill and to our monastery from the roof of the church, which rose high and was covered with cedar shingles, as were the other buildings, which burned as quickly as straw, especially with the warm weather and windy conditions at the time". The final result was the full or partial destruction of 126 homes and buildings - including the stone house of the widow Leconte (Lecomte, Lecompte). The house, located at Place d'Arms and Rue St. Paul, was two stories high, 37 feet in length by 30 feet in depth with four chimneys. It is apparent that Marie Catherine Rolland de Saint-Georges did not have her house rebuilt because on 8 February 1722, she went before the tribunal and requested authorization to sell the land and remains of the house. ^3026,3027 She died on 2 April 1738 at about 7 in the morning.^1,1962 She was buried on 3 April 1738 at Nôtre Dame in Montréal (Québec Province), Canada.^1,1963

Children were: