Marie Lorgueil: Three Generations in Court
Three Generations in Court
When Marie Lorgueil sold her legal rights in 1691, she was not surrendering—she was surviving. But her children and grandchildren would take a different path. Over the next five decades, the Hunault family appeared in colonial courts again and again: suing neighbors, defending against criminal charges, fighting for custody of orphans, and—in one extraordinary case—a 70-year-old woman demanding divorce from an abusive husband. This is the story of how one immigrant woman's strategic pragmatism became a family legacy of legal agency.
PART I: THE NARRATIVE
The Pattern Begins
Most habitant families in seventeenth-century New France never appeared in court at all. Legal proceedings were expensive, time-consuming, and intimidating. The courts were institutions of power, designed by and for those who understood how to navigate bureaucracy, produce documentation, and present arguments in formal settings.
The Hunault family was different.
Between 1683 and 1738, members of Marie Lorgueil's family appeared in colonial courts at least six times across three generations. They sued and were sued. They defended against criminal charges. They fought for the rights of orphaned children. And in the case that would become the family's most extraordinary legal battle, Marie's granddaughter Françoise would demand something almost unheard of in colonial society: freedom from her marriage at age seventy.
This pattern did not emerge by accident. It emerged from a family culture that understood legal systems could be tools—imperfect, expensive, frustrating tools, but tools nonetheless. Marie herself had demonstrated this understanding when she sold her legal rights in 1691. She could not afford to pursue the case against Baron de Blaignac, but she recognized that her case had value. She monetized her legal standing rather than abandoning it entirely.
Her children learned from watching her. And their children learned from watching them.
Generation One: Marie and Toussaint
The foundation—survival through strategic engagement
The Family Debt
Seven years before Toussaint's murder, the family faced financial difficulties significant enough to require a formal notarial obligation. They owed their own son André 307 livres—roughly one to two years of wages for a habitant. The document formalized what may have been an informal family loan, protecting André's interests while acknowledging the parents' debt. This was not a court case but a legal instrument—evidence that Marie and Toussaint understood how to use notarial systems to manage family finances.
The Widow's Settlement
After Toussaint's murder by Baron de Blaignac, Marie and her children filed suit against the nobleman—then sold their legal rights for 520 livres and debt forgiveness. This was not defeat; it was strategic calculation. Marie recognized that her case had market value even if she could not afford to pursue it herself. She converted uncertain future justice into certain present survival. (See Episode 5: Fighting a Baron)
Generation Two: Marie's Children
Taking the fight to court themselves
The Oxen and the Crops
On November 25, 1694, Pierre Hunault—Marie's fifth child (born 1660)—filed suit against his neighbor Toussaint Baudry at Pointe-aux-Trembles. Baudry's oxen had damaged Pierre's crops, and Pierre wanted compensation. This was the kind of case that defined rural colonial life—disputes over livestock, boundaries, and agricultural damage. But what matters is that Pierre chose to pursue it through the courts rather than settling informally or accepting the loss. The resulting case file runs ten pages, indicating substantial legal proceedings. Pierre had learned from watching his mother: courts were tools available to those willing to use them.
The Illegal Traders of Petite Nation
On June 15, 1699, Toussaint Hunault—Marie's son, named after his murdered father—stood trial alongside Pierre Quévillon and Pierre Bousquet. The charge: illegal trading with the Indigenous peoples of Petite Nation. The fur trade was tightly regulated in New France, and trading without proper authorization was a serious offense. The seventeen-page case file, signed by Intendant Champigny himself, indicates substantial proceedings. Marie would have been sixty-five years old, living with her son André in Varennes, when she learned her son faced criminal charges. The trial outcome remains under research, but the case shows the family engaging with the legal system from the other side: as defendants rather than plaintiffs. And the name Quévillon would appear again in family records—this time in a guardianship case involving orphaned children.
Protecting the Orphans
Jeanne Hunault, Marie's third child (born 1658), became involved in a guardianship case concerning the Quévillon children. The name is significant: Pierre Quévillon had stood trial alongside Jeanne's brother Toussaint in 1699 for illegal trading. Now, years later, Jeanne was fighting for custody of what were likely Pierre Quévillon's orphaned children—evidence that the families remained close despite the earlier legal troubles. The case spanned multiple years (records from both 1705 and 1708), suggesting either ongoing proceedings or multiple hearings. Jeanne was fighting not for her own interests but for the welfare of vulnerable children connected to her family. This was legal agency in service of family obligation—using the courts to protect those who could not protect themselves.
Generation Three: The Granddaughters' Fight
Françoise's extraordinary battle for freedom
Escaping Marriage at Seventy
Of all the legal cases in the Hunault family history, none is more extraordinary than the final one.
Françoise Hunault was Marie Lorgueil's granddaughter—the daughter of one of Marie's children. By 1736, Françoise was approximately seventy years old. She had been married for decades to a man named Jean Larpenteur. And she wanted out.
In colonial New France, marriage was essentially permanent. Divorce as we understand it did not exist under Catholic canon law. What did exist was legal separation—séparation de corps et de biens—which allowed couples to live apart and divide their property while remaining technically married. But obtaining a separation required proving extreme circumstances: abandonment, life-threatening abuse, or similar grounds that the church and courts deemed sufficient to override the sacrament of marriage.
Françoise had those grounds. The court records indicate domestic abuse—a husband whose treatment of his wife had become intolerable even by the standards of an era that granted husbands enormous authority over their households.
The Divorce at Seventy
At approximately age seventy, Françoise Hunault petitioned for legal separation from her husband Jean Larpenteur on grounds of domestic abuse. The case lasted two years (1736-1738), generating an eleven-page case file—indicating either contested proceedings or the complexity of untangling decades of shared property and obligations. The outcome—whether Françoise won her freedom—remains under research. But the case itself is remarkable: a woman in her eighth decade, from a habitant family, navigating the colonial legal system to escape an abusive marriage. She did not accept her circumstances. She fought.
What the Pattern Reveals
Six cases. Fifty-five years. Three generations.
What does this pattern tell us about the Hunault family—and about colonial New France?
First, it tells us that legal agency was not limited to the wealthy or powerful. The Hunaults were habitants—farmers, not seigneurs. They did not have social connections to colonial elites or special access to legal resources. But they understood that courts existed and could be used. They understood that documents had power. They understood that formal legal proceedings, however imperfect, offered protections that informal arrangements did not.
Second, it tells us that women in New France had more legal agency than we might assume. Marie Lorgueil entered binding contracts, transferred property rights, and made strategic legal decisions. Her daughter Jeanne fought for the custody of orphaned children. Her granddaughter Françoise demanded separation from an abusive husband. These women were not passive. They were actors in their own legal stories.
Third, it tells us that family culture matters. The Hunaults did not stumble into court repeatedly by accident. They developed, across generations, a family understanding that legal systems could serve their interests. Marie's strategic decision in 1691 set a precedent. Her children watched and learned. Their children did the same.
Marie Lorgueil taught her children how to survive. They taught their children how to fight.
PART II: EVIDENCE ANALYSIS
The Research Question
How did one immigrant woman's engagement with the colonial legal system become a multi-generational family pattern—and what does this reveal about habitant legal agency in New France?
Timeline of Legal Cases
Analysis by Case Type
Financial/Debt Cases (1683, 1691)
The earliest cases involve financial obligations and settlements. The 1683 notarial obligation between parents and son suggests a family that used legal instruments to formalize financial arrangements—protecting both parties' interests through documentation rather than relying on informal agreements. The 1691 widow's settlement demonstrates sophisticated understanding of legal rights as transferable assets.
Civil Litigation (1694)
Pierre's lawsuit against Toussaint Baudry at Pointe-aux-Trembles represents the family's transition from defensive legal action (managing debt, selling rights) to offensive litigation (suing to recover damages). The ten-page case file suggests substantial proceedings over what might seem a minor agricultural dispute. This indicates growing confidence in using courts as tools for protecting property interests—and a willingness to invest time and resources in formal legal processes.
Criminal Defense (1699)
The trial of Toussaint Hunault, Pierre Quévillon, and Pierre Bousquet for trading illegally with the Indigenous peoples of Petite Nation shows the family engaging with the legal system as defendants. The seventeen-page case file, signed by Intendant Champigny himself, indicates serious charges requiring formal defense. Notably, the Quévillon name reappears years later in the guardianship case—suggesting that whatever the trial's outcome, the families remained connected. The family's prior legal experience may have helped navigate these criminal proceedings.
Family Law (1705/08, 1736-38)
The guardianship and separation cases represent the most complex legal terrain: family law matters requiring navigation of both civil and ecclesiastical authority. Jeanne's fight for the Quévillon children—likely orphans of the Pierre Quévillon who stood trial with her brother in 1699—demonstrates how family bonds persisted across legal troubles. And Françoise's demand for separation from Jean Larpenteur, generating an eleven-page case file over two years, required sustained legal engagement against a husband who presumably contested his wife's petition.
Patterns and Conclusions
- Escalating complexity: The family's legal cases grew more sophisticated over time, from simple debt instruments to multi-year separation trials.
- Gender diversity: Women initiated or participated in at least four of the six cases (Marie twice, Jeanne, Françoise), demonstrating significant female legal agency.
- Multi-jurisdictional: The cases span notarial records, civil courts, criminal courts, and ecclesiastical proceedings—suggesting broad familiarity with colonial legal institutions.
- Intergenerational transmission: The pattern persisted across three generations, suggesting deliberate or cultural transmission of legal knowledge and confidence.
Research Gaps
Several questions remain for future research:
- Case outcomes: The verdicts for Pierre's 1694 lawsuit against Toussaint Baudry, the 1699 criminal trial for illegal trading, and Françoise's 1736-1738 separation case have not yet been confirmed in the remaining pages of each case file.
- Quévillon connection: The relationship between Pierre Quévillon (1699 co-defendant) and the Quévillon children (1705-1708 guardianship) warrants further research to confirm family connection.
- Jean Larpenteur: The background and fate of Françoise's husband, and the specific allegations in the separation case, await detailed analysis of the eleven-page case file.
- Additional cases: Other family members may have engaged in legal proceedings not yet discovered in the colonial archives.
PART III: SOURCE CITATIONS
Primary Sources
1. Notarial Obligation (1683)
Notarial obligation, November 15, 1683. Debtors: Toussaint Hunault and Marie Lorgueil. Creditor: André Hunault (son). Amount: 307 livres. Notarial records, French Regime. Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ), Montreal.
2. Widow's Settlement (1691)
Cession de droits (transfer of rights), 1691. Parties: Marie Lorgueil and eight children (sellers) to Charles de Couagne, merchant (buyer). Terms: 520 livres cash payment plus complete dissolution of Toussaint Hunault's debt to Couagne. Rights transferred: All inheritance rights and all rights to damages from lawsuit against Gabriel Dumont, Baron de Blaignac. Notarial records, French Regime. Referenced in Peter Gagne research.
3. Pierre Hunault Civil Lawsuit (1694)
Civil case, Royal Jurisdiction of Montreal, November 25, 1694. Plaintiff: Pierre Hunault. Defendant: Toussaint Baudry. Location: Pointe-aux-Trembles. Subject: Crop damage caused by defendant's oxen. Case file: 10 pages. Archives Nationales du Québec, judicial records.
4. Toussaint Hunault Criminal Trial (1699)
Criminal proceedings, June 15, 1699. Defendants: Pierre Quévillon, Pierre Bousquet, and Toussaint Hunault. Charge: Illegal trading with the Indigenous peoples of Petite Nation. Case file: 17 pages. Signed by Intendant Champigny. Royal Jurisdiction of Montreal, criminal records. Archives Nationales du Québec.
5. Jeanne Hunault Guardianship Case (1705/1708)
Guardianship proceedings, 1705 and 1708. Petitioner: Jeanne Hunault. Subject: Quévillon children (likely connected to Pierre Quévillon, 1699 co-defendant). Case file: 4 pages. Royal Jurisdiction of Montreal, family law records. Archives Nationales du Québec.
6. Françoise Hunault Separation Case (1736-1738)
Separation proceedings (séparation de corps et de biens), 1736-1738. Petitioner: Françoise Hunault, approximately age 70. Respondent: Jean Larpenteur (husband). Grounds: Domestic abuse. Case file: 11 pages. Duration: Two years. "Extrait des Requêtes de la Jurisdiction Royale de Montreal." Archives Nationales du Québec.
Secondary Sources
Peter Gagne Research
Research compilation providing initial references to Hunault family legal cases. Gagne's work identified several court appearances that informed this episode's framework.
Archives Consulted
- Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (BAnQ), Montreal
- Archives Nationales du Québec, judicial records
- Royal Jurisdiction of Montreal court records
- French Regime notarial records
The Legacy of Legal Agency
When Marie Lorgueil arrived in New France in 1654, she was a twenty-year-old woman who had already learned to work the system. She lied about her age to improve her marriage prospects. She understood that institutions could be navigated, that rules could be bent, that strategic thinking could create opportunities.
When she sold her legal rights in 1691, she was applying that same strategic intelligence to an impossible situation. She could not win a lawsuit against a Baron. But she could sell the lawsuit to someone who could. She converted powerlessness into pragmatic survival.
And her children were watching.
Pierre learned that you could sue a neighbor over damaged crops. Toussaint learned—perhaps the hard way—that the legal system could come for you as well as work for you. Jeanne learned that courts could protect vulnerable children. And Françoise, Marie's granddaughter, learned something her grandmother might never have imagined: that a seventy-year-old woman could demand freedom from an abusive marriage and fight for two years to get it.
We do not know if Françoise won her case. The records have not yet revealed the verdict. But we know she fought. And that fighting—that insistence on using every available tool to pursue justice and protect oneself—was Marie Lorgueil's true legacy.
Three Generations. One Legacy.
Marie Lorgueil taught her children that survival sometimes means knowing when to fight and when to make a deal. Her children taught their children that courts were tools available to anyone willing to use them. Her granddaughter Françoise proved that legal agency had no age limit.
Today, their descendants number in the thousands—people who exist because one immigrant woman in 1654 understood that the rules of the world could be navigated, challenged, and sometimes changed.
That is Marie Lorgueil's story. Not just 66 years documented. Not just 50+ primary sources. But a family culture of strategic survival that echoed across generations—from a girl who lied about her age in 1654 to a grandmother who demanded her freedom in 1736.
Research Continues
The story of the Hunault family's legal engagements is not complete. Court records from the Royal Jurisdiction of Montreal, notarial archives, and ecclesiastical proceedings may contain additional cases, verdicts, and details that would enrich our understanding of this remarkable family.
If you have information about the Hunault family's legal history, or if you are a descendant with family documents or traditions related to these cases, we would love to hear from you. Marie Lorgueil's story continues to unfold—and every new document adds another piece to the puzzle.
DOCUMENTARY EVIDENCE
These documents span fifty-five years (1683-1738) and three generations—from a debt owed to a son, to a granddaughter's fight for freedom. Each record demonstrates the Hunault family's remarkable engagement with colonial legal systems.
Generation One
Marie Lorgueil & Toussaint Hunault
Notarial Obligation: 307 Livres
"Obligation par Toussaint Hunault et sa femme Marie Lorgueil, à André Hunault leur fils, pour 307 livres (15 novembre 1683)."
Document Details
Significance: Seven years before Toussaint's murder, the family formalized a substantial debt to their own son. This document shows Marie and Toussaint using legal instruments to manage family finances—the first evidence of the family's comfort with notarial systems.
Widow's Settlement: Cession de droits
Terms of Settlement
Significance: After Baron de Blaignac murdered her husband, Marie sold her legal rights rather than abandoning them. This strategic calculation—converting uncertain justice into certain survival—set the pattern her descendants would follow. (See Episode 5: Fighting a Baron)
Generation Two
Marie's Children: Pierre, Toussaint Jr., Jeanne
Pierre Hunault v. Toussaint Baudry
Case Details
Significance: Pierre Hunault, Marie's fifth child (born 1660), initiated this lawsuit against his neighbor—the family's first offensive litigation. Rather than accepting the loss or settling informally, Pierre used the courts to pursue damages. The case file runs 10 pages, indicating substantial legal proceedings.
Criminal Trial: Trading with Indigenous Peoples
Case Details
Significance: Toussaint Hunault (the second), named after his murdered father, was tried alongside two other men for trading illegally with Indigenous peoples in Petite Nation territory. The 17-page case file indicates substantial proceedings. Marie would have been 65 years old, still living with her son André in Varennes, when her son faced these criminal charges. The family's legal experience may have helped navigate these proceedings.
Jeanne Hunault: Quévillon Guardianship
Case Details
Significance: Jeanne Hunault, Marie's third child (born 1658), fought for guardianship of the Quévillon children—likely orphaned relatives through Pierre Quévillon, who appeared alongside her brother Toussaint in the 1699 criminal trial. This connection suggests the families remained close despite legal troubles. Jeanne used the courts not for personal gain but to protect vulnerable children.
Generation Three
Marie's Granddaughter: Françoise Hunault
Françoise Hunault v. Jean Charpentier
"Extrait des Requêtes de la Jurisdiction Royale de Montreal... Françoise Hunault femme de Jean Charpentier..."
Case Details
Significance: At approximately age 70, Françoise Hunault—Marie Lorgueil's granddaughter—petitioned for legal separation from her husband Jean Larpenteur on grounds of domestic abuse. The 11-page case file and two-year duration (1736-1738) indicate contested proceedings. This is the most extraordinary case in the family's legal history: a septuagenarian woman fighting for her freedom in colonial court. The outcome awaits further research.
DOCUMENTARY BIOGRAPHY SERIES COMPLETE
Six Episodes. Three Generations. 104 Years Documented.
The Complete Story of Marie Lorgueil and Her Legacy (1634-1738)
Episodes 1-4: One woman's journey from immigrant bride to colonial matriarch (1634-1700)
Episode 5: A widow fights a baron for justice—and wins 520 livres for her murdered husband (1690-1691)
Episode 6: Six cases across fifty-five years reveal how one family learned to use the courts as a tool for survival (1683-1738)
What began as a single immigrant woman's story became a three-generation saga of strategic, resilient, legally competent colonists who understood that survival in New France required more than land and labor—it required knowing how to fight for what was yours.
From research to story. This is what genealogy can be.
Marie Lorgueil: A Documentary Biography
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