The Guilbault Line: Joseph Olivier Guilbault
Joseph Olivier Guilbault
He was born just five years after his parents' wedding—their first son, baptized in the parish church of Notre-Dame-de-Québec in March 1672. His father Pierre had arrived from La Rochelle fifteen years earlier; his mother Louise Senécal was a Fille du Roi who crossed the Atlantic to build a new life in New France.
Joseph Olivier Guilbault would never know that ocean crossing. He was the second generation—born in the colony, rooted in the soil of Charlesbourg, inheriting the farm his parents had carved from the wilderness. He would marry twice, father eighteen children, bury too many of them, and live to see his son become an established habitant. And sixty-six years after his baptism, he would be laid to rest in the same parish cemetery where his parents' story began.
Origins: The First Native Son
Joseph Olivier was born on March 16, 1672, and baptized two days later at Notre-Dame-de-Québec. The record names his father as Pierre Guilbault, "habitant de Charlesbourg," and his mother as Louise Senécal. His godfather was Olivier Le Roy, and his godmother was Susanne Le Bœre, wife of Louis Le Febure of Baranville—prominent members of the Charlesbourg community.
The Guilbault farm at Charlesbourg was already well-established by the time Joseph was born. His father had arrived in New France around 1657 and married Louise Senécal in 1667. By 1681, the census would record Pierre as one of the most prosperous farmers in the community, with 30 arpents under cultivation—remarkable in an era when most farms worked barely 10.
Joseph grew up with three siblings: his older sister Marie (born 1668), who would marry François Dubois in 1688; his younger brother Étienne (born 1675), who married Marie Françoise Roy; and Elisabeth (born 1679), who left no further record in the parish registers. The household that Pierre and Louise created was successful—until the family rupture that would make legal history in 1697.
First Marriage: Marie Anne Pageot
On May 3, 1694, Joseph Olivier Guilbault married Marie Anne Pageot at St-Charles-Borromée in Charlesbourg. He was twenty-two years old; she was sixteen. Her parents were Thomas Pageot and Marie Catherine Roy, respected members of the Charlesbourg community.
The marriage record lists an impressive array of witnesses: Pierre Guillebos (Joseph's father), Pierre Le Febure, Olivier Le Roy, Pierre Toupin—all friends of the groom—and Thomas Pajot (the bride's father), Charles Marquis as godfather of the bride, and Pierre Bizier. The presence of Alexandre Doucet, priest of the Seminary of Quebec, officiating in the parish of St. Charles de Charlesbourg, speaks to the importance of the families involved.
Children of the First Marriage
Over the next eleven years, Marie Anne bore five children. The baptismal records reveal both the joy and sorrow that marked colonial family life:
| Child | Born | Died | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Marie Marguerite | December 17, 1695 | November 11, 1766 | Married Jean-Baptiste Maranda, 1717 |
| Marie Charlotte | October 16, 1698 | October 19, 1698 | Lived only 3 days |
| Anne Élisabeth | December 31, 1699 | January 26, 1703 | Died age 3 |
| Charles François | October 30, 1702 | June 16, 1760 | The Habitant (Episode 5) |
| Joseph | April 2, 1705 | — | No further record |
The Ancestor: Charles François, born October 30, 1702, would live his entire fifty-seven years under the fleur-de-lys and die as the colony collapsed around him. He was buried as a habitant de cette paroisse—a farmer of the parish. His story is told in Episode 5 of The Guilbault Line.
A Child's Brief Life: Marie Charlotte, 1698
The second child born to Joseph and Marie Anne lived only three days. Marie Charlotte was baptized on October 16, 1698—the very day she was born—and buried on October 19 in the cemetery of St-Charles-Borromée.
The burial record is painfully brief: "Le dimanche dix-neuvième octobre mil six cent quatre-vingt-huit a esté inhumée dans le Cimetière de l'Église paroissiale de St Charles de Charlebourg... Marie Charlotte agée de trois jours fille de Joseph Guillebo habitant de Charlebourg et de Marie pajot sa femme..."
Thomas Pajot, the child's maternal grandfather, was present at the burial. Jacques Duhault signed as witness. It was the first of many losses Joseph would endure.
Anne Élisabeth: Another Loss
On the last day of December 1699, another daughter was born. Anne Élisabeth was baptized the same day in the parish church at Charlesbourg. Her godfather was Étienne Guillebos—Joseph's brother and the child's paternal uncle. Her godmother was Anne Pajot, maternal aunt and daughter of Thomas Pajot of Charlesbourg.
The family connection through godparents was typical of New France, binding the extended family in networks of spiritual kinship. But Anne Élisabeth would not live to see those bonds mature. She died on January 26, 1703, just over three years old.
Charles François: The Link Forward, 1702
On October 30, 1702, Joseph and Marie Anne welcomed another son. He was baptized Charles François—the boy who would carry the Guilbault name into the turbulent final decades of New France.
The baptism record from St-Charles-Borromée shows the names that would define the child's future: Joseph Guillebos and Marie Pajot, his parents. The godparents—Louis Roy Gaston and Agnès Giguère—were habitants of Charlesbourg, anchoring the child firmly in the community where his grandfather had first settled.
Charles François would live fifty-seven years, marry twice, and raise children across two families. He would die on June 16, 1760—just three months before Montreal surrendered and New France ceased to exist. The priest who buried him recorded a single word for his life's work: habitant. His story is told in Episode 5 of The Guilbault Line. But on that October day in 1702, he was simply the fourth child, the second surviving son, of Joseph and Marie Anne.
Loss of a Wife: July 1705
Marie Anne Pageot died on July 12, 1705, and was buried the same day at the Hôtel-Dieu in Quebec City. She was twenty-seven years old. Joseph was left with three surviving children: Marie Marguerite (age 9), Charles François (age 2), and the infant Joseph, born just three months earlier.
The PRDH database records her death with clinical precision: born January 8, 1678, baptized the same day at Notre-Dame-de-Québec, died July 12, 1705, buried at the Hôtel-Dieu. Eleven years of marriage. Five pregnancies. Three surviving children. And then silence.
Second Marriage: Marie Charlotte Dubeau
Sixteen months after Marie Anne's death, Joseph married again. On November 15, 1706, at St-Charles-Borromée in Charlesbourg, Joseph Guillebos, widower of Marie Pajot, married Marie Charlotte Dubeau, daughter of Toussaint Dubeau and Marie Anne Jeanne Jousselot.
The marriage record names the witnesses: Jacques Dubos, Jacques Gouais, Jean Pajot, Michel Léo, and Jean Oreheu—all of whom declared they could not sign. But Joseph could. The marriage was performed by René Le Boullenger, priest of the Seminary of Quebec.
Marie Charlotte was much younger than Joseph—he was thirty-four; she was likely in her late teens or early twenties. Together they would have thirteen children over the next twenty-five years. Marie Charlotte would outlive Joseph by forty years, dying September 1, 1778, at St-Joachim in Montmorency.
Children of the Second Marriage
Between 1708 and 1731, Marie Charlotte bore thirteen children. The family grew, prospered, and then—in a single devastating year—shattered.
| Child | Born | Died | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jean-Baptiste | July 20, 1708 | June 8, 1787 | Married Dorothée Racine, 1731 |
| Pierre | March 29, 1710 | May 21, 1796 | Married Marie Charlotte Villeneuve, 1741 |
| Charles Martin | June 10, 1712 | September 29, 1712 | Died age 3 months |
| Marie Josephe (1) | March 18, 1714 | April 20, 1715 | Died age 1 |
| Marie Josephe (2) | February 13, 1716 | November 1, 1805 | Married Louis Étienne Picard Decouagne, 1740 |
| Louis | January 1, 1718 | January 7, 1739 | Died age 21 |
| François Xavier | January 4, 1720 | August 7, 1769 | Died age 49 |
| Marie Anne | April 4, 1722 | May 20, 1809 | Married Jean François Louis Noiseux, 1748 |
| Charles | March 11, 1724 | May 13, 1733 | Died age 9 (1733) |
| Marie Françoise | January 9, 1726 | May 6, 1733 | Died age 7 (1733) |
| Geneviève | November 22, 1727 | May 3, 1733 | Died age 5 (1733) |
| Thomas | December 20, 1729 | May 18, 1733 | Died age 3 (1733) |
| Joseph | December 17, 1731 | April 1, 1732 | Died age 3 months |
The Tragedy of 1733
In the spring of 1733, four of Joseph and Marie Charlotte's children died within weeks of each other:
May 3 • age 5
May 6 • age 7
May 13 • age 9
May 18 • age 3
The records do not state the cause. Smallpox, typhoid, or another epidemic likely swept through the household in those terrible weeks of May 1733.
A Life in Charlesbourg
Joseph Olivier Guilbault spent his entire life within a few miles of where he was born. He witnessed the growth of Charlesbourg from a struggling frontier settlement into an established farming community. He saw his father's prosperous farm, built through decades of labor, become the subject of bitter litigation when his siblings sued Pierre over their mother's estate in 1697.
That legal battle—the famous "Aversion" case—revealed a family torn apart by grief, money, and resentment. Joseph was twenty-five years old when the court declared the hostility between his father and siblings so severe that normal proceedings could not function. Whether Joseph took sides in that dispute, the records do not say.
Death: December 1738
Joseph Olivier Guilbault died on December 18, 1738, and was buried two days later in the cemetery of St-Charles-Borromée at Charlesbourg—the same parish where he had been baptized, married twice, and buried so many of his children.
The burial record states his age as sixty-eight years—close to the sixty-six years calculated from his baptism in 1672. He had received all his sacraments. Present at his burial were Nicolas Jacques, Charles Bédard, and the priest René Le Boullenger.
Marie Charlotte, his widow, would live another forty years. She died September 1, 1778, at St-Joachim in Montmorency, having seen the fall of New France, the coming of the British, and the survival of her remaining children into a new era.
The Bridge Generation
Joseph Olivier Guilbault was the bridge. His father Pierre had crossed an ocean; his son Charles François would live his entire fifty-seven years under the fleur-de-lys and die as the colony collapsed around him. Joseph himself was a farmer—a habitant in the traditional sense—rooted in the land his parents had cleared, raising children in the community where his own story began.
Of his eighteen children, only a handful survived to adulthood. But those who did carried the Guilbault name forward into the expanding world of New France. His daughter Marie Marguerite married into the Maranda family. His son Charles François became an established habitant at Sault-au-Récollet. His son Jean-Baptiste married into the Racine family. And their children, and their children's children, would eventually produce a voyageur named Gabriel who would paddle canoes into the pays d'en haut and marry an Ojibwe woman named Marie Josephte Abitakijikokwe.
Research Note: The PRDH (Programme de recherche en démographie historique) database has been invaluable in reconstructing this family line, providing verified linkages between generations that might otherwise be lost in the variations of spelling and incomplete parish registers. The family tables in this episode are verified through PRDH records.
Primary Source Documents
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