Tranchemontagne: Jean Bernardin Suliere
Jean Bernardin Suliere
Birth: May 20, 1717, Québec City
Baptism: May 21, 1717, Notre-Dame-de-Québec
Death: December 30, 1798, L'Assomption
Burial: January 1, 1799, L'Assomption-de-la-Ste-Vierge
Occupation: Cultivateur (farmer)
Father: Jean Suliere dit Tranchemontagne
Mother: Marie Louise Lesage
First Marriage: Marguerite Payment dit Larivière (1743)
Second Marriage: Marie Rose Vegiard dit Labonté (1748)
Introduction
Jean Bernardin Suliere was the firstborn son of Jean Suliere dit Tranchemontagne and Marie Louise Lesage. His life of eighty-one years would span nearly the entire eighteenth century, from the height of New France through the British Conquest and into the early years of Lower Canada.
Born in Québec City in 1717, Jean Bernardin was named for his maternal grandfather, Jean Bernardin Lesage dit Lepiedmontois, who served as his godfather at baptism. He would grow up during his family's migration westward to L'Assomption, where his father had received a land concession in 1720.
His story is marked by both tragedy and resilience. At twenty-six, he married a young woman named Marguerite Payment. Fourteen months later, she was dead—lost in childbirth. The baby boy she delivered survived, carrying his father's name into the next generation. Four years later, Jean Bernardin remarried and raised a large family that would ensure the continuation of the Suliere line in Quebec—and eventually see his descendants migrate westward to Ontario.
PRDH Individual Record for Jean Bernard Suliere, showing his two marriages, parents, birth, death, and burial dates. Source: Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH-IGD).
Early Life and Baptism (1717)
May 21, 1717 Jean Bernardin was baptized at Notre-Dame-de-Québec, the day after his birth. The record identifies him as the son of "Jean Audet de Marie Louise Lesage son epouse"—though "Audet" appears to be a clerical variation or error for the Suliere/Sustier surname. His godfather was Jean Bernardin Lesage—his maternal grandfather and namesake—and his godmother was Anne Audet.
At the time of his birth, his parents were still living in the Québec region, though within three years they would relocate to the L'Assomption area northwest of Montréal, following Jean père's 1720 land concession from the Seminary of Montréal.
Baptism record of Jean Bernardin Suliere, May 21, 1717, Basilique Notre-Dame de Québec. His godfather Jean Bernardin Lesage was his maternal grandfather.
First Marriage: Marguerite Payment dit Larivière (1743)
February 4, 1743 At twenty-five years of age, Jean Bernardin married Marguerite Payment dit Larivière at Ste-Geneviève (Pierrefonds). Marguerite was eighteen years old, the daughter of Pierre Payment dit Larivière and Marie Françoise Laviolette Potvin. She had been baptized at Notre-Dame-de-Montréal on October 31, 1724.
The marriage record documents that after the publication of three banns on consecutive Sundays at the parish, with no impediments discovered, the undersigned missionary of the parish of Ste-Geneviève received their mutual consent and gave them the nuptial blessing with the prescribed ceremonies, in the presence of Jean Bernard (likely a relative) and witnesses who declared they could not sign.
Parish register page from Ste-Geneviève (Pierrefonds), 1741-1758.
Detail: Marriage of Jean Bernardin Suliere and Marguerite Payment, February 4, 1743.
PRDH Individual Record for Marguerite Payment Larivière, showing her brief life (1724-1744) and single marriage to Jean Bernardin Suliere.
Tragedy: Death of Marguerite in Childbirth (1744)
April 11, 1744 — L'Assomption
Just fourteen months after their wedding, tragedy struck. Marguerite Payment went into labor with their first child. The birth proved fatal—Marguerite died, likely from complications of childbirth, at just nineteen years of age.
But the baby survived. A son, baptized the same day as Jean Bernardin—carrying his father's name into the next generation. The parish register records both events on the same page: the baptism of the infant and the burial of his mother.
Marguerite was buried on May 2, 1744 at L'Assomption-de-la-Ste-Vierge. She had been married for barely more than a year.
Parish register showing both the baptism of Jean Bernardin (son) and the death of his mother Marguerite Payment on April 11, 1744. The baptism appears on the left side; the burial record is at top right.
Burial record of Marguerite Payment, wife of Jean Bernardin Suliere, who died in childbirth in 1744.
The infant Jean Bernardin survived his mother's death and would grow to adulthood. In 1766, he married Marie Thérèse Migneron dit Rivière at L'Assomption, continuing the family line. His survival from such a difficult birth was remarkable for the era.
PRDH Couple Record for Jean Bernard Suliere and Marguerite Payment Larivière. Their only child, Jean Bernard, married Marie Thérèse Migneron Rivière in 1766.
Second Marriage: Marie Rose Vegiard dit Labonté (1748)
February 26, 1748 Four years after Marguerite's death, Jean Bernardin remarried. His second wife was Marie Rose Vegiard dit Labonté, the daughter of Raymond Vegiard dit Labonté and Marie Angélique Anne Pineau dit Deschâtelets. The marriage took place at Verchères (St-François-Xavier).
The marriage record notes that Jean Bernardin was a widower ("veuf") of Marguerite Payment, confirming the connection between his two marriages. Marie Rose's mother, Marie Angélique Anne Pineau dit Deschâtelets, connects this family to another branch of the Tranchemontagne descendants—the Pineau dit Deschâtelets family that would intermarry with the Sulieres across multiple generations.
Marriage record of Jean Bernardin Suliere (widower) and Marie Rose Vegiard dit Labonté, February 26, 1748, at Verchères (St-François-Xavier).
This second marriage would prove long and fruitful. Marie Rose would outlive Jean Bernardin by six years, dying on June 11, 1804 and being buried the following day at L'Assomption. Her burial record describes her as the widow of "Bernardin Sulliere, cultivateur"—providing one of our few direct references to Jean Bernardin's occupation.
PRDH Couple Record for Jean Bernard Suliere and Marie Rose Vegiard Labonté.
Detail from Marie Rose's 1804 burial record, identifying her as "veuve de Bernardin Sulliere, cultivateur."
Occupation: Cultivateur
His Life's Work
The 1804 burial record of Marie Rose Vegiard identifies her late husband Jean Bernardin as a cultivateur—a farmer. This single word tells us much about his life. In eighteenth-century Quebec, a cultivateur was not merely a laborer but a landholder who worked his own concession. The term distinguished him from a habitant (a general resident) or a journalier (a day laborer).
Jean Bernardin spent his adult life working the soil of L'Assomption, the fertile land along the tributaries of the St. Lawrence. The 1771 land concession from Mr. Desaunier—more than fifty years after his father's original 1720 grant—suggests he was expanding his holdings, perhaps to provide for his growing family or to set up his adult children with land of their own.
His father had been an immigrant from Brittany who crossed an ocean. His son would remain rooted to the Quebec soil, a cultivateur who raised a family through the upheaval of the Conquest and into the new era of British rule.
Full page from the 1804 L'Assomption parish register containing the burial record of Marie Rose Vegiard dit Labonté.
Children of Jean Bernardin Suliere
Jean Bernardin fathered children with both of his wives. From his brief first marriage came one surviving son; from his long second marriage came at least eleven children, many of whom survived to adulthood and married.
From First Marriage (Marguerite Payment):
| Child | Birth | Marriage |
|---|---|---|
| Jean Bernardin | c. April 1744L'Assomption (mother died in childbirth) | Marie Thérèse Migneron dit Rivière, 1766 |
From Second Marriage (Marie Rose Vegiard):
| Child | Birth | Marriage / Notes |
|---|---|---|
| François (I) | November 7, 1748L'Assomption | — |
| Joseph | January 16, 1750L'Assomption | — |
| Jean Baptiste | March 28, 1751L'Assomption | 1) Marie Félicité Morney Léveillé, 1774 2) Marie Catherine Marguerite Solquin St-Joseph, 1778Died 1831 in Sandwich, Ontario |
| Marie Rose | September 26, 1754L'Assomption | André Gaudreau, 1775 |
| Antoine | October 23, 1756L'Assomption | — |
| Rosalie | March 11, 1758L'Assomption | — |
| Étienne | August 25, 1759L'Assomption | — |
| Louis | March 10, 1761L'Assomption | — |
| Marie Charlotte | December 4, 1762L'Assomption | — |
| Régis Louis François | May 25, 1765L'Assomption | — |
| François (II) | —L'Assomption | Marie Angélique Rivet, 1789 |
Baptism of François, first child of Jean Bernardin's second marriage to Marie Rose Vegiard, November 7, 1748, L'Assomption.
Baptism of Louis, son of Jean Bernardin and Marie Rose Vegiard, March 10, 1761, L'Assomption.
The Children Who Married
At least four of Jean Bernardin's children married and raised families of their own, carrying the Suliere name—and the Tranchemontagne legacy—into the nineteenth century and beyond.
Marie Rose Suliere (1754–?)
January 20, 1775 Marie Rose, daughter of Jean Bernardin and Marie Rose Vegiard, married André Gaudreau at L'Assomption. She was twenty years old. The marriage record documents the union of two established L'Assomption families, cementing the social networks that sustained these rural communities.
Marriage of Marie Rose Suliere to André Gaudreau, January 20, 1775, L'Assomption.
François Suliere (II) (?–?)
January 12, 1789 François, one of Jean Bernardin's younger sons from his second marriage, married Marie Angélique Rivet at L'Assomption. The Rivet family was another long-established presence in the region, and this marriage further wove the Suliere family into the fabric of L'Assomption society.
Marriage of François Suliere to Marie Angélique Rivet, January 12, 1789, L'Assomption.
Jean Baptiste Suliere (1751–1831): The Migration to Ontario
Jean Baptiste's story represents one of the most significant developments in this branch of the Suliere family: a westward migration that would carry the name beyond Quebec and into what would become Ontario.
January 17, 1774 Jean Baptiste first married Marie Félicité Morney dit Léveillé at L'Assomption. Her parents were Louis Morney Léveillé and Marie Angélique Hamelin.
February 23, 1778 After Marie Félicité's death, Jean Baptiste remarried to Marie Catherine Marguerite Solquin dit St-Joseph at St-Jacques-de-l'Achigan. Her parents were Joseph Solquin St-Joseph and Marie Catherine Lauzon.
At some point after his second marriage, Jean Baptiste made the significant decision to leave Quebec and migrate westward to the Detroit River region—a journey of over 900 kilometers.
From L'Assomption to Sandwich: 900 Kilometers West
Jean Baptiste Suliere died on June 27, 1831, in Sandwich, Ontario—present-day Windsor—at the age of seventy-nine. He was buried at Assumption Church, the oldest Catholic parish in Ontario, founded in 1767 to serve the French-Canadian population of the Detroit River region.
His journey westward followed a path taken by many French-Canadian families in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries: from the crowded seigneuries of the St. Lawrence Valley to the open lands of the Great Lakes frontier. The fur trade, farming opportunities, and family connections drew settlers to what was then the western edge of British North America.
Jean Baptiste's burial record at Assumption Church—far from the L'Assomption parish where he was baptized eighty years earlier—tells a story of mobility, ambition, and the spread of French-Canadian culture across the continent.
PRDH Individual Record for Jean Baptiste Suliere, showing his two marriages and birth at L'Assomption in 1751.
Burial record of Jean Baptiste Souliere, June 27, 1831, Assumption Church, Sandwich, Ontario. Age 79 years.
Land Concession (1771)
May 9, 1771 Jean Bernardin received a land concession from Mr. Desaunier, recorded in the notarial archives. This grant, more than fifty years after his father's original 1720 concession, indicates the continued expansion of the Suliere family's holdings in the L'Assomption region.
By this time, Jean Bernardin was fifty-four years old with a growing family. The concession may have been intended to provide land for his adult children or to expand his farming operations. Such land grants were the foundation of wealth and security in colonial Quebec—the means by which a cultivateur ensured his family's future.
Notarial index page for 1771, showing entry for May 9: "Concession par Mr Desaunier à Jean Bernardin Sullière" (Concession by Mr. Desaunier to Jean Bernardin Sullière).
Death and Legacy (1798)
December 30, 1798 Jean Bernardin Suliere died at L'Assomption at the age of eighty-one. He was buried two days later, on January 1, 1799, at L'Assomption-de-la-Ste-Vierge. His long life had spanned the final decades of New France, the Conquest, and the establishment of British rule in Canada.
He outlived his first wife by fifty-four years and would be survived by his second wife Marie Rose, who lived until 1804. Through his children from both marriages, particularly the son who survived his first wife's death in childbirth, Jean Bernardin's line continued into the nineteenth century and beyond.
Legacy
Jean Bernardin Suliere's life illustrates both the fragility and resilience of colonial families. The loss of his first wife in childbirth—a tragedy all too common in the eighteenth century—did not end his family line but instead created a story of survival. The baby born on April 11, 1744, the same day his mother died, would grow up to marry and have children of his own.
His second marriage brought stability and a large family. The children from this union spread throughout L'Assomption and the surrounding parishes, intermarrying with families like the Morney, Gaudreau, Rivet, and Solquin. His son Jean Baptiste would carry the Suliere name westward to Ontario, demonstrating the mobility and ambition that characterized French-Canadian families of this era.
But it is through his son from the first marriage—Jean Bernardin fils, the baby who survived his mother's death—that our direct line continues. His story is the subject of Episode 3 in this series.
Document Gallery
Primary sources documenting the life of Jean Bernardin Suliere, his two wives, and his children. Click any image to enlarge.
Jean Bernard Suliere
Marguerite Payment (1st wife)
1st Marriage (1743)
2nd Marriage (1748)
Jean Bernardin
Full Register Page
Detail
Son baptized, mother dies
Marguerite Payment
Jean Bernardin & Marie Rose
François (1st child, 2nd marriage)
Louis
Notarial Index
Marie Rose & André Gaudreau
François & Marie Angélique Rivet
Marie Rose Vegiard (Full Page)
Detail: "cultivateur"
Jean Baptiste Suliere (son)
Jean Baptiste (Sandwich, Ontario)
Storyline Genealogy
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