| Notes |
- Jean Cusson arrived about 1656, in the Colony. He signs a marriage contract on August 2 of the same year, in the Ameau notary.
He commits himself marrying on September 16, 1656, at Trois-Rivieres, Marie Foubert dit Lacroix, born 1640, in St-Vivien of Rouen, in Normandy, daughter of Phillippe Foubert and Jeffine Riviere.
Jean Cusson, who acts as tax prosecutor of the Cape, remains with his family in the Cape-of-the-Madeleine, with the censuses of 1666 and 1667. April 16, 1669, he is quoted as Royal Notary in the Cape and Champlain, between 1687 and 1700. He practices his profession thereafter between 1700 and 1704, in Montreal.
Sixteen children are born with the couple between the years 1657 and 1685 at least six being sons. CUSSON, Jean, agriculturalist (farmer), fiscal magistrate, registrar, royal notary, provisional magistrate of the King, born in Clair, near Rouen (Normandy) in 1632 or about 1635 or 1636, son of Jean Cusson and of Jacqueline Pepin, deceased at Saint Sulpice the 8th of April 1718.
One could say with reason enough that the (early) colonists of New France, artisans or military people more than agriculturalists, drawn (to the New World) moreover by the fur treaty, were interested only moderately in agriculture. For many of them, the cultivation of their lands remained a marginal activity and constituted in short only a supplement, necessary but submitted to with impatience, which one got out of at the first opportunity.
There were certainly, real "habitants": John Cusson was among those. Having married in Trois-Riviere, the 16th of September 1656, to Marie Foubert, a girl 15 years old, originally from Rouen, Cusson established himself at Cap-de-la-Madeleine. As early as 1667, the couple possessed seven horned animals and twenty-eight producing acres, which was really extraordinary. (A French arpent = acre is about 1-1/2 English acres.)
Cusson, certainly, had sufficient resources to hire farm hands such as Francois Vannasse (already there in 1666) and Jean Pilon, 25 and 40 years old respectively, censused (listed as residents) at his home in 1667. However, in spite of the functions which he was going to fill in the justice (judicial) area, Cusson did not neglect the cultivation of his land: in 1661 he declared six horned animals and forty acres.
When, in 1669, the Jesuits, seigneurs (lords) of Cap-de-la-Madeleine, gave Cusson a commission as notary, fiscal magistrate and registrar, the Intendant, Boutrose d'Aubigny, struggled (sued) justly in Quebec to remove from the West Indies Company the right of nomination of the notaries, and to restrain the powers of the seigneurs (lords) in the field of justice. If he hurried (acquiesced) to receive Cusson in his commission as fiscal magistrate and registrar, the Intendant authorized him however to execute that of notary only temporarily, and on the express condition that he took the title of royal notary. The seigneurs would soon have no more that the right of presentation of the notaries, the nomination being in the province of the Intendant. Cusson performed the functions of notary at Cap-de-la-Madeleine until 1687, then, from 1687 to 1700, in the Seignoury of Champlain. In 1700, he went to Montreal where he performed his duties for four years. He resided at Pointe-aux-Trembles. In 1704, at the age of about 70, Cusson went into retirement, from which he came out momentarily in 1707-08, when he was provisional magistrate of the King at Montreal.
Cusson had twelve children by his wife. A fact rather rare at the time, they all reached adult age.
[Brøderbund Family Archive #118, Ed. 1, Canadian Genealogy Index, 1600s - 1900s, Date of Import: 3 Jul 2001, Internal Ref. #1.118.1.19682.2]
Individual: Cusson, Jean
Event: Married
Year: 1656
Place: Trois-Rivières
Province of record source: Québec
Source: Dictionnaire Généalogique des Familles Canadiennes Depuis la Fondation de la Colonie Jusqu'a Nos Jours, Premier Volume, Depuis 1608 jusqu'a 1700.
Author: L'Abbé D Tanguay, ADS
Publisher: Eusèbe Senécal
Publication year: 1871
Volume/Page(s): 151
Please note: The province and county are associated with the location of the record source and in some cases may not be the same as the place where the event occurred.
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