Argenteuil
The complex creation of a seigneurie
Places carry names that have their own stories. Once we scratch the surface wanting to know more, these names, repeated through our lives, followed on maps and seen on signs, give us a greater sense of belonging and the places forever lose their anonymity.
When Pierre d’Ailleboust d’Argenteuil escorted the Ottawa chief Le Pésant into Governor Cadillac’s custody in Detroit in 1707, he must have wondered what would happen to the heavy old man. Le Pésant was in his seventies and overweight; he hardly looked like a man who could have been involved in an ambush where seven chiefs and a priest were killed. Le Pésant’s story itself gives an amazing insight into the times, the misunderstandings and the unexpected consequences. Officially, Le Pésant was supposed to be executed for whatever role he had had, but the overweight elderly chief managed to climb the defensive palisade and escape, which turned out to be convenient for Cadillac.
D’Argenteuil had fulfilled his military obligation in making the arrest but was probably more interested in bringing furs back to trade in Montreal. He and Cadillac had made a lot more money in trading furs than in their professional capacities.
D’Argenteuil was born Pierre D’Ailleboust, son of Charles d’Ailleboust de Muceaux and Catherine Legardeur de Repentigny. He was one of 14 children and he and his younger brother, both soldiers, were acquainted with men in the highest ranks. While they used their status to make money in the fur trade, Nicholas had fought the Seneca on Lake of Two Mountains, watched the destruction of Fort Cataracoui before it was rebuilt as Fort Frontenac, sacked Schenectady, fought the Mohawk outside of Albany and died fighting the British in Hudson’s Bay. Both brothers had acted as diplomatic agents to their Indigenous allies, and while Pierre had seen his share of action, including an assault against Fort St. John’s in Newfoundland, his role had been more frequently diplomatic.
Charles d’Ailleboust, their father, had served in the first Flying Column, a company of 40 soldiers who formed part of the defenses of the mission of the Montréalistes in the early days. He was born in France and developed close relations with the Sulpicians, who eventually became the seigneurs of Montreal. Louis had gone on to become the Governor of New France and his wife, Marie-Barbe Boullougne, learned Algonquin and taught it to the first Sulpicians who took over the Montréaliste mission. It was they who convinced Charles to come to New France.
In 1666, Charles saw his last action against the Five Nations. He survived being mauled by a bear, and thereafter his only official task was to act as the civil and criminal judge for the Sulpicians, continuing to try his hand in business to supplement his income. He was awarded the seigneuries of Île Bourdon in 1657 and of Argenteuil in 1682, both named for sites in the d’Ailleboust family’s home province of Burgundy. The seigneur was expected to develop the property, surveying and distributing homesteads, but in the case of Argenteuil in 1682, the title was more wishful thinking. The Five Nations were resident there. The Argenteuil seigneury was placed into the custody of Pierre Legardeur de Repentigny, Charles’s father-in-law, probably because of financial setbacks that Charles experienced in the early 1680s. Both seigneuries were eventually sold to Charles’s son, Pierre d’Argenteuil.
Pierre prospered in his relationships with Cadillac and encouraged the Ottawa and other Indigenous nations to have confidence in the governor of Detroit, but Antoine Lamothe Cadillac was probably one of the worst scoundrels of New France. His actions always led to questions of his judgment, but he just as often managed to convince his superiors of their wisdom, as in the case of Le Pésant’s escape. When Governor Vaudreuil questioned how an overweight 70-year-old man could have accomplished such a feat unaided, Cadillac explained that it was better to let him go. He argued that the arrest was necessary to appease the Miami, but the escape was necessary to appease the Ottawa. Cadillac had relied on men like d’Argenteuil to encourage the different Nations to have confidence in him, but he was failing to achieve the objectives of bringing together the Miami, Ottawa and others to present a united front against the Five Nations. The Miami soon attacked the stockade in retribution for the escape of Le Pésant.
Cadillac continuously abused his friends and subordinates but managed to send 27 times his annual salary home to France. Unknown to d’Argenteuil, his judgment in maintaining a relationship with Cadillac was one of the question marks on his military record. When Cadillac was finally transferred to the unenviable post of Governor of Louisiana in 1710, d’Argenteuil’s star began to rise. He was given the task of leading the western Nations against the English and the Five Nations, a role that he was well suited to, but sadly he died, probably of a stroke, in 1711, before the campaign got under way.
D’Argenteuil had married Marie-Louise Denys de La Ronde in the 1690s and together they had 11 children, some of whom followed their father into the fur trade. They built a manor house in Argenteuil in 1721, but it was subsequently destroyed by fire. Marie-Louise passed away in 1747 leaving the seigneury to, among others, her son Jean d’Ailleboust, heir to the title Argenteuil, and some of his siblings. The family owned the seigneury until 1781, when Judge Pierre-Louis Panet acquired it from the six remaining heirs. In his turn he sold it to the Murray family only 12 years later and they developed it and encouraged immigrants from Scotland, Ireland and New England to homestead. Murray named their first settlement St. Andrews, strengthening and celebrating their growing Scottish community. Eventually it was called St. Andrews East, distinguishing it from St. Andrews West in Ontario, only an hour’s drive to the southwest.
