François Régis Roy and Philomène Dubé were the parents of Alfred Peter Roy and the grandparents of Leo Roy. Régis could not read or write, but the notaries of Rimouski wrote down nearly every bargain he made, and their records show a farmer who bought and traded land, sold horses for labor, lent money, and was trusted by his neighbors.
Saint-Henri-de-Lauzon
François Régis Roy was born on May 11, 1817, in Saint-Henri-de-Lauzon, across the St. Lawrence River from Quebec City. He was the son of Pierre Roy, a laboureur, or farmer, and Archange Bouchard, and he was baptized the next day. His father was not at the baptism. His godfather was François Roi and his godmother Louise Roi. Godparents were usually relatives, so François may have been an uncle or grandfather, but the record does not say.
François Régis Roi (translated from the French)
On the twelfth of May, eighteen hundred seventeen, by us the undersigned priest, was baptized François, born yesterday of the legitimate marriage of Pierre Roi, farmer of this parish, and of Archange Bouchard. The father absent. The godfather, François Roi; the godmother, Louise Roi, who could not sign.
Leclerc, priest
By 1834 the family had moved more than 150 miles down the river to Rimouski, where Archange gave birth to twins that year. Régis was about 17.
His First Land, 1836
On April 24, 1836, a few weeks before his nineteenth birthday, Régis bought land from Joseph Brisebois in the second range of Saint-Germain-de-Rimouski. It was two arpents wide, an arpent being about 192 feet, and the price was only two pounds. The deed called for abattis, land clearing. The lot was still covered with trees and could not be farmed until it was cleared, which helps explain the low price. A price that low could also mean that the buyer was taking on unrecorded debts, but the deed says the sale was final and guaranteed “against all encumbrances,” meaning that Brisebois promised the land was free of hidden claims. Brisebois may have left the Rimouski area soon afterward.
In January 1843 Régis bought a mare from Antoine Galthier dit Larouche, a blacksmith, for £11. Part of the price, £1, was to be paid in eight minots of barley, an example of how farm goods served as money where cash was scarce.
Marriage, 1844
On September 3, 1844, Régis married Philomène Dubé at the church of Saint-Germain in Rimouski. He was 27 and she was 16, a minor. Philomène came from the parish of Saint-Simon, about 30 miles southwest of Rimouski, and the banns were read there as well as at Saint-Germain, even though she was by then living in Saint-Germain.
The marriage record adds some details. Régis's mother, Archange Bouchard, had died by then; she is called défunte, deceased. The witnesses were Régis's father, Pierre Roy, and his brother Théophile Roy, and for the bride her brother Noël Dubé and a friend, Michel Poitras. None of them, nor the bride and groom, could sign their names.
M 26 François Régis Roy and Philomène Dubé (translated from the French)
On the third of September, eighteen hundred forty-four, after the publication of three banns of marriage made at the sermon of our parish masses and of those of Saint-Simon, between François Régis Roy, farmer, son of age of Pierre Roy and of the late Archange Bouchard, of this parish, on the one part; and Philomène Dubé, now of this parish, minor daughter of the late Noël Dubé, in his lifetime a farmer, and of the late Florence Bérubé, of the parish of Saint-Simon, on the other part; no impediment having been found, and with the consent of the guardian of the minor party, we the undersigned vicar of this parish have received their mutual consent to marriage and have given them the nuptial blessing in the presence of Pierre Roy, father, and Théophile Roy, brother of the groom, and of Noël Dubé, brother, and Michel Poitras, friend of the bride, who, like the bride and groom, could not sign. One word struck out is void.
Cypr. Tanguay, priest
The priest who married them was Cyprien Tanguay, who later became famous as a genealogist. He was ordained in 1843, the year before the wedding, and served in the Rimouski area in his early years. In 1865 he took a position with the government's department of agriculture and statistics, and he began compiling the genealogy of the people of Quebec from the Catholic parish registers. The result was his Dictionnaire généalogique des familles canadiennes, seven large volumes of more than six hundred double-column pages each, published between 1871 and 1890. Genealogists still use it.
Philomène's Family
Philomène was born on July 27, 1828, and baptized the next day at Trois-Pistoles. Her mother, Florence Bérubé, died when Philomène was about seven months old, and her father, Noël Dubé, later married Marie Louise Levesque. Noël died in October 1843, the year before the wedding. Because Philomène was a minor, her uncle Felix Bérubé became her guardian, and the guardian of her brothers Noël and Maximien. Her marriage freed her from the guardianship, and from then on her husband managed her affairs. In 1845 Régis sold her share of her father's estate to her half-brother George Dubé, so that George could keep the family farm together. The case study of Régis's land tells more about this inheritance.
Land and Horses
On September 10, 1849, Régis traded the land he had bought in 1836 to Isaac Mignier dit Lagacé. By then it had a house, a barn and a stable, and it measured 2 arpents wide by 40 deep. In return he received a slightly larger farm, 3 arpents wide, in the third range, with a house and a stable. The notary wrote that the trade was but à but, “end to end,” meaning the two farms were thought to be of equal value and neither man owed the other any money. As part of the bargain Régis also promised two days of hauling with his horse and two days of work squaring timber for Mignier's stable.
In November 1849 Régis sold a three-year-old horse to Godfroy Tremblay. Tremblay did not pay cash. Instead he agreed to clear forest for Régis over two years. He did not finish the work in time, and in May 1852 Régis handed over his claim to Augustin Lavoie, who could then make Tremblay finish the clearing and collect what was owed. Lavoie also bought building materials from Régis for a barn and stable, and he paid off the debt in 1855.
How much forest?
The old version of this page and the NotebookLM infographic say Tremblay was to clear 11 acres. The case study, which was written from the same notarial record, says 13 arpents and gives the price of the horse as £12 10s. An arpent as a measure of area is a little smaller than an acre, so 13 arpents is about 11 acres, and the two figures may be the same piece of land measured two ways. The original record should be checked.
Another purchase took several years to untangle. In April 1852 two farmers, Barthélémi Lemieux and his son Germain, borrowed money from Marie Françoise Lepage and put up their farms as security. Germain later gave his land back to his father, and by September 1852 Régis was buying that land from Barthélémi. The land had first belonged to Pierre Joseph Baquet, who had traded it to the Lemieux family, and because it was worth more than the land they gave him, they still owed him money. In November 1852 Régis paid that debt. Germain also owed money to a merchant who held a mortgage on the land, and in January 1853 Régis paid that off too, to clear his title. A few days later he paid what the Lemieux family owed to Madame Lepage. Now the Lemieux family owed the money to Régis instead, and he charged them interest.
In January 1855 Régis and his brother Louis traded land. Régis received land in Saint-Germain that Louis had received from their father about 1840, and Louis received a smaller piece of land in Saint-Simon that Philomène had inherited from her father. Régis lived in Saint-Germain and Louis in Saint-Simon, so the trade suited them both, and the brothers considered it even. In April 1856 Philomène went before the notary to give up her own rights in the land, so that the title would be clear.
In 1867 Alexandre Gagnon bought a horse from Régis for 15 pounds, to be paid in three yearly payments of 5 pounds. He put up as security a piece of land in the fifth range of the seigneury of Rimouski, in Saint-Anaclet, on the condition that if he missed his payments the land would belong to Régis. Gagnon could not pay, and in 1870 the land passed to Régis.
Good Standing in the Community
Régis's standing in the community showed when he was named guardian of the children of his brother-in-law Jean St. Laurent. Jean had married Philomène's sister Appoline Dubé, and when he died in 1851 they had six children, all minors: Philomène, Priscille, Zephirin, Justine, Jean Baptiste and Thomas Théophile. Appoline married Majoric Canuel in 1855. As guardian, Régis oversaw the auction of the St. Laurent property in 1858. Eusebe Lavoie was the highest bidder. The house was small and in poor condition and the barn was old and built of round logs, which explains the low price, and the buyer took the property as it was.
In 1873 Régis acted under a power of attorney for Régis Chamard, a boatman, to settle a complicated inheritance in Quebec City. Boatmen carried timber and goods along the St. Lawrence and the rivers that feed it, and since Chamard was away, he needed someone to handle the settlement of the estates of his mother's two late husbands. The document calls Régis écuyer, esquire, and bourgeois. Esquire was a courtesy title that showed respectability, and bourgeois meant a man of property. The two men probably knew each other: Chamard was baptized in 1825 and married in 1857 at the same church of Saint-Germain where Régis had married.
Their Children
Régis and Philomène had twelve children, but several died as babies. Those who grew up were, in order of birth, Clémentine, Hortense, Samuel, Théophile, Laura, Delvina and Alfred.
Clémentine and her husband, Joseph Gagnon, moved to Minneapolis, Minnesota, in 1883, and Alfred joined them there by 1885. Hortense, Samuel and Théophile married and stayed in Rimouski, and Laura and Delvina both married in 1887 and stayed there too. Several of Samuel's children later came to New England. His daughter Marion was in Fall River, Massachusetts, by 1904, when she married there. His daughter Hectorine was in Rhode Island by 1911, when her first child was born, and his daughter Alice was there by 1914. His son Alphonse settled in Rhode Island, where Alfred lived, and was there by 1926, when his first child was born. Most of the other grandchildren probably stayed in the Rimouski area.
Retirement
On October 2, 1882, Régis and Philomène gave their farm to their oldest son, Samuel, in return for his promise to take care of them for the rest of their lives. This was a donation entre vifs, a gift between living people, the traditional way for an aging French-Canadian couple to stay in their own home and be looked after. The case study lists what Samuel had to provide each year, from salt pork and butter to a gallon of rum.
In July 1887 Alfred traveled from Minneapolis back to Rimouski to sign a deed accepting a piece of land from his father, two arpents and two perches wide by about twenty-six arpents deep.
Their Deaths
Régis died on December 13, 1897, ten years after he gave Alfred the land, and was buried in the cemetery of Saint-Germain two days later. His sons Théophile and Samuel were at the burial.
S 68 Régis Roy, 82 years (translated from the French)
On the fifteenth of December, eighteen hundred ninety-seven, we the undersigned priest have buried in the cemetery of this parish the body of Régis Roy, former farmer, husband of Philomène Dubé, who died the day before yesterday at the age of eighty-two years. Present, Théophile Roy and Samuel Roy, sons of the deceased, and some relatives and friends, some of whom have signed with us. Read aloud.
Was he 80 or 82?
Régis's burial record, in the text and in the margin, gives his age as 82. His baptism record shows that he was born on May 11, 1817, so he was 80 when he died. The baptism was written the day after his birth, while the age at burial was given by the family from memory, so 80 is more likely to be right.
Philomène lived on for more than eleven years. She died on April 15, 1909, and was buried at Saint-Germain on April 17. Her son Théophile and her son-in-law Alphonse Hudon were there, with “a great number of relatives and friends.” She was 80 years and 8 months old.
S 27 Philomène Dubé (translated from the French)
On the seventeenth of April, nineteen hundred nine, we the undersigned vicar have buried in the cemetery of this parish the body of Philomène Dubé, wife of the late Régis Roy, who died the day before yesterday at the age of eighty years [the rest is hard to read, but her baptism shows she was 80 years and 8 months old]. Relatives present, Théophile Roy, son of the deceased, Alphonse Hudon, son-in-law, and a great number of relatives and friends, some of whom have signed with us. Read aloud.
