On 21 July 2005, at the Eure-et-Loir Departmental Archives in Chartres (France), in the register of a seventeenth-century Gallardonian notary, a descendant of Nicolas Peltier named Benoit Pelletier-Shoja discovered his ancestor’s apprenticeship contract, dated 29 February 1612. This contract is inestimably important for several reasons.

First, it bears the signature of Nicolas Peltier, which allows us to prove irrefutably and therefore definitively that this is the signature of Canadian ancestor Nicolas Peltier.

Nicolas Peltier’s Signature extracted from his apprenticeship contract, 29 February 1612

Moreover, it reinforces what we already knew about the origins of this ancestor from the Notre-Dame de Québec parish register (17 October 1650): that Nicolas Peltier came from the parish of Gallardon.

The contract also bears the signature of the person who instructed young Nicolas in the art of carpentry, the trade that he would later continue in New France. This master-carpenter was named Michel Delaval, and the contract bears not only his signature, but also his mark. He traced beneath his signature the silhouette of a broadax, the indispensable tool of a carpenter or joiner for hewing posts and beams. This identifying mark would have also undoubtedly appeared on any timber framework constructed by Delaval.

In addition, it shows that Michel Delaval lived in Épernon, a neighboring commune of Gallardon, where he would have quite likely brought his young pupil. This represents the first indication of Nicolas’ early migrations before his arrival in Québec in 1636.

Nonetheless, the ultimate reason that this document is so precious to us is that it bears the names of Nicolas Peltier’s parents! It would later serve as the key to “opening up” research in the parish registers of Gallardon.

Facsimile of the contract drafted in Gallardon on 29 February 1612, by Jean Fullone Date of the Contract, Extracted from a Previous Page

The Registers of Saint-Pierre Saint-Paul of Gallardon :

We cannot talk about the parish registers of Gallardon without mentioning – and obviously thanking – Florine Perry, chief administrative assistant in charge of the civil registry at the city hall. To say that Ms. Perry is a friend of the Pelletier family is not saying enough. Without knowing either Nicolas Peltier or the young American writing to ask for information about the family of his ancestor, without even knowing what she might find, she undertook the immense task of reuniting the descendants of this “native son” with their ancestor. Ms. Perry not only granted Nicolas’ descendants access to the oldest registers for Gallardon, she also performed substantial research on her own, as much in the municipal archives as at the Departmental Archives in Chartres – not to mention her role in the dedication of a commemorative plaque in honor of Nicolas Peltier unveiled in Gallardon. With invaluable help from scholar and historian Maurice Vié, himself an indefatigable researcher and the author of several tomes about the history of Gallardon and its environs, Ms. Perry has allowed us a glimpse of the great Pelletier family of Gallardon.

Following the discovery of Nicolas Peltier’s apprenticeship contract and armed with the names of his parents, Benoit Pelletier-Shoja set himself to “thumbing through” the oldest of Gallardon’s parish registers.

In the second register, which begins in March 1591, he found not one, but three of Nicolas’ sisters – older sisters at that. Nicolas was the fourth child and the first son of his family. His parents eventually brought thirteen children into the world, which is to say nine daughters and four sons, from 1592 to 1610. We cannot however at this time confirm how many of these children lived to adulthood.

Children of François Pelletier and Simone Pichereau, baptized at the Church of Saint-Pierre Saint-Paul of Gallardon :

Eloy Pelletier (23 january 1602)

1602 vigesima tertius die mensis januarii babtizatus fuit eligius filius francisci pelletier et simone pichereau eius uxoris patrini eligius boudon et joannus fullone [____] matrina vero joanna boudon uxor eligii vassort 1602 the twenty-third day of the month of January was baptized Éloi son of François Pelletier and Simone Pichereau his wife godfathers Éloi Boudon and [Master ?] Jean Fullone godmother Jeanne Boudon wife of Éloi Vassort

The images of the baptismal acts of the Pelletier children come to us courtesy of the Eure-et-Loir Departmental Archives. Archives director Michel Tibault has indicated that by 2007, the Departmental Archives will offer on its website (archives28.fr), digitized images of all vital records within the department, including Gallardon, up to 1853.

Burial records for the parish of Gallardon do not exist before 1658, but given that the word “défunt” (deceased) is absent from Simone’s baptism, we can presume that her father was still living in June 1610. He therefore died between that time and the signing of Nicolas’ apprenticeship contract. Mr. Thibault indicates: “It is therefore probable that the death of François not only made it impossible for Nicolas to learn his father’s trade but also posed for his widow the very real problem of subsistence; the father’s trade is completely unknown to us, as are the family’s means, but it is possible that Nicolas began his apprenticeship at a very early age because quite simply his mother did not have the means, following her widowhood, to provide for her children.”

 
Benoît Pelletier-Shoja
courriel : LaFranceLaPerse@gmail.com

Nashua, New Hampshire

29 octobre 2005

Tableaux of “Old Gallardon” :

This tableau dates to 1780. At center is the Church of Saint-Pierre Saint-Paul. At left, the ruins of the château-fort of Gallardon destroyed during the Hundred Years War by the Dauphin (later Charles VII) who fought alongside Jeanne d’Arc. After his victory over the English forces in June 1421, Charles had the château destroyed (sapped), in the hope that war never again come to Gallardon. After the sapping, one portion of one of the towers remained standing. The donjon, called the “Épaule de Gallardon” (Shoulder of Gallardon) since the eighteenth century, still today stands as it is depicted in this painting.

Photos by Éric Blaise
 

This second tableau shows Gallardon in the early nineteenth century, with its thatched roofs and the “porte Mouton” (Mouton gate), which was destroyed by the inhabitants of Gallardon in 1848. People used the stones from this gate, as well as those from the ramparts and the old churches in the city, to construct their houses. According to Maurice Vié: “The porte Mouton (or porte Archer) lead towards the commune of Maintenon, and to the hamlets of Le Ménil and Baglainval.” The hamlets of Germonval (direction Rambouillet) and of Le Ménil were not enclosed within the walls of Gallardon itself, as the city was small, but adjoined the city, and this is where, at the time of Nicolas Peltier, a great number of Pelletiers lived.