Biographies anciennes
Pierre-Noël Levasseur (1690-1770)
LEVASSEUR, PIERRE-NOËL, wood-carver, surveyor; b. 28 Nov. 1690 at Quebec, son of Pierre Levasseur, a master carpenter, and Madeleine Chapeau; d. 12 Aug. 1770 at Quebec.
Pierre-Noël Levasseur belonged to the great family of craftsmen in wood which left its particular stamp on artistic production in Canada in the 18th century. Two great lines, descended from the brothers Jean and Pierre Levasseur , constituted this dynasty. Pierre-Noël Levasseur, a grandson of Pierre, was one of its principal representatives. On the other side, Jean Levasseur’s descendants included famous people such as Noël Levasseur and his two sons, François-Noël Levasseur and Jean-Baptiste-Antoine Levasseur , dit Delort.
No apprentice’s diploma in the name of Pierre-Noël Levasseur has been discovered. He probably learned the basic elements of his craft working either with his father or with Noël, a distant cousin, who was already a master-carver in Quebec when Pierre-Noël reached the age of apprenticeship. On the other hand towards 1705 the École des Arts et Métiers at Saint-Joachim was enjoying a profitable period under the administration of Abbé Louis Soumande . It is therefore possible that Pierre-Noël received some instruction at that school.
Several parish archives furnish information about this wood-carver’s career. The references, however, too often are concerned with pieces of work that have been destroyed or misplaced, and it is difficult to get an over-all picture of Levasseur’s production. In 1723 he was living in the Montreal region – on 3 March of that year he had his son Charles baptized in the church of L’Enfant-Jésus-de-Pointe-aux-Trembles. In addition, the account books of the church of Sainte-Famille-de-Boucherville permit us to date Levasseur’s earliest piece of work from 1723: on 18 July he signed a contract before the notary Marten Tailhandier to make a retable for that church. A little later he did some work at Varennes for the church of Sainte-Anne, including “the main door.”
Absent from Quebec in the 1720s, Levasseur returned to the region around 1730. At that time he is believed to have given up carving religious subjects for a few years to devote himself to secular works. His name is mentioned on 7 March 1746 in the deliberations and decisions of the Conseil Supérieur in connection with a lawsuit concerning various wood-carving jobs on ships: “the council has reduced the Sieur Levasseur’s memorandum of costs to the sum of 1,362 livres for the works done by him for the ships Imprévue, Saint-Louis, Union, Centaure, Expérience, Astrée.” The date of this lawsuit and the time required for building each of these ships permit the placing of these works in the period 1730–44. On 31 May 1737, thanks to his “talent and experience,” he obtained a commission as royal surveyor and geometrician in the government of Quebec. Unfortunately nothing is known about Levasseur’s career as a surveyor, but it is certain that after the conquest he was still practising this profession.
Towards 1742 he completed pieces of carving for parish councils in the Quebec region. His name is mentioned in 1742 and 1743 in the account books of the parish of Saint-Charles-de-Charlesbourg, where he carved two statues representing St Peter and St Paul. The last known reference of importance to his artistic production comes from the registry of the notary Jean-Antoine Saillant in Quebec. It concerns a contract drawn up on 29 Nov. 1750 engaging Pierre-Noël Levasseur to carve and have gilded a tabernacle, a retable, and a baldachin for a confraternity called the Congrégation de l’Immaculée-Conception de Notre-Dame.
Of all the works completed by Levasseur during his long career as a wood-carver, there are today only a few vestiges. The parish of Saint-Charles de Charlesbourg still has its two carvings of St Peter and St Paul, which are typical of traditional Quebec wood-carving. The curved line, an important characteristic of baroque art, is evident, with a certain vigour in the draping of the garments and the movement of the subjects. These carvings give an impression of strength and lightness of touch worthy of the best Quebec tradition.
On 7 Jan. 1719, in Quebec, Pierre-Noël Levasseur had married Marie-Agnès de Lajoüe, daughter of François de Lajoüe, architect, contractor, and engineer. The marriage contract had been signed in Quebec on 21 Nov. 1718 before the notary Florent de La Cetière . Three of their sons carried on this line of wood-carvers: the eldest, Pierre-Noël, studied wood-carving in France at Rochefort; Charles and Stanislas worked with their father, one at the church of Charlesbourg, the other at the former church of Saint-Vallier.
Michel Cauchon and André Juneau
Source :Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/index.html]
Noël Levasseur (1680-1740)
LEVASSEUR, NOËL, master wood-carver, b. 1680 at Quebec, son of Noel Levasseur, carpenter, and
Marguerite Guay and grandson of Jean Levasseur, dit Lavigne, carpenter; d. 13 Dec. 1740 at Quebec.
Little is known about Noël Levasseur’s apprenticeship years, but it can be supposed that he learned the trade of carpenter with his father, and that he was introduced to wood-carving by the masters of the school at Saint-Joachim. By his marriage contract with Marie-Madeleine Turpin, dated 3 April 1701, we can place him at Montreal, where he had probably been living for some time to complete his training. Indeed he was in Montreal and in such close contact with the carver Charles Chaboulié, who was at the time a bachelor, that the latter undertook in 1702 to leave all his property to the first-born of the Levasseur couple. Unfortunately none of Chaboulié’s work permits an assessment of his possible influence upon Noël Levasseur.
After finally settling at Quebec in 1703, Noel Levasseur raised a family of 13 children, and acquired a clientele among the parishes and communities of Quebec and the surrounding districts. He also worked for individuals, however; for example, Levasseur “promises and undertakes to set out immediately for Cap Saint-Ignace, in which place he will do all the carving and ornamentation required for the ship which the said [Captain Louis] Prat is having built there. . . .” Although no trace has come down to us of ship-carvings of the 18th century, we must not forget that secular carving was practised in the French colony. Moreover, to Noel Levasseur are attributed two scrolls in polychrome carved wood representing the royal coat of arms of France; one of these is in the Quebec museum, the other in the Public Archives of Canada. Scrolls are supposed to have been ordered by Gaspard-Joseph Chaussegros de Léry in 1727 to embellish the gates and administrative buildings of the town of Quebec.
Although the name of Levasseur is to be found in the account books of many parishes around Quebec, unfortunately few examples remain to testify to his work. This is the case at Saint-Laurent (Île d’Orléans), where he made a retable in 1711, at Lauson, where he carried out the same kind of work from 1730 to 1733, at Saint-Augustin, where he worked in 1731, at Notre-Dame in Quebec for 1732, and at Beauport for 1733. He had also worked at Varennes in 1726, at Pointe-aux-Trembles (Montreal) in 1727, and at Boucherville in 1729. It is difficult to trace today the “Vierge à l’Enfant” at Notre-Dame de la Jeune-Lorette which bore an inscription beginning as follows: “I am given by Noël Levasseur, wood-carver, and his wife Marie Madeleine Turpin on 1 March 1729, to be carried in the procession of the scapular and the rosary . . . ,” Similarly we cannot track down “two wooden figures representing the Holy Virgin and St Joseph and two others representing the ox and the ass,” which were carved in 1733 for the church of Sainte-Croix de Lotbinière.
Besides the high altar of L’Islet, probably done by Noël Levasseur in 1728, two works of outstanding importance have survived which we can attribute to him with certainty: the high altar in the chapel of the Hôpital Général in Quebec (1722), and the retable of the Ursuline chapel (1732–36). The first of these was no doubt executed with the help of his eldest son François-Noel , and the second with the help of Jean-Baptiste-Antoine as well. These two carvers owed their entire training to their father, and worked with him until his death. This family venture continued for a long time, for after 1740 the Levasseur sons shared the same workshop and carried on their craft in the same places.
The tabernacle of the high altar in the chapel of the Hôpital Général constitutes a work unique in its kind. It is an architectural structure in gilded wood, of great simplicity of design: on a predella is a forepart, which extends forward in steps; it has a curved arch supported by ten Corinthian columns; this forepart is surmounted by a dome, a lantern-tower, and a flying angel, and has two incurvated wings at the base of which are eight niches set in between Corinthian columns, the upper portion being made up of three levels embellished with open-work decorative motifs. The base of the forepart bears the arms of Bishop Saint-Vallier [La Croix], who donated this high altar to the nuns of the Hôpital Général. The eight niches in the wings and the five in the dome contain statuettes which are still a puzzle today: they were not done by the same carver. The statuettes of the dome seem to have been entrusted to one carver and those of the wings to another; one of the two might have been Noël Levasseur. This is only an hypothesis, however, for the necessary studies of the styles have not yet been carried out and documentation is lacking.
The retable of the Ursuline chapel constitutes one of the major pieces of carving in French Canada. The Levasseurs, father and sons, were perhaps assisted by their cousin Pierre-Noël. The work in question is a retable in the Recollet manner (see Juconde Drué), the style of which was slightly modified during a renovation in 1902. It is composed in traditional fashion, being divided into three parts separated by Corinthian columns; the centre part encloses the high altar, which is surmounted by a picture of the Annunciation and by an aedicule, topped with an arched fronton, which contains a statue of St Joseph holding the infant Jesus. In the right and left panels are incorporated the sacristy doors, which are surmounted by niches containing statues of St Foy and St Augustine. Right at the top, on the entablature, two angels in adoration form the link with the centre part of the retable. The five carvings modelled in the round are perhaps by François-Noël Levasseur. The pedestals of the columns and the sacristy doors are decorated with reliefs. The latter seem more clumsily done than the carvings modelled in the round. The tabernacle of the high altar displays a much more ornate style than that of the Hôpital Général. It is an architectural composition made up of three foreparts; on the centre one is a relief representing the Good Shepherd. A pulpit with a sounding-board completes this ensemble of carved, gilded, and painted wood.
If Noël Levasseur was not the only one to work at this retable, which is in Louis XIV style, he was certainly its guiding spirit. The same style, although simplified, is to be found in his sons’ works after 1740. Indeed through his two sons, François-Noël and Jean-Baptiste-Antoine, and their cousin Pierre-Noël, Noël Levasseur was to dominate Canadian wood-carving in the 18th century long after his death.
Jean Trudel
Source :Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/index.html]
François-Noël Levasseur (1703-1794)
LEVASSEUR (Le Vasseur), FRANÇOIS-NOËL (generally referred to as Vasseur), master woodcarver and sculptor; baptized 26 Dec. 1703 in the church of Notre-Dame, Quebec, son of Noël Levasseur and Marie-Madeleine Turpin; m. 18 Aug. 1748, in Quebec, Marie-Geneviève Côté, widow of Gilles Gabriel; no children; d. 29 Oct. 1794 at the Hôpital Général in Quebec.
François-Noël Levasseur came from a famous family of craftsmen in wood. From the time of their arrival in New France in the mid 17th century, his great-grandfather, Jean Levasseur, dit Lavigne, and the latter’s brother Pierre Levasseur, dit L’Espérance, had virtually monopolized fine woodwork and carving. François-Noël, and his younger brother Jean-Baptiste-Antoine Levasseur, dit Delor, whose works indeed cannot be distinguished from his, kept traditional wood-carving alive in New France throughout the 18th century.
François-Noël Levasseur completed his first orders in 1740 after the death of his father and teacher, who had been the regular craftsman supplying many of the parishes and religious communities at the beginning of the 18th century. When François-Noël took over the workshop on Rue Saint-Louis he faced strong competition. His uncle, Pierre-Noël Levasseur, then at the peak of his fame, was turning out important pieces of religious furniture and fine statues in which the baroque influence was still evident. Apparently, however, newly established parishes such as those founded at the end of the 17th century were not always able to acquire his works. Pierre-Noël may have been unable to keep up with the demand, or he may have set his price too high. Thus there was a need for simpler carving, virtually mass-produced, that would be within easier reach of rural parishes. François-Noël turned to this task.
Almost all the parishes that had been established within the Government of Quebec before 1775 ordered furnishings or statues from the Levasseurs’ workshop. Their business also spread into the Government of Trois-Rivières, but the Government of Montreal, except for the parish of Saint-Sulpice, remained less open to the Levasseurs’ influence. There were fewer parish councils there, and other craftsmen such as Paul-Raymond Jourdain, dit Labrosse, were also offering their services. Parishes erected during the 18th century had to attend to their most urgent needs first, and so they would initially order a tabernacle, crucifixes, and candlesticks. Then, when permanent places of worship were built, the interior decoration of the church could be completed, according to need or financial means, by the addition of various furnishings which would stop the parishioners from envying neighbouring parishes. The account books of the parish councils list numerous payments for processional crosses, statues, small pedestals, reliquaries, pulpits and communion tables, churchwardens’ pews, frameworks for altars and pots. Apparently contracts had to be made almost a year before the anticipated delivery date, and the wood-carvers never made anything not expressly ordered or of a design not approved in advance. Payments were made over long periods after delivery and might sometimes be settled in kind, according to the wood-carvers’ requirements, by wheat, tobacco, or garden produce.
After their father’s death François-Noël and Jean-Baptiste-Antoine continued for a time to turn out works much like those he produced. To furniture of simple workmanship but carefully designed proportions they would apply piece by piece a classical decoration mainly of acanthus leaves in scroll pattern or as fleurons. When they had acquired dexterity, they were able to chisel motifs of roses or other flowers in which one was conscious of the relief. With the late discovery of the rococo style, production underwent an important change. Curiously, the rocaille motif so characteristic of the final period of the rococo style was used in a spirit completely contrary to the one in which it had been created in France under Louis XV. Relying on technical skill and imbued with a tradition now almost routine, François-Noël Levasseur failed to understand that asymmetry was one of the major characteristics of this new decorative art; he produced motifs in the rococo style but applied them to his furniture according to classical criteria, as if fidelity to his predecessors’ models took precedence over any need for change. This turning point in the history of the workshop occurred around 1749 and was first illustrated in the tabernacle of the church of Sainte-Famine on Île d’Orléans.
One might be tempted to think that the conquest would mean a drop in production for the wood-carving shop but such was not the case. Numerous furnishings had been moved and hidden during the war, some had been damaged, and with the return of peace everything had to be repaired. The Levasseur workshop was busier than ever, and production continued until 1782, even after Jean-Baptiste-Antoine’s death in 1775. There was no important change in its methods at that time and the large pieces of furniture such as tabernacles were still decorated with the rococo motif, which was by then completely out of fashion in France.
After Pierre-Noël Levasseur’s death in 1770, François-Noël seems to have concentrated on producing works carved in the round. It had originally been intended that the shop’s statues would be placed in niches on the tabernacles. Marked by a hieratic character that contrasted with the feeling of movement in Pierre-Noël Levasseur’s work, they retained with their polychromatic treatment a coarser, almost peasant workmanship. But following the conquest statues of all sizes came out of the workshop on Rue Saint Louis, in particular because the parish councils had to replace those that had disappeared from the portals of their churches during the war or had been seriously damaged by the passage of time.
Despite the size of the Levasseurs’ workshop there is no information extant about the hiring of the workmen or apprentices needed for a successful operation. We know, however, that they called upon experienced men labouring elsewhere in the city (for instance, a turner) to finish commissioned works. The pieces made in the workshop were gilded at first by the Ursulines, and later, at the end of the French régime and after the conquest, by the Augustinian nuns at the Hôpital Général.
François-Noël Levasseur, who after 28 Sept. 1782 lived in rooms usually occupied by the chaplain of the Hôpital Général, spent the last 12 years of his life with his niece, Sister Marie-Joseph de Saint-François-d’Assise; probably with the help of the old craftsman, she herself did some pieces of wood-carving for her community at that time. The last important wood-carver of the Levasseur dynasty passed away at the age of 90. Other craftsmen in wood were, however, ready to carry on, in particular the Baillairgés [see Jean Baillairgé].
Art historians have on the whole treated François-Noël Levasseur’s work with deference. To be sure, his atelier was productive and a large number of its works have been preserved; this very availability helps to make judgements favourable. But if the work is put into context, one notices that the articles turned out on Rue Saint-Louis show that development of woodcarving traditions had halted. The excessive simplification of line and tendency to repeat decorative motifs seem to indicate an absence of the spirit of inquiry. The craftsmen were cut off from creative centres such as Paris, and they lacked easy access to the great models. Thus although their dexterity remained unchanged, their creative power deteriorated.
Raymonde Gauthier
Source :Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/index.html]
Jean-Baptiste-Antoine Levasseur (1717-1775)
LEVASSEUR (Le Vasseur), dit Delor, JEAN-BAPTISTE-ANTOINE (generally referred to as Vasseur), master wood-carver and sculptor; baptized 20 June 1717 in the church of Notre-Dame in Quebec (Que.), son of Noël Levasseur and Marie-Madeleine Turpin; d. 8 Jan. 1775 at Quebec.
The son of an important wood-carver in New France, Jean-Baptiste-Antoine Levasseur was always to be overshadowed by his older brother François-Noël. Together they ran a busy workshop which mainly produced religious furnishings. It is not known exactly what Jean-Baptiste-Antoine’s tasks were within the small company, nor how the brothers divided their profits, because they seem to have constituted a unit referred to as “Les Vasseurs.” His signature is only rarely found on notarized contracts, but Jean-Baptiste-Antoine Levasseur seems to have enjoyed a certain authority. In his brother’s absence, it was he who signed the receipts concluding business with parishes and religious communities.
On 10 April 1747 Jean-Baptiste-Antoine married Marie-Régis Cartier in Notre-Dame in Quebec, and the couple set up housekeeping with François-Noël on Rue Saint-Louis. The two brothers had shared the house since the outset of their career. René-Nicolas Levasseur, “naval engineer maintained for the king’s service in this country,” who was not related to Jean-Baptiste-Antoine, was at the signing of the marriage contract, and his presence suggests that the wood-carver was one of those ornamenting ships built in the Quebec shipyards. The bride’s father, René Cartier, was a navigator, who is known to have ordered at least one ship, the Saint-Joachim, from the Quebec shipyards. A list of suppliers and workmen at the king’s shipyards includes several Levasseurs, although Jean-Baptiste-Antoine is not mentioned. Woodcarvers always stayed within easy reach of the busiest shipyards and since the Levasseurs’ competence was well known, the services of their workshop were undoubtedly called upon. Undated sketches held by the Séminaire de Québec testify to the contribution that Jean-Baptiste-Antoine and his brother made to ship decoration. The drawings are of carving for the stern of a ship which was intended for the seminary’s use. Probably meant to bear the name Sainte-Famine, this barque was to be decorated with classical motifs derived from the acanthus leaf; on it would appear in bas-relief the traditional figures: an infant Jesus in swaddling clothes, and a St Joseph and Virgin Mary with rather primitive features.
In the 18th century craftsmen in wood worked in anonymity. Because orders seem to have been placed on the basis of good faith, supported by the craftsman’s reputation, transactions were rarely notarized. The atmosphere of anonymity was increased by the presence within extended families of individuals with the same name. In the Levasseur family the name Noël was regularly in use among the wood-carvers. Art historians consequently have difficulty in identifying the works by Jean-Baptiste-Antoine Levasseur and others of the family.
As we learn more of 18th-century woodcarvers and their creations, it becomes evident that the production of each workshop as a whole should be analysed and placed in perspective. Indeed, Jean-Baptiste-Antoine Levasseur and other wood-carvers of his period would probably have considered it improper to give a personal character to a work; in their opinion, whatever is a beautiful creation makes itself known and its origins clear by its very existence.
Jean-Baptiste-Antoine Levasseur was buried in Quebec on 9 Jan. 1775. He and Marie-Régis Cartier had seven children, of whom only one lived. This sole descendant of wood-carver Noël Levasseur does not seem to have engaged in the family’s traditional occupation.
Raymonde Gauthier
Source :Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/index.html]
René-Nicolas Levasseur (1705-1784)
LEVASSEUR, RENÉ-NICOLAS, head of royal shipbuilding and inspector of woods and forests in Canada; probably born at Rochefort, France, in 1705 or 1707; d. 2 Aug. 1784 at Aubagne, France.
René-Nicolas Levasseur belonged to a family that had been associated with the Marine for nearly a century. Members of it had held the offices of intendant and financial commissary, and his father had been engaged in naval construction. First a shipbuilder in Rochefort, in 1717 the elder Levasseur had become chief supervisor of naval construction at Toulon. René-Nicolas was to follow faithfully in his father’s steps, serving as an apprentice under his orders; one of his brothers became an engineer and the other, Louis-Armand, became financial commissary of Rochefort. René-Nicolas entered the king’s service in 1727 as assistant shipbuilder at Toulon. In 1733 he supervised the building there of a 40-gun ship, the Aquilon. He was by now experienced and reliable, priding himself on his honesty, zeal, and usefulness, and he was ready for all the tasks he would assume in the colony.
In the spring of 1738 the minister of Marine, Maurepas, finally responded favourably to the request that colonial authorities had been making for more than 20 years for a royal shipyard at Quebec. At the same time he announced that René-Nicolas Levasseur was being sent to manage the operation. Levasseur sailed for Canada immediately and took up residence in Quebec with his wife, Angélique Juste, and their children in a house on Rue Champlain, near the future shipyard.
That autumn Intendant Hocquart sent him into the forests to verify information gathered in previous explorations [see David Corbin ; Médard-Gabriel Vallette de Chévigny], to specify the quantity and quality of wood needed for the yards, and to choose the regions to be exploited. Subsequently Levasseur returned to the forest nearly every year, looking for wood suitable for ships of 500 to 700 tons burden. The shipbuilding enterprise was the result of the minister’s decision to increase the number of warships in the royal fleet in case of armed conflict with Britain. Previous estimates, except those of the expert Vallette de Chévigny, proved to be too optimistic however: the wood required for building large ships was becoming scarce and expensive and was of mediocre quality. The forest resources of Canada would have been more suitable for constructing merchant ships of 250 to 300 tons. The decision taken in France caused misgivings and created all kinds of difficulties. The trees had to be felled in the distant region of Lake Champlain, the operation cost more than had been foreseen, and to obtain lumber of the required dimensions wood of poor quality had to be used. Hence the enterprise in the colony fell into disrepute which increased when big ships, such as the Caribou, a flute of 700 tons launched in 1744, rotted in less than five years.
Organizing the work left Levasseur practically no free time. Once the cutting areas had been marked out, he would return to Quebec to prepare for the summer season, draw plans for future ships, and procure the supplies needed for their construction. But he often had to return to the forest before the end of winter to supervise woodcutting, make sure he would have all the logs necessary, and arrange for them to be floated from Lake Champlain to Quebec. From April to November or December he had to coordinate and supervise all the workmen in the shipyards.
In 1746 the yards, which had first been located on the Rivière Saint-Charles at the spot where private individuals were accustomed to build ships, were moved to Cul-de-Sac, not far from the Place Royale. Because of its depth the St Lawrence was better suited for launching big ships than the Saint-Charles. In summer some 200 men supervised by a dozen foremen from France worked on the site from early morning until nightfall. The tempo of work made it possible to build a ship in two years. From 1738 until the conquest Levasseur launched about ten warships, plus some small service craft. He undertook to train his son Pierre and Louis-Pierre Poulin de Courval Cressé as assistant shipbuilders and they built light warships to cruise the lakes at the time of the Seven Years’ War.
These successes were not achieved without difficulty. The home authorities considered the cost of the vessels excessive. The search for large logs was costly. It took all Levasseur’s imagination and tenacity to deal with almost catastrophic situations. Setting up and then moving the shipyards entailed a considerable outlay of money. He even had to complain of the exactions of colonial administrators. Some of them – for example Jacques-Michel Bréard – made personal use of the services of foremen paid by the king and wood intended for building the king’s ships. The scarcity of manpower at all times made it necessary to pay high salaries. At first craft masters qualified to take charge of the various workshops had to be brought from France. Later the intendant was obliged to ask the minister year after year for ordinary journeymen in order to ensure the survival of the enterprise, since Canadian labour was becoming scarce.
Despite the good will of the builder and the colonial authorities, the difficulties resulting from the system and from the economic situation meant that the shipbuilding programme could not attain its objectives. It served only briefly as the catalyst for private enterprise that Hocquart had wished for. After remarkable progress from 1739 to 1742, the secondary industries – rosin and pitch for caulking, linen and hemp for cordage and sails, iron for nails and tackle – rapidly declined. A slump in agriculture in 1742 and 1743 caused such a large rise in prices that the small contractors, who could sell only at prices fixed by the intendant, went out of business. From 1744 on, Levasseur had to order from French arsenals essential parts for completing the ships. When the British navy undertook to blockade the St Lawrence, particularly after 1756, the operation was seriously threatened. Moreover, the royal enterprise monopolized material and human resources to the exclusion of private enterprise. Satisfaction of France’s needs had been achieved to the detriment of the colony’s development. Of Hocquart’s plan there remained only a metropolitan industry which had been implanted in a colonial setting to derive greater profit from its resources.
In contrast to the Saint-Maurice ironworks, where administrators, foremen, and workmen were not always qualified, the shipyard had in Levasseur a competent and conscientious man. His work was unanimously and constantly praised, despite failures such as the loss of the Orignal, which broke her back on the day of her launching in 1750. He was sought out whenever there were serious difficulties. He was the expert who had to solve the problems presented by the supply of wood. His methods of floating wood allowed rapids to be passed without danger. He had to blast dangerous rocks in watercourses. It was he, rather than the king’s engineer, Gaspard-Joseph Chaussegros de Léry, who was charged with building the quays when the shipyards were moved to Cul-de-Sac. He had come to New France as an assistant shipbuilder with an annual salary of 1,800 livres; the following year he received letters patent as a shipbuilder, and in 1743 his salary was increased to 2,400 livres. In 1749 he became chief shipbuilder and in 1752 was appointed inspector of woods and forests. Every ship-launching also meant important gratuities for him. During the siege of 1759 he was called upon to direct the squads of workmen responsible for fighting the fires which resulted from the bombardment of the city. The colonial administrators never lost their confidence in Levasseur’s talents and effectiveness.
The French authorities were also to recognize his aptitudes and put them to use. He lost almost everything in the war. During his voyage back to France in 1760 the ship put into port on the coast of Spain, and he had to leave his family at Bayonne, near the Spanish frontier, for lack of money. The minister of Marine granted him l,200 livres a year for his upkeep. In addition the minister quickly found a way to make use of his competence, putting him in charge of exploitation of wood in the Pyrenees to supply Bayonne with masts. For this challenge, with which the administration had been struggling for nearly 30 years, Levasseur once more received a salary of 2,400 livres. He succeeded so well – with the court’s congratulations, as his personal file records – that he was appointed commissary of the Marine on 21 May 1764.
When he asked to be retired in March 1766, he received a pension of l,800 livres. However, the memory of his exceptional services gradually faded. His son Pierre, who had become a writer in the Marine after the family returned to France, was refused his letters patent as deputy commissary. At Levasseur’s death in 1784 his wife had great difficulty in obtaining the minimum pension of 600 livres awarded the widows of commissaries of the Marine. The able and effective man of action had been forgotten.
Jacques Mathieu
Source :Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/index.html]
Michel Levasseur
LEVASSEUR, MICHEL, silversmith, born in France, resident of New France from 1699 to c. 1709; married Madeleine Vilers, and had seven children; the eldest, a girl, was born in Quebec in 1700.
Levasseur was the first member of his craft working in Quebec during the French colonial period whose activities have been documented. The records of Notre-Dame de Québec show that in 1707 he cleaned the silver and the following year he repaired a chalice and a ciborium. In 1709 he made a sanctuary lamp for the Quebec seminary. Shortly after this he returned to France where he had difficulty in finding work because of the opposition of the silversmiths of Rochefort.
During his ten-year stay in New France Levasseur followed the traditional pattern of the master silversmith in teaching his craft to others. According to a deed of 2 May 1708, he signed an agreement to teach his craft to Pierre Gauvreau and “to no one else.” Shortly afterwards, he was released from this contract by the Intendant Jacques Raudot and allowed to take another apprentice, Jacques Pagé , dit Carcy. Under the terms of such indentures, the master silversmith, in return for a sum of money from the parents, undertook to take the apprentice into his household for a period of seven years, teach him the “mystery” of his craft, and provide shelter, food, and clothing; he also assumed certain obligations for his education and attendance at church. No wages were paid to the apprentice.
To date no examples of Levasseur’s work during his stay in Canada have been identified.
John Langdon
Source :Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/index.html]
Joseph Le Vasseur Borgia (1773-1838)
LE VASSEUR BORGIA, JOSEPH (he signed LeVasseur Borgia), lawyer, newspaper proprietor, militia officer, and politician; b. 6 Jan. 1773 at Quebec, son of Louis Le Vasseur Borgia, a blacksmith, and Marie-Anne Trudel; d. there 28 June 1839.
François-Maximilien Bibaud asserts in Le panthéon canadien that the Borgia family of Quebec was Italian in origin, and Benjamin Sulte and other historians also make this claim. In fact, Joseph Le Vasseur Borgia’s ancestors were all of French descent, and his grandfather was the first Le Vasseur to have Borgia added to his surname.
Joseph Le Vasseur Borgia spent his early childhood in the faubourg Saint-Jean at Quebec. He was seven when his family moved into Upper Town to Rue Sainte-Famille near the Petit Séminaire. From 1786 till 1792 he did his classical studies in this institution. Accused of attending a theatrical performance, he was expelled at the end of April 1790, but was re-admitted the following year, this time as a boarder. On 30 April 1792, in a public session at the Petit Séminaire, he was one of five students who defended propositions in mathematics, ballistics, astronomy, and physics before an audience of dignitaries including Prince Edward Augustus.
Le Vasseur Borgia subsequently articled as a lawyer and on 18 July 1800 was licensed to practise. He opened an office at Quebec and over the years he became famous for plain but solid speeches. When someone mentioned his lack of eloquence to Sir James Henry Craig , who had heard him argue in court, the governor retorted: “That is true, but I think there are few lawyers in this colony who have as profound a knowledge of Roman law.” Le Vasseur Borgia defended a great many people, and he also found himself up on charges in court on a number of occasions. He had many disputes with protonotary Joseph-François Perrault. Relations between the two became more acrimonious in 1805 when Perrault sued him for outstanding fees. They confronted each other in cases several times more between then and 1825 From the outset of his legal career Le Vasseur Borgia was attracted to politics. On 10 Oct. 1805 he announced his candidature in the by-election that had been called following the death of William Grant , who had represented Upper Town Quebec in the House of Assembly. Le Vasseur Borgia and Perrault ran against each other and by splitting the French-speaking vote helped ensure the election of John Blackwood , the English-speaking candidate. Although somewhat chagrined, Le Vasseur Borgia was nevertheless determined to try his luck again at the first opportunity. He put an announcement in the Quebec Gazette of 19 December: “The support I have received . . . notwithstanding the combined efforts of certain public caballers, is . . . a testimony of the public esteem.” On 18 June 1808 he was elected member for Cornwallis, whose interests he upheld in the house from then until 1820, and again from 1824 to 1830, when his political career came to an end.
In 1806 Le Vasseur Borgia had joined Pierre-Stanislas Bédard , Jean-Thomas Taschereau , François Blanchet , and others in founding Le Canadien, a newspaper championing the interests of the French-speaking professional class. Angered by their support for this publication, which he considered “libellous and seditious,” Craig dismissed Le Vasseur Borgia and other proprietors of Le Canadien from their posts as militia officers on 14 June 1808. In March 1810 he had the paper’s presses seized and threw Bédard, Taschereau, Blanchet, and printer Charles Lefrançois into jail. Despite assertions to the contrary by some writers, Le Vasseur Borgia managed to escape the governor’s wrath and was not imprisoned. His reputation as an eminent lawyer and his moderate political stance are thought to have been instrumental in saving him from the fate of the newspaper’s other principals.
In 1812 the new governor, Sir George Prevost , courted the leaders of the Canadian party in order to secure their support and loyalty in the war against the United States. Thus, Le Vasseur Borgia got his militia officer’s commission back and was promoted captain in Quebec’s 1st Militia Battalion. There was soon dissension in the battalion when Le Vasseur Borgia again clashed with Perrault. He was placed under arrest and brought before a court martial on 9 November and 9 December 1812, accused of conduct “subversive of good order and military discipline in having refused obedience to the orders of Lieut.-Colonel Perrault, his Commanding Officer.” In the end he was acquitted. The prospect of having to fight against the American invaders held little appeal for Le Vasseur Borgia. Moreover, according to historian François-Xavier Garneau , he had attended a secret meeting held at Quebec to discuss taking a neutral stand in this conflict, which some Canadians saw as concerning only England and the United States.
Late in 1812 Le Vasseur Borgia was back in his familiar place in the House of Assembly. Although he was never a great orator, he participated diligently in the work of the house and served on numerous committees. Often taken aback by the violence of the debates in the assembly, he had presented a motion on 9 Feb. 1811 to the effect that “to interrupt a member whether by striking with his fist, or in swearing, is a breach of the privileges of this House.” Only once in the course of his long parliamentary career did he lose his temper. On 10 March 1819 he turned on Samuel Sherwood, insulted him, “made threatening grimaces at him,” and pursued him across the house, according to a witness, Philippe Panet . His conduct gave rise to vehement debate that lasted nearly eight hours. Denis-Benjamin Viger went so far as to demand that Le Vasseur Borgia be imprisoned. But in the end the assembly agreed to put him in the custody of the sergeant-at-arms.
At the time of the incident, the house was studying the administration of justice, a matter of deep concern to Le Vasseur Borgia. In the house on 6 March 1815 he had argued with conviction in favour of the adoption in Lower Canada of British civil law and the repeal of the Coutume de Paris, customary law, and the edicts, decrees, ordinances, and declarations in use since the time of New France. His long practice as a lawyer had often shown him the difficulty of “finding one’s way in this inextricable maze.” Philippe-Joseph Aubert de Gaspé used to relate that one day Le Vasseur Borgia, realizing he had lost 20 years of his life studying legal tomes, concluded he had better trust his judgement and in times of difficulty fall back on chance with dice and a dice-box.
As a member initially of the Canadian party, Le Vasseur Borgia abided by the opinions and decisions of his colleagues. In the 1820s, however, he gradually moved away from Louis-Joseph Papineau and his supporters. On 8 Jan. 1825, in the voting for speaker, he backed Joseph-Rémi Vallières de Saint-Réal rather than Papineau. Le Vasseur Borgia retired from the parliamentary scene in 1830, the year that Cornwallis was split into the ridings of Kamouraska and Rimouski, and he was not involved in the discussions and meetings preceding the rebellions of 1837–38. At the end of June 1838 he went to present his respects to Governor Lord Durham [Lambton], who had recently arrived in the colony.
A highly cultured man, over the years Le Vasseur Borgia had built up an impressive library, with textbooks on law and jurisprudence alongside many other volumes, including works on history, mythology, philosophy, astronomy, and chemistry. His diary reveals his passion for history. Notes from research on the Le Vasseur Borgia family and the French monarchy are mingled with detailed enumerations of the bishops of Quebec and the governors of the colony under the French and British régimes. At his retirement Le Vasseur Borgia calculated that between 1831 and 1836 he had devoted four months and ten days to putting his personal papers and his “case papers” in order.
Le Vasseur Borgia’s final years were saddened by poverty and by the death of his son Narcisse-Charles, who had begun articling under his direction in 1825 and had been licensed to practise law on 27 Feb. 1830. Narcisse-Charles was said to have inherited his father’s talents as a lawyer. But he was in frail health, and on 5 Nov. 1834, at the age of 30, he died. Le Vasseur Borgia, without means, had to rely on the generosity of some Quebec lawyers, who organized a subscription to defray the costs of his son’s funeral. In neglecting his law practice to devote himself to his political career, he had soon run into financial difficulties, and in 1817 he had had to part with his library.
Joseph Le Vasseur Borgia died on 28 June 1839, after “an illness of several weeks” according to Le Canadien, and was buried in the Cimetière des Picotés. For 17 years he had been the senior member of the bar in the district of Quebec. Aubert de Gaspé remembered him as a man who was “unbiased, generous, and of remarkable delicacy in his sentiments.” A lawyer to be reckoned with and a respected politician, he had compensated for his lack of eloquence by the quality of his arguments. “He was a wise man,” said Bibaud. Although his was a less prominent role than that of the Bédards, Vigers, and Papineaus of his time, he was one of the most frequently consulted and most influential politicians in Lower Canada from the founding of Le Canadien in 1806 until his departure from politics in 1830.
Jean-Marie Lebel
Source :Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. [http://www.biographi.ca/EN/index.html]
Le Vasseur Borgia, Joseph (1773-1839)
Born in Québec and baptized in the Notre-Dame Parish on January 6 1773, son of Louis LE VASSEUR Borgia, blacksmith and of Marie-Anne Trudel. He signed LeVasseur Borgia. Studied at the Québec Seminary from 1786 to 1792, and articled in law and was commissioned as a lawyer in 1800. He practiced law in Quebec.
He was defeated in Cornwallis in 1804 and in a partial election on December 14, 1804 in Quebec City, Upper town. He participated in the foundation of the news paper le «Canadien» in 1806. Due to his ties with this news paper, he was discharged as an officer of the militia by the Governor James Henry Craig on June 14, 1808. He was reinstated as captain by Governor Georges Provost in 1812.
He was elected in Cornwallis in 1808 and supported the Canadian Party. He was re-elected in 1809, 1810, 1814 and 1816. He was arrested and placed under guard by the chief sergeant by order of the National Assembly on March 10, 1819 for having insulted and threatening Samuel Sherwood. He was defeated in Cornwallis in 1820 but re-elected 1824 and 1827. He did not seek nomination in 1830.
He died in Québec City on June 27, 1839 at the age of 66 and 5 month and was buried in the «Picotés» cemetery of the Notre Dame Parrish on July 2, 1839. He had one son, Narcisse Charles.
Bibliographie/Bibliography: Lebel, Jean-Marie «Joseph Vasseur Borgia,» Dictionnaire biographique du Canada, vol. 7, p. 544-546
Bonaventure Viger (1775-????) patriot and son of Louise Levasseur Carmel
Louise Levasseur-Carmel was Bonaventure Viger’s mother, an important player in the 1837 rebellion. On November 18 he started the rebellion in Longueuil. Viger was the key instigator of the Chemin de Chambly strike or coup. He led a small group of men who captured Dr Davignon and the Notary Demaray who were being guarded by the Colborne dragons and had them jailed in a prison in Montréal.
From that time on he was being pursued. Viger sought refuge in Saint Denis. It was the eve of the battle and he wanted to be part of it, but on Nelson’s orders, he proceeded to organize the rebellion in Longueuil and Boucherville. He was actively involved when he took part in the battle of Saint Charles. Viger then sought refuge in the United States. He was captured in the Bedford region (Missisquoi) and imprisoned in Montréal on December 7 1837, where he was held during six long months.
Bonaventure Viger was one of the eight that accepted exile in Bermuda in exchange for granting freedom to other prisoners. Always pretentious, Viger escaped and returned clandestinely to Canada. He was imprisoned once more on May 22, 1839. He participated in many raids instigated by the Hunting Brothers. He was finally set free and married in 1840. Vigier, certainly the most unruly of the patriots, spent the remaining part of his life as a cheese maker of high quality fine cheeses. (Fauteux). Another son of Louise Levasseur-Carmel, Hilarion Viger, a farmer in Chambly, was arrested on the suspicion of treason on June 8, 1839. He was released from jail a year later.
Source : http://cgi2.cvm.qc.ca/glaporte/1837.pl?out=article&pno=biographie82&cherche=BIOGRAPHIE