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Jean Guay in Lauzon |
| Following this
tragic but enriching adventure, Jean probably
kept on working for the Jesuits as a "Volunteer
Servants" in Quebec, at least during winter
1650-1651. What did he do next? The most
reasonable answer would be as follows. Around 1651, Charles Cadieu dit Courville had a plot of land between Guillaume Couture and Guillaume Gauthier dit Lachenaye at the Point Levy (Lauzon) Louis Lauzon de la Citière bought it for 1200 pounds. Five years later, the Jesuits became the new owners of this piece of land. In a 1656 report, the religious owners confirm that La Citiere had operated an eel fishery at high expenses and which gave 40 barrels of eels the same year that Mr. De Lauzon purchased it. Moreover the documents reveal that this plot of 4 arpents (French for 1 1/2 British acres) was obtained in exchange for another one situated on the Isle of Orleans and that it has 8 to 10 arpents cleared and one wooden structure. It was the same lot that Jean Guay acquired on July 10, 1658. Who cleared the 8 arpents of this lot in the 5 years prior to its purchase? Who also operated and took care of the eel fishery? Who built the crude structure? None other than Jean Guay! The Jesuits, who in turn leased the farm to him in 1658, would have hired him. And then conceded the land to him on June 19, 1666. In the registry of Becquet, Public Notary on June 18, 1666, we find an act conceding this farm situated in Lauzon (Point Levy) to Jean Guiet by the Jesuits. This farm went from the shores of the ST-Lawrence River, and southward for 40 arpents . We also find in the same registry dated September 1670, a lease made out to Jean Guiet by the Jesuits and on June 20, 1671, another grant of land to Charles de Lauzon Charny, son of the Governor. Page 6 |