François Lanctôt
and Claire Badaillac.


The Second of His Name.

François Lanctôt was 8 when his father died in 1694. His mother Marguerite turned to her father Jacques Ménard for protection for herself and her four children when the Iroquois attacked the following year. The palisade surrounding the settlement offered some relief, though neighbors were killed on their farms before Olivier Morel de La Durantaye, a captain originally sent over with the Carignan-Salières régiment, successfully launched a defense.

His mother remarried two years later but died shortly after, in 1699, leaving the 13 year old and two surviving sisters ages 9 and 5.

When François married Claire Badaillac dit Laplante on 9 May 1707 in Montréal both were 21.

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Francois' signature 1707

His ability to sign his name on the marriage record indicates he had received an education in the boys' school that operated in Boucherville since 1689. The couple established their home in nearby Longueuil, neighbors of our ancestor Charles Patenaude.

Our ancestor Marie-Reine was born 30 April 1718 in Longueuil. She was one of 14 children Claire bore before her death at age 45 on 23 May 1731.

A Second and a Third Marriage.

With several children in tow François married Catherine Poupart, a widow herself, on 18 Feb 1732. They had nine years together before her death on 2 Feb 1741.

The 56 year old Françoise married again to Jeanne-Françoise Ronceray, 68, who was also on her third marriage. Jeanne-Françoise and her second husband, Jean-Mathieu Gervais, are ancestors of ours. Her son, Jean-Baptiste Gervais married François Lanctôt's daughter Marie-Reine, thus intertwining the two lines of our family.

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The witnesses at their marriage on 14 May 1742 in Longueuil included his children François, Charlotte and Marie, François Boutellier, our ancestor André Lamarre, his nephew Charles Compain, Pierre Bétourné, Jeanne-Françoise' son Jean Gervais, her son-in-law Jean Caillé, and her nephew Adrien Fournier.

He was among those who invested in the community. To fund the construction of a new church in Longueuil in 1727, the churchwardens sold pews to the parishioners. The habitant pSrovided the lumber and the warden would pay the carpenter. An annual rent was levied, which if left unpaid, the bench could be resold. François Lanctôt and Mathieu Gervais paid 25 for the third bench and 27 livres for the tenth bench respectively for a position on the side of the pulpit, Étienne Patenotre paid 35 livres for his first bench in the middle.

Jeanne-Françoise Ronceray died at age 86 on 26 February 1761 in Longueuil, after the capitulation of Montréal to the British the previous September. François was 77 when he passed on 26 Nov 1763, months after France lost its colony in Canada at the end of the Seven Years War.