André Robert dit Le Breton
and Marguerite Dania.

André Robert dit le Breton seems to have run afoul of the local landowner early on. On 28 November 1695 judgement was rendered against him in Trois-Rivières in a case brought forward by Pierre Lefebvre. Sieur Lefebvre sued for "payment of 17 days of work and one month of harvest in compensation, the whole totaling 72 pounds 10 sols." It was ruled he should pay "8 days of work, including food, and a sum of 10 pounds in damages, as well as an additional amount of 8 sol for costs."

Without his marriage record his origin is unknown, though his "dit" name, Le Breton, implies he came from Bretagne (Brittany). It was an area of France that had its own regional dialect. Using that patois in speech was discouraged by the king who considered the dialect to be uncultivated.

André first married Marie Ésnard in Canada around 1695. She was about three years old when her parents moved her and her two sisters from La Rochelle, France in 1670. André and Marie had four children before Marie's death.

Marriage to Marguerite Dania.

And so it was that André, a widower with four children, married our ancestor Marguerite Dania on 31 May 1706 in Trois-Rivières. The settlement was located on the confluence of the Saint Maurice and Saint-Lawrence Rivers. As it was about halfway between Québec and Montréal the village was ideally located for trade. Called "the starting point of exploration" it was a meeting place for fur traders and native peoples alike.

André and Marguerite moved to the south side of the Saint-Lawrence river where it joins the Nicolet River to form a perfect landing spot for hundreds of migrating birds. There they had six children. Our ancestor Jacques Robert dit Le Breton was born 8 Mar 1711 in Nicolet.

Marriages for their children appear in La Prairie. André died at the age of 66 on 25 November 1736 in Longueuil. Marguerite died years later, after the 1745 marriage of her son (our ancestor Jacques) while in La Prairie.