Pierre Lacharité - b. 1730      
  Born abt 1730 - Maskinongé, Maskinongé, Québec, Canada 

 1. Marie Suzanne Lacharité   2. Antoine Lacharité          3. Angelique Lacharité    4. Pierre Jean Lacharité
 5. Agathe Lacharité               6. Unknown Lacharité          7. Modeste Amable Lacharité
 8. Marie Lacharité                10. Magdeleine Lacharité     11. Marie Josephte Lacharité
 

Life of an 18th Century Family

Children usually remained with the family until they married. It was not uncommon to have extended families with grandparents, uncles and aunts, and nieces and nephews living under the same roof.

There was usually a fairly defined set of roles. The father was the head but everyone had important roles. Everyone, regardless of age or gender, worked in the fields and tended the animals. The father, along with his eldest sons, repaired the house, barn, and tools as well as cutting and hauling firewood. He would also normally build the family's furniture.

Meanwhile, his wife cared for the vegetable garden beside the homestead and handled the household chores such as cooking, cleaning, and caring and educating the younger children. However, she was far more than a domestic helpmate. Rather, not only was she responsible for the domestic side of the household, but she also worked side-by-side with husband in the fields. In addition, because far more women than men at the time were literate, she often looked after the business side of the farm.

Seven Year War

  

Pierre was 27 years old when the French and Indian War also known as the Seven Year War (1754 to 1763) started. Pierre was living in a time of change as British and America military troops waged war against the French and Canadian colonist. The future of New France was at risk. Pierre would live to see many more battles in his new found homeland before he died.

Pierre Laspron dit Lacharité died before 1786, around the age of 56.

During the Seven Years’ War, the British had numerical superiority over the French in both troops and settlers in the Americas, and wanted to increase their territorial holdings.  A British army sailed up the St. Lawrence River, and attacked Québec. Initially, the British failed, but a young 32-year-old commander, General James Wolfe, dramatically turned those defeats around.  In 1759, Wolfe engaged the French general Louis Joseph de Montcalm on the Plains of Abraham, southwest of the city of Québec. 

With 4500 British soldiers, Wolfe attacked the unprepared and outnumbered French troops.  In a mere twenty minutes, the French surrendered. This crushing battle on the Plains of Abraham became a defining moment for the New French and the British, forging a historical memory which is called The War of the Conquest. 

Before the Conquest, nearly 70,000 French-speaking people dominated Québec in all areas-- economically, politically, linguistically, and socially.  After the Conquest, they were a spent and defeated people.  

The New French were ordered to acquiesce to all British demands.  Their religion, Roman Catholicism, would no longer be protected. In fact, Catholics were no longer allowed to hold political office.  Their economy was in ruins from seven years of fighting, and the legal and financial positions of French citizens became increasingly insecure. 

What had been a thriving community of French families, business, and religious communities became British controlled.  This “embryonic bourgeoisie” faded away. Finally, in 1763 the King of France, Louis XV, gave up all of Canada to Great Britain by signing the Treaty of Paris.  France had handed over to Great Britain a new colony, the Province of Québec. Its inhabitants were ordered to abandon their French tradition and to follow British norms.  The British did not set out, however, to persecute Quebec's native French population. The Quebec Act, passed in 1774, allowed the Québécois to have religious freedom. The French-Canadians were therefore not unhappy enough with British rule to choose to participate in the American Revolution. Without Canadian cooperation against the British, the thirteen colonies instead attempted to invade Canada. The city was therefore once again under siege when the Battle of Quebec (1775) occurred in 1775. The initial attack was a failure due to American inexperience with the extreme cold temperatures of the city in December. Benedict Arnold refused to accept the defeat in the Battle of Quebec and a siege against the city continued until May 6, 1776, when the American army finally retreated.

Louis XV in 1748: a pastel portrait by Maurice Quentin de La Tour (Louvre Museum)

Next: The story of Antoine Lacharité b. 1760
He would be our next ancestor in our ancestry line of decent.

Jehan Laspron - b. 1570 

     Jean Laspron - b. 1611   

          Jean Baptiste Laspron, dit Lacharité -  b. 1645         

               Claude Laspron Lampron - b. 1679 

                    Pierre Lacharite - b. 1730

                         Antoine Lacharite.- b. 1760

 

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