LEVASSEUR, dit L’Espérance, PIERRE, joiner; b. 1629, son of Noël Levasseur and Geneviève Grange, brother of Jean Levasseur and grandfather of woodcarver Pierre-Noël Levasseur*; d. 12 March 1694 in the Hôtel-Dieu de Quebec.
On 25 Oct. 1655, at Quebec, he married Joanne de Chaverlange, daughter of Antoine de Chaverlange and Marthe Guérin, from Saint-Oursin (near Bourges). The couple had eight children.
Levasseur was one of the founders of the Confrérie de Sainte-Anne, at the parish church of Quebec.
On 4 March 1657 he purchased a piece of land situated in the censive of the Messieurs de la Nouvelle-France.
Around 1661, even before securing title, he built a house and outbuildings on a property belonging to the Argentenay seigneury, on the Île d’Orléans; but as “he has not had an opportunity to accustom himself to the said place, by reason of inconveniences which exist there both for himself and his family,” he waived his rights in favour of Vincent Chrétien, for the sum of 140 livres.
In 1674, Pierre Levasseur worked in the joiner’s shop attached to the church at Beauport, We know this from an account of a quarrel between the joiner and Robert Mossion, a Quebec tailor. Because of a debt of 35 livres 5 sols for goods supplied, Levasseur had to submit to the seizure of payments owed him by the parochial council at Beauport.
AJQ, Greffe de Guillaume Audouart, 4 mars 1657, 26 août 1663; Greffe de J.-B. Peuvret de Mesnu, 1er et 25 nov. 1658. P.-G. Roy, Inventaire d’une collection de pièces judiciaires, notariales, etc., etc., conservées aux Archives judiciaires de Québec (2v., Beauceville, 1917), I, II. Marius Barbeau, “Les Le Vasseur, maîtres menuisiers, sculpteurs et statuaires (Québec, circa 1648–1818),” Les Archives de Folklore, III (1948), 35–49. D. Levack, La Confrérie de Sainte-Anne à Québec (Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, 1956). Tanguay, Dictionnaire,
Revisions based on:
AHDQ, Registre des malades, 12 mars 1694. Bibliothèque et Arch. Nationales du Québec, Centre d’arch. de Québec, CE301-S1, 25 oct. 1655.
© 1966–2024 University of Toronto/Université Laval
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Cite This Article
Gérard Morisset, “LEVASSEUR, dit L’Espérance, PIERRE,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 1, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed April 16, 2024, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/levasseur_pierre_1E.html.
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| Permalink: | http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/levasseur_pierre_1E.html |
| Author of Article: | Gérard Morisset |
| Title of Article: | LEVASSEUR, dit L’Espérance, PIERRE |
| Publication Name: | Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 1 |
| Publisher: | University of Toronto/Université Laval |
| Year of publication: | 1966 |
| Year of revision: | 2021 |
| Access Date: | April 16, 2024 |