Walking In The Steps Of My Ancestors -Part Seven - La Maison Étienne Parent - 60 rue Seigneuriale, Beauport, QC

La maison Étienne Parent is the last of the historical Parent family homes that we visited on our walk around historical Beauport. There were other houses that we could have visited but there was no more time. Besides, it is a reason to visit Beauport again some time in the future.

It is a bit misleading to call this house, 'la maison Étienne Parent'. Yes, it is true that Étienne Parent was born in this house but he was such a remarkable student and his intelligence was readily apparent to his family that he was sent to the college of Nicolet for his secondary education. Nicolet college was one of the schools in Quebec at that time. Other than returning to his parents home during summer vacations to work on the family farm , Étienne never lived in this house again.

Étienne Parent was without a doubt the most remarkable member of our family, if not one of the most remarkable men during 19th Century Quebec. He was a lawyer, a journalist, a philosopher, a politician but most of all, he was a champion of Quebec. On the masthead of his newspaper, Le Canadien, Étienne Parent printed his motto, 'Nos Institutions, Notre Langue, Nos Lois' (Our Institutions, Our Language, Our Laws).

Étienne's ancestry goes all the way back to the original Étienne Parent, one of the triplets born of Pierre Parent and Jeanne Badeau. This would make Étienne Parent and Felix Parent (the wheelwright that I wrote about recently) close cousins. Étienne Parent was born on May 2, 1802 in Beauport, Quebec. He was the eldest of 15 children of Étienne François Parent and Josephte Clouet. Étienne Parent died on December 22, 1874 in Ottawa, Ontario, what he accomplished in his 72 years was remarkable. I do not want to make this post about Étienne Parent although the temptation is strong. I found an incredible amount of information on Étienne Parent and I just scratched the surface. Étienne Parent deserves a full length dedicated to him. To date no one has written a biography of Étienne Parent in French or English, I might be foolish enough to try and write it.

The land on which la maison Étienne Parent was built belonged to Robert Giffard de Moncel (1587 - 1668), the first seigneur of Beauport. It was located on what was then called the village of Fargy. In 1663, the location where la maison Étienne Parent would be built was part of the land that belonged to the seigneur in 1663, Joseph Giffard who was the son of Robert Giffard de Moncel. In 1709 this same plot of land was owned by Ignace Juchereau Duchesnay (1658 - 1715).

Sometime in the 18th century Étienne Parent bought a plot of land that included the spot where la maison Étienne Parent now stands, according to the map of John Adams in 1822. So we have proof that the house existed in 1822 and had been built some time before 1822 but the precise date of construction is unknown. The house was located at the intersection of avenue du Moulin (now avenue des Cascades) and rue Saint Michel (now rue Seigneuriale). The Étienne who purchased the land and probably built the house was Étienne  Parent (1674 - 1756), one of the three triplets of Pierre Parent and Jeanne Badeau. Étienne would have passed the house to his oldest son, Nicolas Parent who would have passed the house to his oldest son, Étienne François Parent, the father of our famous Etienne Parent. It is only after Etienne François Parent has possession of the house that we start to see written records of its occupancy.

On February 5, 1847, Josephte Clouet, the widow of Étienne  François Parent gave the house and all of adjoining land to be shared equally between Joseph and Felix Parent, who were the younger brothers of Étienne Parent. Although Étienne Parent was the oldest brother and would have been entitled to the house and the land he gave up his entitlement. In May of 1847, Étienne Parent was appointed assistant secretary of the Province of Canada. Etienne was born in this house but the truth is after he left home at the age of twelve to attend the college of Nicolet and later the seminary of Quebec, he spent little living with his family except during the summer when he would return home to help his family work their farmlands.

Joseph and Felix Parent inherited all of their parent's jands including the two acres of land on which the house stood and fifteen buildings, which the brothers agreed to share. The myth that Étienne was born of 'poor' French - Canadian farmers appears to be a gross exaggeration. La maison Étienne Parent was occupied by Joseph Parent and his family while Felix Parent would have occupied another house elsewhere on their property. On May 6, 1873 (a year before Étienne Parent passed away in Ottawa) Joseph Parent passed the house to his son Joseph Parent. Joseph Parent (junior) was the last Parent to live and own the house at 60 rue Seigneuriale.

On August 22, 1891, Joseph Parent and his wife, Elizabeth Morin gave the property including the house at 60 rue Seigneuriale to François Marcoux. I do not know all of the details of this transaction but I do know that there had been multi - generational relationships between the Marcoux family and the Parent family, so these two families were far from being complete strangers. On October 29, 1894, François Marcoux passed the house to his son François Marcoux.

 Since the house was built, sometime between 1770 and 1822, it has been continuously occupied. The Parent family occupied the house until 1891 when the house was turned over to the Marcoux family. They occupied the house at 60 rue Seigneuriale for 88 years until 1979. The house is still used as a private residence.

From an architectural point of view, la maison Étienne Parent is a classic example of a French farmhouse. The house was built on the model of a French farmhouse but adapted to the geography and climate of Quebec. Much like a French farmhouse the basic footprint of la maison Étienne Parent is rectangular with a floor and half elevation. The roof has a steep angle, around 60 degrees which would have been efficient in keeping snow off of the roof during the winter. The main door of the house, instead of being place in the center of the house, is off center. This would allow the heat to stay in most of the house when the door was opened in the winter time and contain cooler in most of the house during the warm summer months. The covering on the roof is sheet metal and it is original to the house. The gabled dormers are original to the house as well as all of the other windows and doors.

La maison Étienne Parent was the last house that we visited during our walking tour of historical Beauport. For me it was a transformative experience to walk in the footsteps of my ancestors. Writing these seven posts has given me a better sense of who my ancestors were, at least the ones who occupied these seven houses. I would encourage everyone in the Parent family to visit historical Beauport.