The Joyal Family

The Family Joyal: Genealogy Book

The Family Joyal Book The Family Joyal:
The Genealogy of the Descendants of Jacques Jouiel and Lady Marie Gertrude Moral
Compiled by Debra Joyal, August 2003

This 92-page book was compiled from a variety of sources by Debra Joyal, daughter of Jerry Joyal. It consists of 5 sections, including the Introduction which is presented below. The cover is shown right.

A digital copy in Acrobat PDF format is now available for viewing and/or downloading, by clicking on this link.

Jacques Jouiel named Bergerac, was born around 1640. Son of Etienne, master gunsmith, and of Suzanne Massau, from the city of Bergerac, in the Perigord, of the Dordogne, in France. Jacques is the common ancestor of all the Joyal and Joyelle families in Canada.

¶ Jacques learned from a very young age the profession or the trade of his father. He arrived in Canada in 1656 at the age of 16 with the Missionary Priests or Fathers.

¶ In Canada he went to the post at Trois-Rivieres, practicing his trade as gunsmith. This consisted of making fighting arms and other necessary utensils for the colonists. In 1658 he was at Ville-Marie, where he signed a contract for 65 pounds with M. Louis d'Ailleboust. In this contract on the 12th of Sept. 1658, he signed his name Jacques Jouiel dict Bergerat. A month later on the 16th of October he was in the city of Quebec, where he signed a contract with Antoine Boesme, in front of a Notary Public named Peuvret. In this document Antoine Boesme is named the master gunsmith, who took Jacques Jouiel into his service as an apprentice gunsmith, until St. John's Day the following year. In return for his work Jacques was given lodging, tools, food and more than a third of the profits of the company. In this contract with Antoine Boesme, there was a clause which shows what Jacques Jouiel was doing during his first few years in Canada (in addition to his work as a gunsmith). It is specified in this special clause that he will be free to leave _________ anytime and every time he is required to voyage into the wilderness or Indian country with the Reverend Father Lemoyne.

¶ From his very arrival in Canada it seems he learned several Indian dialects from the Jesuit Priests. Beginning in 1659, he was engaged by Father Lemoyne as an interpreter in his Indian mission in the wild.

¶ In June 1659 his contract with Antoine Boesme was terminated. Jacques Jouiel then worked at the iron works which were beginning to be set up at St. Maurice. His companions in iron, or fellow blacksmiths were: le nomme Barthelemy, Christophe Croteau, Urbain Beaudry, Jerome Langlois, Michel Moreau, Jean Badeau, Jacques Loiseau, Michel Rochereau, Jean Poisson, Louis Martin, Jean Bousquer, Jacques Menard, Pierre Potvin and Jean de Noyon.

¶ Jacques Jouiel repaired and made arms for soldiers and hunters in his blacksmith shop. He also made any type of tool, iron utensil for the home (cooking utensils etc.). Before St. Maurice, he lived for a while in Batiscan. He was a gunsmith, arms maker, locksmith, blacksmith and tool maker. In 1666 he was living in Trois-Rivieres.

¶ In 1671 with the western missionary's, the officers of the militia and about 20 Indian nations, Jacques attended the ceremonies taking possession of all the western territories in the name of the King of France, at Sault-Ste-Marie. At that time he was involved in the fur trade.

¶ In 1676, at the age of 36, he married on the 10th of November at Trois-Rivieres. His bride, Marie Gertrude Moral, age 18, was the daughter of M. Quentin Moral, who was a lieutenant of the King, and a judge of the city of Trois-Rivieres. Quentin Moral's wife was named Marie Marguerie.

¶ (Quentin Moral, Lt. was born about 1614 in Origine Inconnue. He was Christened in 1622. He died on 9 May 1686 in Trois Rivieres, Quebec, Canada. He was buried on 9 May 1686 in Trois Rivieres, St. Maurice, Quebec, Canada. From Ancestral File (TM) data as of 2 January 1996.) (Marie Marguerie was born on 12 Sept. 1620 in Rouen, Normandy. She was Christened on 16 Sept. 1620 in St Vincent, Rouen, Normandy, France. She died on 6 Nov. 1700 in Trois Rivieres, St. Maurice, Quebec, Canada. She was buried on 26 Nov 1700 in Trois Rivieres, St. Maurice, Quebec, Canada.) Apparently the mother of the bride was against the marriage of Jacques and Marie, possibly due to her daughter's financial standing. However, on the second of Nov. 1676, the marriage contract was made public by a notary named Ameau. The husband brought 1500 pounds to the marriage and the bride brought 600 pounds which she had from a dowery from her father, and the title of Lady which she inherited from her mother, Marie Marguerie. The contract was witnessed by several relatives and friends such as: Louis Godefroy, Knight, Lord of Normanville. . . .The attorney of the King at Trois-Rivieres, Etienne de Tonnancourt. . . .Jacques de Labadie, Sergant at the garison of Trois-Rivieres. . . .Joseph Petit, Lord of Brunault at Maskinonge and Jean Crevier, Lord of St. Francois. The ceremony was done in Latin.

¶ There was no doubt that Jacques Jouiel had made a good deal of profit in the fur trade. The amount of his fortune in the marriage contract proves that he was a man of considerable means. Benjamin Sulte affirms that such a sum (1500pounds) at that time was considerable indeed.

¶ On December 27, 1673 Jacques bought a tract of land measuring 2 acres by 50 acres on the St. Lawrence river in the Lordship of Tonnancourt. Bordered on the north by the property of Claude Jutras called Lavallee, and on the southwest by the property of his father-in-law, Quentin Moral. He then sold the land in 1676 to a man named Antoine Dubois. On the 18th of August 1677, Antoine Dubois gave back the land because he failed to pay for the land by the agreed upon time. That was St. Martin's Day of the same year.

¶ On the 5th of September, 1680, Jacques Jouiel named Bergerac petitioned a gentleman named Joseph Petit called Bruno. Apparently this document or petition is unreadable. On the 17th of September 1680, Antoine Dubois (who saw) the land bequethed the land to Quentin Moral, (at his death), Jacques father-in-law, and in fact all of his belongings.

¶ On the same day Jacques Jouiel named Bergerac rented a blacksmith bellows to Urbain Beaudry named Lamarche. On the 23rd of March 1681, Quentin Moral, attorney of his son-in-law Jacques Jouiel, named Bergerac, made a petition to Joseph Petet named Bruno concerning a payment of 144 pounds. On March 23, 1683, Jacques Jouiel, named Bergerac, leased for one year, to Pierre Forcier, "All the workable lands belonging to him in the Lordship St. Francois".

¶ In 1685, in a deed registered at Trois-Rivieres, Jacques Jouiel sold a plot of land with 30 feet of frontage located below Platon, separated from here by a road leaving the road Notre Dame and going toward the river, the 3rd plot of land on the corner of the road named Notre Dame. In this deed it was said that Jacques Jouiel was living at St. Francois du Lac. In 1690 his daughter was baptised there. The daughter's name was Josephte. From this date on Jacques lived continually in the Parish of St. Francois du Lac.

¶ On the 4th of July 1698, Jacques sets up his sons, named Jacques and Jean, on some land granted by a certain Lord Crevier in the village of St. Francois.

¶ The fort and the church had been burned down in St. Francois in 1689. His children Joseph and Antoine born in 1694 and 1696 were baptised in Sorel, since there was no priest in residence in St. Francois.

¶ Jacques Jouiel named Bergerac died at the age of 76 and was buried at St. Francois du Lac on the 26th of March 1716. There was an error made, saying he was 94 years of age at the time of his death. But this was an error. His widow, Marie Gertrude Moral du St. Quentin, baptised on the 22nd of March 1658, at Trois-Rivieres, died at the age of 78 and was buried in her turn at St. Francois du Lac August 28, 1736.

¶ Source - The Family Joyal (Jouiel, Joyalle)

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