History of the Lepages
North America
Before designating entire families, the name of Le page would have been attributed first to children placed with the nobles, but this name would also mean child, town or village. A few French people with this surname came to settle in New France in the XNUMXth and XNUMXth centuries.e century. Barthélémy was Norman, Blaise was too. François-Joseph came from Picardy, François-Pierre from Limousin and Jacques from Angoumois. The first to settle here are Constance, Louis and Germain. The two men come to New France as scouts. Born in the region of Courson-les-Carrières, in the village of Ouanne, they are the sons of Étienne and Nicole Berthelot. Louis and Germain are more or less the same age, the censuses of 1666, 1667 and 1681 bringing them into being around 1640.
No contract of engagement allows us to fix with certainty the date of their arrival in the colony. It is generally believed that they landed in Quebec, around 1661, as enlisted men, for a period of thirty-six months. The only element which leads us to believe it is a document of Thursday January 24, 1664 where it is said that following a complaint formulated by Charles LeGardeur one had to seek and imprison "the named Louis le Page his domestic servant (who ) to the detriment of the ordinances (...) had without any leave of absence from his service having retired to the Côte et Seigneurie de Beaupré ”. Here is a man who has spent enough time here to dream of not being anyone's servant! This escape has consequences that we unfortunately do not know, but it is certain that in July of the same year, the engagement of the two brothers ended. On the 9th, Marie-Barbe de Boullogne, wife of Louis d'Ailleboust, granted them a few acres to be taken in the seigneury of Argentenay, in the parish of Sainte-Famille.
In 1666, this land is already divided between the two men who appear separately in the census. The following year, they share the same house and, already, fifteen arpents were put "in value". This common land will be the subject of an official division, the 24 October 1672. One can wonder about the reasons for this transaction occurring between the two closely related men who will prove, throughout the years, that harmony existed between them. But this gesture is imposed on them by the arrival of parents. The 24 August 1667, in front of the notary Pierre Duquet, Sebastienne Loignon or Aloignon, daughter of Pierre and Marie Roussin, of the Sainte-Famille parish, had promised Louis Lepage to marry him. She had kept her word and two children, Étienne and Marie-Madeleine had come to populate their little house. We now know, thanks to the compilations of the Directory of the acts of baptism, marriage, burial (...) published by the University of Montreal, that in the month of October 1672, other Lepage had arrived from France. Indeed, the 27 February 1673, René, Constance and Etienne Lepage are present at the baptism of Constance Duchesne, born 12, daughter of Pierre and Catherine Rivet. Who are these newcomers so quickly integrated into the small parish community? Constance is the sister of Louis and Germain. Étienne, whose name appears for the only time in the records of this parish, may be the father of these three pioneers. As for Rene, he is the son of Germain. There was much doubt about the presence in the country of Germain Lepage's wife. It is now verified that she arrived at the same time as the other members of the Lepage family, the records referring to her as Reine, Irene or Renee Lori, Lory, Lauri and Laury. She acts as godmother at several baptisms, giving her names to her nieces Renee Lepage and Reine Guérinet or Garnier, Reine Meneux, Renée Loignon, Reine Mesnil and Reine Deblois. Constance Lepage married François Garnier at Sainte-Famille, the 5 February 1674. She will have six children, five daughters and one son. She died at the age of 40 years, in mid-August 1688, in Saint-François Island of Orleans.
In 1673, once the family had reunited on the land granted in 1664, land on which there was only a "body of the house", the Lepages sold it for 415 pounds to the Hospitallers. However, it was not until 1677 that the clan moved to Saint-François. Germain, his wife and their son René; Constance, her husband and their two daughters; Louis, his wife and their four children move. The census of 1681 shows us these three families each developing their heritage. François Garnier and Constance Lepage are neighbors of Louis' family. They then own four horned animals and seven acres of land have been cleared. Louis Lepage, more prosperous, owns eleven horned animals and twelve arpents of land have been developed. As for Germain Lepage and Reine Lory, twelve horned animals and fifty arpents of cleared land make their wealth and that of their only heir, René.
Louis Lepage and Sébastienne Loignon will give birth to at least fourteen children who will form an alliance with the Théberge, Marquis, Béchard, Racine, Fournier, Turcot, Charest, Fontaine, Beaudoin, Pépin, Gagnon, Bilodeau, Damien and LaGrapht.
Sébastienne Loignon was buried at St. Francis de Sales on the Island of Orleans, the 3 December 1702; Louis followed her on November 27 1710. Their descendants, numerous, took root on the Island of Orleans. Reine Lory disappears from the records between 1691 and 1696 and it is presumed that Germain was widowed when he followed his son René to Rimouski. René belongs to the little history of this city of which he was the first lord. By the many children born of his marriage with Marie-Madeleine Gagnon, he is the ancestor of an important branch of the Lepage family tree. Germain died "in the odor of sweetness", on February 26, 1723. He was then given one hundred and one years, which contradicts the censuses which only give him eighty-three at most.