Battle of St Eustache

December 17, 1837 - The Battle of St Eustache

Battle of St Eustache is a continuation story which began at " Blame it on Sophie and Marg ".


We had left off where Marg, aka Marguerite Rapidieux-Lamer had married Toussaint Brosseau.

Sophie was the daughter in law of Marguerite and Toussaint. Sophie Laurin grew up to marry Toussaint Brosseau, the son of Marg and Toussaint, in St Eustache sometime between 1837 and 1839.

Information on Sophie Laurin is difficult to locate. Her name is sometimes recorded as Lorrain. She is the godmother of Joseph Brosseau who was born in 1858 in St Marthe. His parents were Joseph Brosseau and Zoe Sarrazin. Sophie is the mother of Leandre Brosseau, born 1850, who has for godparents Joseph Brosseau and Zoe Sarrazin.

Joseph was the brother of Sophie's husband Toussaint. They were sons of the elder Joseph Brosseau and his wife Marguerite Rapidieu (x).

Here, on the Tiernan and Poudrier genealogy site Sophie Laurin is recorded as being the daughter of Joseph Laurin and of Marie Josette LaMadeleine-LaDouceur. If so, then she was born at St Benoit ( Mirabel ) on November 7, 1818 and died September 4, 1897 in St Marthe, Vaudreuil, Quebec, Canada. That source states that Toussaint Brosseau and Sophie Laurin married at St Eustache on January 28, 1839. The Laurin spelling changed from Lorrain sometime between her father and grandfather. The Lorrain line goes all the way back to France and was Lorrain dit Lachapelle in the first Canadian generation.

more on Sophie later....somewhere else

Meanwhile.......

St Eustache and the surrounding towns including St Benoit and St Charles were a war zone in 1837 and 1838. The British under John Colborne were looking to take complete control of Canadian culture and they were backed up by the Loyalists to the English crown. The Lower and Upper Canada as Canada was called back then was made up of a majority of French and English Canadians. Colborne was working hard to raise the number of English citizens and had been extremely successful when he looked to Ireland for immigrants. The English King meanwhile had named the county of Newton as a new land to be colonized and developed. St Justine was one town in that county. Sophie and Toussaint amongst others ended up in St Marthe not far from St Justine de Newton where most if not all of their children were born.

The Battle of St Eustache was a major power struggle between the British and the Patriote Party which opposed the Brits attempt at controlling religion and ethnicity in Lower and Upper Canada. The Patriotes were rebels and the Battle of St Eustache and many similar battles came to be known as the 1837-38 Rebellions.

 

The outcome of the Battle of St Eustache was not good for the rebels.

Colborne and his Loyalists were in Lower Canada and had defeated the Patriote at Saint Charles in Lower Canada ( Quebec ) and were looking to eliminate the rest of the French Canadian Patriote party members and supporters of this political movement who's goal was to stop the domination of English colonial forces trying to control all of Canada for the British monarchs. Basically the Patriotes were trying to do for the Canadians what the American revolution had done for the Americans.

Eglise St Eustache
The front of the
St Eustache Church
survived the fire and the
church was rebuilt in 1841
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Image source
Wikimedia common  

When John Colborne arrived at St Eustache in late 1837 he was accompanied by nearly 1500 fighters. The Patriote, led by Chenier and Girod in St Eustache were outnumbered 7 to 1 and were not well armed. By the end of the day the Patriote were barricaded in the local church when Colborne or one of his allies ordered it burned. The story goes that as the church burned some of the Patriote rebels attempted to jump out of windows. Jean Olivier Chenier was shot down as he ran from the church grounds. The same story goes that Armury Girod was shot by his own side when, during a battle before they entered the church, he was seen fleeing the field. Some say he was running towards neighbouring St Benoit for backup when he was shot by a Patriote supporter who thought he was surrendering.

John Colborne won the Battle of St Eustache for the British. After the battle many rebels from this town and the surrounding Lower Canada area were on the run. Some got arrested and were sent to Australia ( Canada Bay ) which was basically a British prison colony. Other rebels managed to get away and crossed into the US or somewhere else in the wild wilderness to the north.

I can't figure out exactly how Sophia and Toussaint survived this but they did and this war was what their descendants talked about when they questioned the meaning of life.

The Battle of St Eustache and the rebellion of 37-38 shaped them.

The story continues....
click below...
Sophie Laurin Brosseau and Toussaint had many children.