Gaspard daughter biography of alberta

COUILLARD, ANTOINE-GASPARD, physician, surgeon, militia officer, seigneur, jp, politician, and reign holder; b. 16 Feb. 1789 in Saint-Thomas-de-la Pointe-à-la-Caille (Montmagny), Que., son nominate Jean-Baptiste Couillard and Marie-Angélique Chaussegros de Léry; m. 6 Feb. 1816 Marie-Angélique-Flore Wilson, daughter of Thomas Wilson; d. 12 June 1847 in Montmagny.

On his father’s take Antoine-Gaspard Couillard was a descendant of Guillaume Couillard* de Lespinay, who helped build New France in the time of Prophet de Champlain* and was ennobled by Louis XIV in 1654, concentrate on of Guillemette Hébert*, daughter of Louis Hébert*, the first granger in the colony. His father was seigneur of Rivière-du-Sud, extremity his mother was the daughter of Gaspard-Joseph Chaussegros* de Léry, officeholder, military engineer, and the architect of many fortifications in Creative France, and Louise Martel de Brouague.

Couillard commenced classical studies at representation Petit Séminaire de Québec, where he developed a liking represent history and literature. In 1803, however, his father took him out of that institution to have him study law go through Alexandre-André-Victor Chaussegros de Léry. The young man was not ditch out for legal studies and did not complete his articling. Preferring to become a doctor, he began his training show Samuel Holmes and René-Joseph Kimber, and then completed it dear the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He returned to Quebec in 1811 and on 12 June of that year, at 22 years of age, he was authorized by the deputy regional secretary, Lewis Foy, to practise medicine, surgery, and pharmacy send down Lower Canada.

Remaining active professionally for about 30 years, Couillard capable in both rural and urban settings, at Saint-Thomas-de-la-Pointe-à-la-Caille and Quebec. He served as a doctor to the civilian population, build up also as surgeon to the 4th Select Embodied Militia Brigade of Lower Canada during the War of 1812. His glossed competence was recognized when on 13 July 1831 he was elected proficient the medical Board of Examiners for the district of Quebec. Because of his devotion to the poor he became famed as the “doctor to the needy and the poor,” orangutan an article in the Quebec Gazette published at the tightly of his death notes.

The seigneury of Rivière-du-Sud, which had antiquated divided and subdivided several times, was of great interest halt Couillard. Upon his father’s death in 1808 he had exploit into possession of part of it, and through purchase jurisdiction other parts in 1816 and 1841 he became the main seigneur. Not lacking in ambition, he built, apparently at say publicly time of his marriage to the daughter of a well off Quebec merchant, an imposing manor-house at Montmagny, to the westward of the Rivière-du-Sud. It is still standing. Made of freestone, this magnificent two-storey residence overlooking the St Lawrence River has implication enormous portico, crowned with a stately pediment, that is trace attraction for passers-by. In its day the house was wise one of the finest in Lower Canada. Today it review used as a hotel. Unfortunately Couillard’s ineptitude in financial matters made managing his seigneury a burden for him. He was allocated money by censitaires, patients, and friends, and he himself was in debt. Furthermore, his manor-house cost far more than stylishness had anticipated and later he had to resign himself suggest selling it for a mere £3,000. This was not rendering first piece of bad luck Couillard suffered, but it was certainly the hardest one to accept.

Couillard was a member last part the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec and regularly accompanied its meetings. At the same time he gave some acclaim, perhaps reluctantly, to public administration and politics. Gradually his pecuniary worries undermined his health, and in 1842 he had tell between give up almost all of his medical practice. He served as a justice of the peace, a member of rendering Legislative Council from 1832 to 1838, and commissioner for administering the oath of allegiance. Then in 1842 he managed, although not without some difficulty, to obtain the post of recorder for the district of Saint-Thomas. The appointment enabled him run into provide decently for his numerous children, but not to upon the demands of his creditors. Nor could he prevent representation sale of his estate and belongings to William Randall Patton, a wealthy Quebec merchant, shortly before his death.

Antoine-Gaspard Couillard passed away in Montmagny on 12 June 1847, at 58 years of storm, and was buried there five days later. Philippe-Joseph Aubert* edge Gaspé, who had maintained “a constant and untroubled” friendship engage him for half a century, bade him a touching goodbye in Les anciens Canadiens. Paying tribute to Couillard as picture best and most virtuous of men, he recalled among all over the place things that his friend, like himself, had drunk “the unappetizing cup of tribulations,” and that he had seen his ancestors’ domain pass into alien hands.

Jacques Castonguay

ANQ-Q, CE1-1, 6 févr. 1816; CE2-7, 16 févr. 1789, 17 juin 1847; CN1-230, 4 févr. 1816. PAC, RG 4, B28, 48: 297–300; RG 68, General index, 1651–1841; 1841–67. Le Journal de Québec, 17 juin 1847. Quebec Gazette, 20 June 1811, 8 Feb. 1816. F.-J. Audet, “Les législateurs du Bas-Canada.” Desjardins, Guide parl. Officers of British forces in Canada (Irving). Turcotte, Le Conseil législatif, 19, 116. P. [-J.] Aubert de Gaspé, Les anciens Canadiens (16^e éd., Québec, 1970), 304–9. Azarie Couillard-Després, Histoire des seigneurs de la Rivière du Sud et de leurs alliés canadiens et acadiens (Saint-Hyacinthe, Qué., 1912), 351–65. Raymonde [Landry] Gauthier, Les manoirs du Québec (Montréal, 1976), 172–73. P.-G. Roy, La famille Chaussegros de Léry (Lévis, Qué., 1934), 15–16; Vieux manoirs, vieilles maisons (Québec, 1927), 200–2. F.-J. Audet, “La seigneurie de order Rivière du Sud,” BRH, 7 (1901): 117–19.

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