Beauchamp

also Deschamps

Michel Deschamps and his wife Marie Roullet (married May 1630) lived in the parish of St-Marguérite in La Rochelle (above), where Michel worked as a gardener. They had two sons, both of whom emigrated to Québec: Jean (1630-) came in 1666, but his younger brother Jacques (1635-1693) came in 1661. Though five years younger, Jacques must have been a big man, because the two were soon known as "Beauchamp dit Le Petit" and "Beauchamp dit Le Grand," respectively. Jean married Jeanne Loiselle in Québec city in 1666.

Jacques was married in La Rochelle in 1656, and brought his wife Marie Dardenne or Dardeyne, with him to Canada five years later (some sources say 1658); they already had two small children (the first had died), and five more were born in Montréal. The children were: Jacques, (baptised in February 1658 in the church of Notre-Dame-de-Cogne, La Rochelle); Denise (1661-1721, married Pierre Larrivé, 12 children); Jeanne (1663-1711, married Germain Gauthier, 11 children); Catherine (1666-1719, married Pierre Hunault dit Deschamps); Françoise (1669-1723, married Jean Venne); Marie (1672, married Jean-Baptiste Desroches); Pierre (c1675-1722, a coureur de bois, married Anne Bazinet); and Jacques (1678-1719, a coureur de bois, married Catherine Bazinet). In 1666 Jacques was working as a carpenter and owned six arpents of land and two farm animals; but in 1681 he had a much larger farm at Pointe-aux-Trembles. Marie Dardenne died in 1699.

Marie and Jean-Baptiste Desroches were the parents of Marie-Angélique, who was a great-great-great-grandmother of Joseph Arthur Martin.