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PRÉVOST (Provost), MARTIN, one of the pioneers of Beauport near Quebec; b. c. 1611, son of Pierre Prévost and Charlotte Vien, of Montreuil-sur-le-Bois-de-Vincennes (now Montreuil-sous-Bois), near Paris; d. 26 Jan. 1691 at Beauport.

Prévost’s presence at Quebec is referred to in the documents of the notary Piraube as early as the year 1639. On 3 Nov. 1644, he married, at Quebec, Marie-Olivier-Sylvestre Manitouabeouich. This is the first marriage between a Frenchman and an Indian mentioned in Canadian historical records. The young bride had been given by her parents to the interpreter Olivier Letardif, who had been her godfather and had then had her brought up as a French girl in the home of Sieur Guillaume Hubou.

From the time of his marriage until his death, we find Martin Prévost settled at Beauport as an “habitant,” or farmer, which did not prevent him from having a piece of land and a house at Quebec in 1667. He was married a second time in 1665, to Marie d’Abancourt, the widow of Jean Jollyet and of Gefroy Guillot. Prévost had had at least nine children by his first wife.

Towards the end of his life, Prévost signed his name “Provost.” His descendants have adopted one or other of the two spellings.

Honorius Provost

JR (Thwaites), IX, 103; XI, 93. Papier terrier de la Cie des I.O. (P.-G. Roy). Jean Langevin, Notes sur les Archives de Notre-Dame de Beauport (Québec, 1860).