CHARTIER, MICHEL, seigneur; baptized 23 Oct. 1667 at Île d’Orléans, son of Michel Chartier and Marie Magné; buried 4 July 1750 at Berthieren-Bas (Montmagny, Que.).

Michel Chartier married Catherine Chamberland at Saint-François, Île d’Orléans, on 11 July 1688; four children were born to them before 1695. It appears that Chartier went to Acadia in 1694 or early in 1695, for he is identified as an inhabitant of Acadia in a seigneurial grant of 8 July 1695. By this grant he acquired land on the site of present-day St Stephen, N.B. The seigneury was of one half league frontage on each side of the Descoudet (St Croix) River, adjacent to the property of Jean Serreau* de Saint-Aubin. In August 1696 Chartier arranged to lease the seigneury of Mathieu Damours* de Freneuse, on the Saint John River between the Jemseg and the Nashwaak rivers. The lease did not take effect, however, as the seigneury was destroyed by Benjamin Church*’s expedition of 1696.

Chartier returned to Quebec about 1698, and two more children were born in 1699 and 1701. He and his wife sold the Descoudet seigneury to his brother Charles on 10 March 1701. Chartier seems to have returned to Acadia, for about 1703 he asked the French government to send supplies to the Indians on the Saint John River and to allow him to act as an intermediary with them. His wife Catherine died in 1703 and early in 1704 Michel married Anne Destroismaisons. Despite the earlier sale, Michel was residing on the Descoudet seigneury again in June 1704 with his new wife and the youngest child by his first marriage. At that time they were surprised by another expedition led by Church and fled to the woods. Church stated that “Madam Sharkee” left her silk clothes and fine linen behind her. Church also reported that “Sharkee” had been building a fort at Passamaquoddy (Pesmocadie), down river from the Descoudet seigneury. Chartier and his family returned to Quebec, where a daughter was born in November 1704. It is unlikely that he saw the St Croix River again.

Six more children were born to Chartier and his second wife before her death in 1721. Chartier was married twice more: to Jeanne Grondin (1722), who bore him a son, and to Jeanne Chartré (1734).

Maud H. Hody

AN, Col., C^11D, 4, ff.328v–29. N.B. Museum, Webster coll., Manuscript contract for the lease of the seigneury of Mathieu Damours de Freneuse to Michel Chartier, 5 Aug. 1696 (shelf 40, pkt.40). Canada, Prov. of, Governor General, Titles and documents relating to the seigniorial tenure, in return to an address of the Legislative Assembly, 1851 (Quebec, 1852), 154, 155. Thomas Church, The history of Philip’s war . . . of 1675 and 1676; also of the French and Indian wars at the eastward . . . (2nd ed., Exeter, N.H., 1829), 260, 267, 269. P.-G. et A. Roy, Inv. greffes not., II, 80; XVIII, 282. P.-G. Roy, Inv. concessions, IV, 116; Inv. contrats de mariage, II, 8, 24. Tanguay, Dictionnaire, I, 120, 121; III, 27, 28. Ganong, “Historic sites in New Brunswick,” RSCT, 2nd ser., V (1899), sect.ii, 308, 324.