British regiments in Quebec

[chinakay]

Chasing Jean-Baptiste Riel in Quebec.....he was the 6xgrandfather of Louis Riel of the Riel Rebellion in Canada.

My Jean-Baptiste was born in Limerick about 1654. He married in Quebec in 1704 and apparently changed his name from Jack Reilly at that time.

I found one reference to his maybe having had a "hard time under Scarsfield".

His burial PR entry of 1753 is poorly photographed and hard to read, but there is a "Capitaine de la Milice" (captain of the militia) present at the burial.

Can't find who Scarsfield would be. Doesn't sound very French to me

Would there be a French captain at the funeral of a British military man in Quebec? Aside from just wanting to make sure, of ocurse

So what I'm wondering if it was common practice to switch sides...arrive in Quebec with British forces and then enlist with the French...?

The burial is 6 years before the famous Battle of Quebec, where Wolfe defeated Montcalm and won Canada for the British.

Any thoughts appreciated.

Cheers,
China

[chinakay]

Never mind, lads, I've just found this...it's fairly obvious even if you don't read French:

Jean-Baptiste Riel dit L'irlande est venu au Québec comme soldat dans la Compagnie de La Valtrie.

Thanks,
China

[waiteohman]

Hello China

Wonder if Scarsfield could be an Ireland connection. Possibly Dominick Scarsfield. There are a couple of references in google books. Here is one:

General history of Ireland. Volume 2 / John Huddlestone Wynne.
Printed D. Chamberlaine, W. Sleater, J. Potts, T. Walker, and C. Jenkin, 1773
http://www.rootschat.com/links/08gr/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viscount_Sarsfield

Linda

[PorterzPennellz]

Hi,  It's "Patrick Sarsfield," not Scarsfield.  Look up "Flight of the Wild Geese" on Wiki. Would explain the French connection if Reilly had been a wild goose.

-Jenny

[waiteohman]

Bang on and interesting read. Enjoyed that Jenny

[waiteohman]

There are some intersting full text books :

Earlier books seem to have this family's name as Scarsfield about the time of China's entries and Sarsfield in later years.

Title History of the Irish brigades in the service of France, from the revolution in Great Britain and Ireland under James ii., to the revolution in France under Louis xvi
Published 1870
http://books.google.ca/books?id=jSkAAAAAQAAJ&dq=%22patrick+sarsfield%22+reilly&lr=&as_brr=0&source=gbs_navlinks_s

Interestingly it seems a Patrick Sarsfield married an O'Reilly, a daughter of unknown O'Reilly, Chief of Cavan.
Title Illustrations, historical and genealogical, of King James's Irish army list, 1689, Volume 2
http://www.rootschat.com/links/08gu/

The Irish chieftains; or, A struggle for the crown
http://www.rootschat.com/links/08gv/

Linda

[chinakay]

Fantastic!!! Wonderful, thank you so much! I will have to wait until tomorrow to investigate it all (head's filled with cold medication right now and everything's muzzy) but the time period is exactly right.

I was just about to ask what an Irishman would be doing in a French regiment but it all makes sense now

I'd been reading an article about Irish names in Quebec and how many of them became corrupted into French versions: O'Brien to Aubry, Sullivan to Sylvain, Burke to Bourque, McGee to Mainguy and so forth. The next step would have been to wonder how so many Irishmen ended up in Quebec 150 years before the Potato Famine. Now I know

Thank you both so much. Tomorrow will be interesting...unfortunately I don't have a car this week and have nothing to do except laundry and reading the internet

Cheers,
China

[PorterzPennellz]

The burial record you're looking at is not the burial record for your Irish immigrant ancestor. It is the record for the burial of the son of your Irish immigrant ancestor. Jean-Baptiste Riel the immigrant died in 1735 in Laprairie, Quebec.  The record you're looking at (for the son) has two named witnesses: Joseph Robillard, Capitaine de Milice and Picore [Picard] [dit] St. Pierre.  There were also several other witnesses, whose names are not given, who indicated that they didn't know how to sign. [were illiterate.]  Deceased died the day before the funeral.  Let me know if you need help deciphering records in the Drouin collection.  You're right--many are difficult if not impossible to decipher, but all have a lot of "boilerplate" language that is repeated from record to record.

-Jenny

[PorterzPennellz]

Hi China,

I've just been looking at the Riel family trees, which are a bit confused.  It looks like nobody really knows when Jean-Baptiste Riel, Irish immigrant, was born; but if he served under the Sieur de Lavaltrie--(Lavaltrie was a Lieutenant in the Berthier Company of the Carignan-Salieres Regiment), he would have had to be a grown man by 1660 or so.  The Jean-Baptiste Riel who died in 1753 was estimated to be about 90 years old in the death record, which, if correct, would put his birth year at about 1663.

-Jenny