Grandmere Gets A Farm

I've got a bunch of really well documented dead direct relatives.  Like a genetic Forest Gump.  On the multiple great grandfather parade I've got William Bradford aka the Pilgrim dude: Joseph (Jose Paolo) Robles confederate reenactment doer target, Spanish stowaway and the guy they named the worst housing project in Tampa after; James Clark Curtis early Republican NY State Senate and Assemblyman man; Francis Marion Robles first hispanic lawyer and judge in Tampa, Henry Curtis one of the founding guys of Sudbury MA, Whatshisface Jewitt the guy they named Jewitt City, CT after, General Paul B Malone in charge of the US military on the Phillipine Islands and pals with Pershing; Aaron DeNio the guy who's cooking vessel is in the Deerfield MA museum because he winged it at someone, plus a bunch of other guys.  "Guys" being a key word there. They turn up in books.  You can research them in historical societies.  The chicks until now, however, got a rawer deal.  One grandmother married to a fella name Sir Richard Groutte is going down in history as Lady Questionmark. Not that they were always less deserving. They just had vaginas which interfered with documentation until recent history.

There is one though that managed to jump that gauntlet. Her name was Marguerite Gabrielle DeNoyon.  She was born Abigail Stebbins.  This is my version of her story.  It is interpretive and may not be entirely accurate.  Feel free to google her if you have questions.  She was interesting enough to keep on the books for three hundred years.

Marguerite was born as Abigail in Deerfield MA in 1684 the daughter of John Stebbins.  She met a coureur du bois (fur trader dealing in booze and goods) name Jacques De Noyon and they married shortly before the French Canadians with the help of members from three different tribes of Native Americans attacked Deerfield, capturing members of Abigail's family and marching them to Canada.  Jacques was a natural citizen of Canada, born in Quebec and the members of Abigail's family were released.  Abigail as well as a number of her siblings chose to stay in Canada.  She changed her name to Marguerite.

Jacques had married Abigail under the pretense that he was from a well respected comfortable family in Quebec.  The reality was that Jacques left a trail of debt throughout Canada and was content to stay in MA where his debtors could not find him.  He did not expect to be dragged back as part of a raid on the Puritans. They returned and Abigail found out that Jacques was full of shit. They settled in Boucherville just north of Montreal and Jacques rejoined the military, returning to his bad money habits and going off for long periods of time leaving Marguerite with, eventually, 12 kids to support. It seems that Jacques must have had something going on for him because she continued reproducing despite his money issues. Eventually, Marguerite could not feed her children.

She did return to Deerfield once to collect a small inheritance and retrieve her son Renee.  Renee had been sent to the US to visit his grandfather and when it was time to return, they could not find him.  He resurfaced as Aaron DeNio (aka the cooking vessel flinger). It is not known whether his grandfather hid him or he chose to stay.  Either way, Marguerite showed up to get the money and the kid and only left with the money.  Which was still not enough.

This was in the early 1700's.  Women were property, more or less. Anything a woman inherited within her marriage went to the husband.  And anything that went to the De Noyon family Jacques spent.  So Marguerite went to the governor and the governor did the unheard of.  He granted Marguerite property and a loan to begin her own farm share exclusively.  Apparently Jacques was such a pinhead, that he was forbidden to touch the farm and its money.  Marguerite made the farm work well enough to pay the government back.  And even though she was still married to Jacques it was all hers to support her family. 

I love that she took care of business.  She must have been a very strong woman to get people to respond to her needs against social mores. And Jacques must have been an incredible dick.

PS To give the devil his due, Grandpere Pinhead was the first known European to explore parts of Lake Superior.  And he made it back. So he did have a good sense of direction.  And they gave him a plaque. Grandmere just got property.