About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

1 Fortnightly L.J. 245 (1931-1932)

handle is hein.journals/frtnitlj1 and id is 273 raw text is: April 15, 1932 The Fortnightly Law Journal The Most Noted Criminal Case in Quebec. The story of the most noted criminal case in Quebec has been told more than once and I should not retell it but that I have something to add to the existing nar- ratives. I do not mean that of Nicholas Gosselin who in 1654 was condemned to pay 50 livres for giving Indians eau-de vie, and if he had not the money to pay he was to work out the fine on the fortifications of Three Rivers, his feet in irons' nor of Rene Blanchard, cook's assistant in the kitchen of the Governor Fron- tenac who for leaving his master's service without valid reason was in 1673 condemned to be led from prison by the High Executioner to the Grande Place in the Lower City and set in the pillory for three hours with a paper attached to him reading: Domestique engage qui a delaise le service de son maitre sons un faux donne a entendre, then to serve for three years a master and at wages assigned, pay a fine of 10 livres, the costs of prosecution &c.2; nor of Anne Emond, .a girl of sixteen, of the Island of Orleans, who in 1696 to prevent her lover being called out to fight against the fierce Iroquois, posing as a man in her brother's clothes took a canoe to Quebec and told on the way the story to the simple paddler that she had been a prisoner at Boston for three years, had escaped and been entrusted by de Saint-Gastin with important dispatches for Frontenac, placing a canoe -and an Indian at her disposal that she might deliver them speedily and safely, but the canoe had been stolen from her necessitating her to ask for his services. She said that d'Iberville had been taken at Boston and burned at the stake by the cruel Bastonais, who had forced her to assist in the horrible execution. Then she told of four English frigates she had seen up as far as Tadoussac, and that soon some thirty other warships were to leave Boston to take Quebec. Of course that would put an end to any proposition for an expedition against the Indians. She repeated the story at Quebec, and her canoe- man naturally did the same; but when she went to the Chateau St. Louis, her imposture was not long in being discovered. Brought before de Lotbiniere, Lieutenant-General of the Prevote, she received a severe sentence. She was to be led by the High Exe- cutioner through all the streets of the City and whip- ped with- the rod on the bare shoulders in the squares and public places, and then sent to prison for her friends to take home and look after her better. She was fined 25 livres and her masquerading clothes were sold at auction for the poor in the General Hospital.3 It is of none of these or of those in consimile casu that I would write, but of the famous La Corriveau, whom tradition credits with having got rid of seven husbands in succession. Those-I trust there are many-who have read Kirby's The Golden Dog, will remember that in that romance La Corriveau was the daughter of a woman sent out from France as part of the cargo of unmar- ried girls who were to supply the Canadians with wives and Canada with a population. The name of the mother was Marie Exili, the daughter of Antonio Exili and Italian alchemist, who with La Voison, Marie's mother, was burned to death in Paris for poisoning. The daughter Marie shared all their in- famous secrets, but escaped to Canada as a paysanne and married a rich Canadian, Sieur Corriveau of St. Vallier. She taught her unhallowed art to her daughter, Marie Josephte, La Corriveau4. Leaving romance, the facts are that a woman called Josephte Corriveau married in 1743, on becoming a widow, married en secondes noces Louis Dodier of St. Vallier in 1760. Three years later this second husband was found dead. The widow with her father were tried by Court martial at Quebec-It was still Le Regime Militaire-convicted and hanged near the Plains of Abraham. The Governor, General James Murray, ordered that the woman's body should be hung up in an iron cage affixed to a post planted at the cross-roads at Pointe-Levis'. This was done, but there followed protests against the ghastly sight, and the nightly apparitions which haunted the spot ter- rorizing women and children. As these complaints proved fruitless, some young people went at night and took down cage and body to bury them near the ceme- tery'. The cage was found by a grave digger in 1850 and after being exhibited by one Augers at L'Hotel de Leclere, St. Paul Street, opposite Bon-Secours Market in August, 1851, was sold as a curiosity to a Museum in Boston. It was in the shape of a man with arms, legs and a round box for the head. Diligent inquiry has resulted in clearing up the fate of this curious relic of barbarous custom. The Museum which purchased it was not the Boston Art Museum so well-known, but a Boston Museum owned by the Kimball family in the building now occupied by the Kimball Building. Mr. John Quincy Adams, now Deputy Collector of Taxes at the City Hall, Boston, but for a number of years Manager of the Boston Museum, has a very distinct recollection of the cage as consisting of a number of iron hoops with an attached hook. In the winter of 1901-1902, a fire broke out in the second storey of the Museum where the cage was on exhibition, and the damaged contents sold by auction, including the cage, all of which was carried off by the purchasers as junk- valde deflendum. WILLIAM RENWICK RIDDELL. 'See Rapport de L'Archiviste de la Province de Quebec 1924-1925, p. 386, one of a splendid series of Reports whose merit is all too little known. The punishment was directed in an Ordonnance of the French Governor De Lauson, September 4, 1654, to be found in the Archives of Quebec. 2Pierre-Georges Roy: Les Petites Choses de Notre His- toire, 6me serie pp. 13, 14-a judgment of the Conseil Souverain, June 5, 1673. Other similar cases are given in extenso. Such punishments seem not to have been un- common. 3Pierre-George Roy, op. cit. pp. 113-116. The call was for 2500 men. The judgment against the girl was made June 16, 1696, and was strictly carried out. One would like to know more of such a brace and original lass. 4Kirby makes La Corriveau take her name from her first husband, not her father. 5From the investigation of the able and versatile Archi- vist of the Province of Quebec, M. Pierre-Georges Roy, Les Petites Choses de Notre Histoire, vol. II., pp. 3-48, the English practice of hanging executed felons in chains was not known in France Canada. An earlier instance than La Corriveau is that of one Saint Paul an atrocious mur- derer in 1761-Le Bulletin des Recherches Historiques, July, 1931, pp. 427-431, a delectable story. The story has been told more than once: De Gaspe, Anciens Canadiens chap. 4, note 15; Le Bulletin des Re- eherches Historiques pour 1905, pp. 316, sqq; do. do. pour Juillet, 1931, pp. 431, 432; by William Kirby, pp. 134-137, 143; M. Louis Frechette, La Patrie, February 24, 1885, etc., etc. April 15, 1932 The Fortnightly Law journal

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most