Ellice Family Fonds Surname Index

In 1795, Alexander Ellice (or Ellis), a wealthy English merchant, purchased the Seigniory of Beauharnois, the largest in french Canada. It was this seigniory that became the County of Beauharnois and the largest part of the County of Châteauguay. He and his descendants held possession of this huge tract of land during most of the next 60 or more years. It was during this period when large numbers of the expanding French-Canadian population and immigrants from the British Isles (mostly Scotland) settled the virgin lands. The Ellice family also acquired, through grants and purchases, large tracts of land in the Godmanchester and Hinchinbrooke Townships of neighboring Huntingdon County as well as lands in the "Eastern Townships" of Quebec, east of the Richelieu River.

During the course of their activities, the Seignior of Beauharnois and his agents amassed a massive number of documents, mostly concerning land transactions and financial deals with the settlers. It also included legal documents from the numerous court cases involving delinquent debtors and squatters especially the infamous "Russelltown Dispute". They document the important decisions and movements of the settlers and are a valuable source of historical information about the people who settled the Châteauguay Valley. These documents were purchased from the Ellice family by the Scottish Archives in Edinborough where serious researchers can access them. The National Archives in Ottawa also have microfilms of these documents and there is some evidence that the Ottawa films contain documents not in the ANQ set. More research will clarify this.

The Archives Nationales du Quebec (ANQ) has a collection of 10 rolls of microfilm that record more than 4000 of these documents. Some years ago, they prepared a subject or title index of most of these documents that comprised two books totalling over 200 pages. There are two problems with this index. First, it is indexed in the order that the documents appear on the films. In order to search a particular name, one must search through all 200 pages of the index books. To solve this problem, I have prepared an alphabetic surname index. Secondly, the interpretation of the names on the document titles is full of errors, both in the french and the english or scottish names. In order to improve this situation, I accessed each document and tried to verify the name. The old handwriting and various spellings made this difficult and I am sure that I did not catch all the errors. Nevertheless, the following surname index should be a big improvement over the original title index. Important: Please read the Disclaimer.

This surname index lists all the principal names (other than those mentioned below) shown on the title of the document. However many documents are entitled "...to John Smith et al" and the body of the document may contain one or more relatives, partners or associates to the transaction documented. In some cases where it was necessary to scan the document itself to verify the title name(s), these additional names were noted and added to the index. They are by no means complete. In addition most all of the titles contained the name of the seignior or one of his agents. These names have generally not been indexed. Also not included are the names of officials (sheriffs, judges, notaries, attorneys, etc) and corporations (municipal and private).

For the purpose of simplifying this web page, the types of documents indexed have been grouped together into five classes.

The original ANQ title index was divided into two (2) books. Book I listed Notarial documents, grouped by the notary's name in alphabetic order and within each notary's group, listed in chronological order. Book II listed all other documents, grouped by general class. For your convenience, these groups are listed in the following tables.

**Ellice Family Fonds - Index Book I**
Doc# Range	Notary Name	Date Range
1 - 9	ADAMS, Louis	1844-1856
10	BARBEAU, Louis	1819
11 - 14	BASSINET, François Clovis	1859-1870
15	BEAUCHEMIN, Joseph	1872
16	BEAUDOIN, C. Gaspard, père	1856
17 - 145	BEAUDRY, Georges Aimé	1852-1861
146 - 150	BEDARD, Charles	1854-1870
151	BEDOUIN, Joseph
152 - 154	BELLE, Joseph	1857
155 - 157	BENOIT, Pierre	1852
158 - 182	BISSON, Alexis Raphael	1855-1877
183 - 184	BOURASSA, Ignace Gamelin	1801-1804
185	BRISSET, Joseph	1839
186 - 847	BROSSOIT, Joachin	1859-1879
848	BRUNET, Hyancinthe	1852
849	BUREAU, Jacques Olivier	1853
850	CARDINEL, J. Narcisse	1831
851	CHARLEBOIS, Jean Alfred	1852
1830	COURSELLES, Gédéon	1830
853 - 854	CRAWFORD, William Nicolas	1834
855	DAVID, Joseph	1847
856 - 864	DEMERS, Louis	1806-1863
865 - 867	DEPAROIS, Louis	1848-1858
868 - 871	DOUCET, Théodore	1847 - 1867
872 - 874	DOUCET, Nicolas Benjamin	1831 - 1844
875 - 876	DUBOIS, Antoine Alexis	1807 - 1825
877 - 881	DUMESNIL, G. Hyacinthe	1853-1854
882	DUPERE, Pierre Henry	1833
883	McDONELL, S.S.	1865
884	D'ESCHAMBEAULT, Guillaume F.	1864
885	GAMELIN, Pierre	1825
886	GARAND, Moïse	1857
887 - 934	GERVAIS, Louis	1852 - 1867
935 - 941	GIBB, Isaac Jones	1842-1855
942	GRIFFIN, Henry	1839
943 - 1032	HAINAULT, Louis	1840-1858
1033 - 1041	HARNOIS, François Xavier	1838-1853
1042	HOULE, Jean-Baptiste	1861
1043 - 1045	HUNTER, James Stewart	1867
1046	HUOT, Charles	1853
1047 - 1049	HURTEAU, Isidore	1841-1850
1050	ISAACSON, John Helder	1861
1051 - 1052	JOBIN, André Damasse	1865-1868
1053 - 1054	LABADIE, J. Augustin	1836-1853
1055	LACOSTE, Louis	1830
1056	LAMONTAGNE, C. Hornudas	1855
1057	LANDRY, J. Prosper	1874
1058 - 1062	LANGEVIN, François T.	1842-1849
1063	LAPPARE, Henri	1843
1064 - 1094	LEBLANC, Ovide	1826-1844
1095 - 1413	LEBRUN, Charles Mentor	1832-1867
1414 - 1605	LEONARD, Joseph	1848-1865
1606 - 1607	LEPAILLEUR, François	1836
1608 - 1655	LERICHE-LASSONDE, Jean A.	1844-1867
1656 - 1684	LIGHTHALL, William Francis	1848-1856
1685 - 1824	LONGPRE, Jean Gualbert	1851-1862
1825	LONGTIN, Moise	1859
1826	LUKIN, Peter, Jr.	1826
1827 - 1837	McDONELL, S.A.S.	1866-1867
1838	McPHERSON, Laughlan T.	1828
1839 - 1840	MANTENT, Nicolas	1840
1841	MARTIN, Louis Seraphin	1845
1842 - 1849	MASSE, J. Abraham	1856-1868
1850	MATHIEU, Pierre	1849
1851 - 1872	MAYER, Joseph	1865-1875
1873	MERCILE, Alexis	1845
1874 - 1876	METRAS, François	1839-1845
1877 - 1879	MEUNIER, Cleophas	1874-1875
1880 - 2036	MARTIGNY, Vite Adelard Lemoyne	1848-1871
2037 - 2044	NORMANDEAU, Pierre Etienne	1863-1867
2045	PAGES, Eustache
2046 - 2047	PAPINEAU, Casimir Fidele	1858-1866
2048 - 2063	PELLETIER, Josime	1843-1859
2064 - 2096	SARAULT, Louis	1822-1848
2097 - 2125	SCOTT, Jean-Baptiste	1840-1862
2126	STUART, Ernest Henry	1867
2127	THOMAS, Daniel	1867
2128	TURGEON, Dominique H.	1799

**Ellice Family Fonds - Index Book II**
Doc# Range	Group
1 - 7	Seigniory Titles Titres de la Seigneurie
8 - 9	Faith and Homage Foi et Hommage
10 - 14	Laws defining the rights of Seigniors Lois définissant certains droits aux Seigneurs
15 - 28	Power of Attorney to the Seignior's agents. Procurations accordée par le Seigneur à ses représentants.
29 - 51	Letters Patent Lettres Patentes
52 - 397	Letters exchanged between the Seignior and the settlers. Correspondance échangée entre le Seigneur et les occupants de terres.
398 - 612	Sales Contracts and Notarial documents. Contrats de ventes ou actes notariés.
613 - 659	Water and Mineral Resources. Hydrolique et Mines.
660 - 677	Certificates of Search. Certificats de recherches.
678 - 709	Maps and Designs Cartes et Plans.
710 - 728	Day to Day Business. Affaires courantes.
729 - 764	Accounting Comptabilité.
765	Construction. Construction.
766	Census. Recensement.
767 - 769	Relations with the Municipal Council. Relations avec le Conseil Municipal.
770 - 775	Labor. Main d'oeuvre.
776 - 790	Relations with The North American Colonial Association of Ireland. Relations avec "The North American Colonial Association of Ireland".
791 - 886	Judicial Affairs: Superior Court. Judiciaire: Cour Supérieure.
887 - 976	Judicial Affairs: Sheriff Sales. Judiciaire: Ventes par Sherifs.
977 - 1021	Judicial Affairs: Court of Queen's Bench. Judiciaire: Cour du Banc de la Reine.
1022 - 1024	Judicial Affairs: Circuit Court. Judiciaire: Cour de Circuit.
1025 - 1140	Promises of Sale. Actes de promesses de ventes.
1141 - 1190	Land Sales. Ventes de terres.
1191 - 1808	Private (non notarial) arrangements and sales. Actes sous seing privé.
After #1808 Apres #1808	Misc documents relating to court cases, especially the "Russelltown Dispute". Documents judiciaire varié et pour la cause "Russelltown".

As mentioned above, the ANQ has 10 rolls of microfilm showing these documents. Each roll begins with the complete two books of title index and then continues with the documents in order. There are at least two or possibly 3 different identification schemes shown in the index and on the rolls. In the ANQ catalogue they are listed as "M-660/x" where x is the roll number. In the Montreal Archives, their local reel numbers are 4129-4138 inclusive corresponding to M-660/1 to M-660/10. There are also "P-137/x" ID numbers on the rolls but no indication as to what that means. The table below links the Film Roll number to the subject index reference and Montreal reel number.

**Ellice Family Fonds Microfilm Designations**
Film Reel #	ANQ Catalogue Number	ANQ Montreal Reel #	Index Book	Doc # Range
1	M-660/1	4129	I	1 - 467
2	M-660/2	4130	I	468 - 1000
3	M-660/3	4131	I	1001 - 1413
4	M-660/4	4132	I	1414 - 1850
5	M-660/5	4133	I II	1851 - 2128 1 - 51
6	M-660/6	4134	II	52 - 648
7	M-660/7	4135	II	649 - 979
8	M-660/8	4136	II	980 - 1472
9	M-660/9	4137	II	1473 - 1808
10	M-660/10	4138	Not indexed

The surname index presented in this page is by necessity very vague. Consulting the Title Index will give a little more idea as to the content of the document but will not show the details. (Contact the author for a lookup of the title index if you have any question on a particular entry.) Typical Title Index entries are:

In order to determine the full details, one must read the actual document. Only then can you determine the who, what and where of the deal. After 1850, many of the land deals were farmers buying lots in the newly opened concessions of Jamestown, Ormstown, South Georgetown and Edwardstown. This could have been a desire to move to more fertile areas or a need to acquire woodlots in order to heat their houses since their own farms had been fully cleared of trees.

There are several ways to access the documents. If it is convenient, you can go to an office of the Quebec National Archives and view the films yourself or hire someone to do it for you. Or you can contact the Archives Nationales du Quebec in Montreal directly, specifying that it is in the "Ellice Famille Fonds" and providing the number of the film and the document number. Supplying the film number will help them quickly find the requested document. Their address is:

Note:The archive web-pages are part of the new Bibliotheque et Archive Nationales du Quebec portal website. The staff of the ANQ are quite experienced at answering questions in english and will communicate by e-mail. Their charges for copies have been quite modest (25c/page - minimum $2) but may be changed without notice in the future due to the merging of National Library and Archives organization. Their webpage explaining charges is still in a state of flux so it is best to get a confirmation of charges when ordering.

You can also purchase copies of the films from the ANQ distribution agent, La Fédération des Familles-Souches Québécoises Inc.(FFSQ) Their address is:

You can download a copy of the 2006 ANQ catalogue in PDF format at:

http://www.ffsq.qc.ca/pdf/catalog2006.pdf

or purchase a copy using the pdf order form (Catalogue des microfilms et microfiches produits par les Archives nationales du Québec).

By its very nature, this index still contains a number of errors due to various reasons. The author or the web-master is not responsible in any way for any costs or other consequences that may result from actions based on these errors. In other words, if the copies you get don't resemble the index entry, tough!! I would appreciate however being advised of any errors you find, so that corrections can be made.

Châteauguay County GenWeb

Ellice Family Fonds (Archived Papers)