The Beauvais Family Genealogy - The Chambly Line
The following text and associated genealogy tables have been transcribed and generated by Christopher Abair and his son, Casey Abair (Beauvais descendant), based on a document compiled by Dorothy (Bovat) King of Fairfax, VT, with thanks to Aldelard Cross and her nephew, Bert King.
It was once thought that the Beauvais line emigrated from France, but more information proved that the family is a direct line of Jacque Beauvais from Champegnole, France, whose son Joseph Xavier Beauvais came to Chambly, Quebec with General Montcalm's army, stayed and married and thus how the line descended. You will note in the genealogy tables that the name was eventually changed to "Bovat".
According to the history books, the Beauvais name would come from the Beauvais region north of Paris. According to N. E. Dionne, L.L.D. M.D., professor of archeology of the University of Laval, one would fine the seigneuries of the name Beauvais in Britanny, at the Bourbannais, in Picardy, in Normandy. There are Beavais in the county of Aunis, three leagues from St. Jean d'Angely and in the Department of Tarn.
The Larousse dictionary gives us, "Beauvaisis, region of the Parisian Basin between Picardy and the Paris Region. The city of Beauvais is the principal city. We see there the cathedral with a thirteenth century choir. This cathedral was never finished. It was to have been according to the plans, the greatest in Europe. The choir today is outfitted (furnished) and forms of itself quite a large chunk. We say the Beauvassiens when speaking of its inhabitants. The name of Beauvaises is akin to beautiful valley, to express the beauty of the region. (map)
Our ancestors of this line of Beauvais of Chambly would have come as a soldier in the last regiments sent by France for the defense of the colony against England at the time of the Seven Year War 1755-1763. This is how he would have settled in Chambly. Like many other soldiers of his regiment, Joseph Xavier Beauvais of the Cambrai Company of the Languedoc Regiment has been assigned to the defense of the Fort of Chambly. And we find in the "relations" of Montcalm that he had obtained from the War Bureau of Paris permission for the soldiers to marry in this country with the daughters of French-Canadians. The soldiers had to obtain permission of the governor to contact a marriage. Montcalm had even asked the French government to give these soldiers a reward, that is, a piece of land on which they could settle and clear.
We have reason to believe that it is probably in this way that our ancestor, Joseph Xavier Beauvais, took advantage of this windfall (god-send). One thing we do know is that in the winter of 1756 and 1757, there were 80 marriages, one of which was Joseph Xavier Beauvais on February 21, 1757. During the cold season, there usually were no campaigns, and the soldiers were sent to different families, who were asked to house a soldier until spring, the season when the military campaigns resumed. The Languedoc battalion had been sent to Chambly, spread around to different families who could receive them. On certain days of the week, the soldiers has to report to Fort Chambly, which stills exists, to take part in military exercises. It is undoubtedly in this way that Joseph Xavier Beauvais came in contact with the family of Pierre Denoyer, whose daughter, Marie Josette, he married in Chambly.