So far we have kept our attention on the little straggling Village of Montreal, the home of de Maisonneuve and the seigneurs of the island. We have left it occasionally for Quebec, to consider it, as affected in its governmental relations with the headquarters of the governor general, but as we have in view also the greater Montreal of today, we must ask the reader's patience to allow us to record some vital elements in the suburban growth of the latter, the seeds of which are now being sown, and to watch the origins of the Canadian "noblesse" now being manufactured by letters patent in the neighbourhood of Montreal.
For years the fear of the Iroquois had huddled the Montrealers within narrow limits, and in the neighbourhood of the fort. There were few outlying stations, save that of the fortified house of Lambert Closse, who had been given on February 5, 1658, the first "noble fief" at Montreal, and the two redoubts or strongholds established by M. de Queylus for the seigneurs of the seminary. On the arrival of the troops the curé, M. Souart, had created a second "noble fief" for his nephew M. Hautmesnil between the River St. Lawrence and the Rivière des Prairies, and a third followed on the return of M. Queylus, given to La Salle.
Peace enabled the colonists to go further afield, and in 1671 the seigneurs determined to establish seigneurial manors for further protection against Iroquois incursions and to place on them, for the most part, the officers of the regiments left behind. A debt of gratitude was first paid to Sieur Picoté de Bélestre by a concession of land at Pointe aux Trembles, taking in Bout de l'Isle and extending to the Rivière des Prairies.
The northern part of the island facing the Rivière des Prairies and Ile Jésus—a dangerous spot—was chosen for two contiguous "noble fiefs" by Dollier de Casson on December 1, 1671 and given to Phillipe de Carion de Fresnoy, lieutenant in Lamothe's company, and Paul de Morel, ensign in the same company.
To strengthen the position of these seigneurs, Carion and de Morel, smaller concessions were granted nearby in the early months of 1672. On December 26th M. Zacharie Dupuis, the commandant of the town, received the letters patent of his seigneury of Verdun.
The southwest of the island, facing the Lake of the Two Mountains, had yet to be guarded, and on January 19th Dollier de Casson gave a fief to M. Sidrac de Gué, now Sieur de Boisbriant, and added "the neighbouring island and shallows" at a given denomination, which afterwards caused a lawsuit.
M. de Gué shortly sold his fief to Charles Le Moyne, Sieur de Longueuil, and Jacques Leber, his brother-in-law. It passed later to the son of the latter and became the fief of the Sieur de Senneville, as it was then named. In April [97] following, a seigneury was given to Charles d'Ailleboust des Musseaux, the judge. On July 30th the fief adjoining called "Belleville" was given to the brothers Louis de Bertet de Chailly and Gabriel de Bertet de la Joubardière. Finally a fourth, adjoining the latter, was assigned to M. Claude Robutel de Saint André.
The vulnerable points on the Island of Montreal thus being provided for, Talon determined to revert, as he says, "to the ancient custom of the Romans of distributing proedia militaria to the soldiers of a subjugated country," and the large distribution of "noble fiefs" and patents of nobility of officers and others likely to guard a country, dates mostly from the months of October and November of the year 1672. In order to further strengthen Montreal and the entrance of the Richelieu River,—both principal positions for Iroquois descents,—fiefs were given to Sieurs de Laubia, de Labadie, de Moras, de Normanville, de Berthier, de Comporte, de Randin, de la Valterie, M. Jean Baptiste Legardeur de Repentigny, the son of Captain de Saint Ours, and the Sieur de Berthelot, to whom was given Ile Jésus, originally conceded to the Jesuits but not having been cultivated, was yielded up by them on November 7, 1672.
All the above concessions were made on the left bank of the St. Lawrence, from Lake St. Peter to the head of the island, ascending to the Rivière des Prairies. From the mouth of the Richelieu and ascending up stream on the other side of the river many other concessions were made by Talon to de Sorel, du Pas, de Chambly, Chevalier Pierre de Saint Ours (captain of the Carignan-Sallières regiment), Antoine Pécaudy de Contrecœur, de Vitré, de Verchères, de Varenne, de Grandmaison, Michel Messier, of Montreal, to whom was given the seigneury of St. Michel, and Jacques Le Moyne, also of Montreal, that of Cap de la Trinité; to Sidzac du Gué de Boisbriant, was given the Ile Thérèse facing Bout de l'Isle; to M. Boucher, the Seigneur de Boucherville, to Charles Le Moyne, two fiefs, one of which he called Longueuil, from his place of origin at Dieppe, in Normandy, and the other Chateauguay. To Zacharie Dupuis was given Heron Island; to M. Perrot the island below the southwest corner of the island, afterwards named Ile Perrot, after him, as well as Ile á la Paix, Iles aux Pins, Ste. Geneviève and St. Gilles.