Philibert Baudouin, who has been a representative of the notarial profession since 1858, although for some years his attention was given to finance, was born at Repentigny, Quebec, April 27, 1836. He is a descendant in the direct line of Jean Baudouin, who was here bartering with the Indians as early as 1656, fourteen years after Montreal was founded by de Maisonneuve. In a fight with the Iroquois in 1660, when he killed one of their chieftains, Jean Baudouin was taken and led as a prisoner to the enemy’s country, whence he returned eighteen months afterward, having in the meantime learned the Iroquois language. A short time subsequent to his return he married and soon settled in the parish of Pointe-aux-Trembles, where he died peacefully. He had lost his eldest son in an ambush laid by the same astute foes in 1690. One of his sons, François, took a farm from the Seignior on L’Assomption river in 1699, near the present site of Charlemagne, and a few years afterward, in 1716, purchased the homestead on the north bank of the river St. Lawrence, in the parish and Seigniory of Repentigny, where he went to live and there spent his remaining days. This homestead remained in the family for almost two centuries, passing from father to son for four generations. François Baudouin left it to his son Pierre, who married three times and left it to his son Raymond. Raymond was drowned and his widow made a gift of it to their son Pierre. From this last Pierre Baudouin it went to Zoel Baudouin, one of his sons, whose daughter and only heir, Mrs. Edmond Robillard, of St. Paul l’Hermite, sold it to its present owner, Mr. Dechamp.
Philibert Baudouin is a son of Pierre and Marguerite (Etu) Baudouin, the latter, like her husband, belonging to one of the old families established in this province in the seventeenth century. The mother’s name was then written Estur, which has since been wrongly changed to Hetu. The family name Baudouin should be so spelled instead of Beaudoin, as so often met with at the present time. It is derived from two Saxon words, bald and win, and was latinized by the early chroniclers, becoming Balduinus, which was later translated into French as Baudouin but remained Baldwin in English. The first one who settled in Montreal very properly signed his name Jean Baudouin, as may be seen on the old records in the clerk’s office, and in France it is still written in the same way. Besides being a progressive farmer Pierre Baudouin was a church warden and a captain in the militia.
Philibert Baudouin was educated at L’Assomption College, in the town of L’Assomption, where he pursued a full classical course, completed in 1854. He then prepared for the notarial profession, to which he was admitted in 1858. In 1860 he settled for practice in the town of Iberville and after nearly fifteen years devoted to the profession he turned his attention to finance, devoting his energies and activities thereto until 1893, when he removed to Montreal and resumed the practice of the notarial profession. He has now passed the seventy-eighth milestone on life’s journey, but is still an active man. From 1862 until 1873 he was county clerk, clerk of the circuit court for the county of Iberville and town clerk of Iberville, his decade of public service being characterized by the utmost fidelity to duty. His financial activities covered nearly twenty years as bank manager in St. Johns, Quebec.
On the 22d of August, 1864, in St. Johns, Mr. Baudouin was married to Miss Caroline A. Marchand, a daughter of Louis Marchand, deputy protonotary at St. Johns, and of Delphine Phineas. Mrs. Baudouin belongs to the old Marchand family which settled in St. Johns in the early part of the nineteenth century. There were three brothers, François, Gabriel and Louis, the second being the father of the Hon. F. G. Marchand, late premier of the province of Quebec. Her mother was a daughter of Isaac Phineas, for a long time agent at Maskinonge, of Seignior Pothier’s estate, and who was an intimate friend of the Hart family of Three Rivers. Seven sons and two daughters have been born of the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Baudouin, Philibert, Annette, Gustave, Rodolphe, Joseph, Jean, Charles, Louise and Oscar. The elder daughter became the wife of Dr. J. C. Tasse, of Worcester, Massachusetts. Gustave married Augustine Hardy, of Quebec. Joseph wedded Julie Caty, of Montreal. Jean married Alice Hamilton, of Montreal. Oscar married Hilda Julien, of Montreal. Louise is the wife of Alfred Masson, of Valleyfield, a grandson of Dr. L. H. Masson, who took a leading part in the troublous times of 1837-38.
Mr. Baudouin is a supporter of the old conservative party, but has never taken a leading part in the political contests, especially so in his advanced years, when he recognizes the fact that political leaders too often are using their power for their own preferment instead of the public good.
JOSEPH ADELARD DESCARRIES, K. C.
In every community there are men of broad charity and intelligent public spirit, of high integrity and sincerity of purpose and of resourceful business ability who are marked as leaders in development. Worthy of being classed with men of this character is Joseph Adelard Descarries, one of the eminent members of the Montreal bar and a man whose name figures in connection with the legislative history of the province as well as in the court records. Mr. Descarries is a representative of one of the oldest families of the province and one whose members have been identified with its growth and development since the earlier periods of settlement. He was born at St. Timothee, in the county of Beauharnois, Quebec, November 7, 1853, the youngest son of the late Pierre and Elizabeth (Gougeau) Descarries.
Having mastered the branches of learning taught in the public schools of his native village, Joseph A. Descarries afterward attended Montreal College, McGill University and Laval University, graduating from the latter in 1879, with the degree of LL. L. He studied law under Hon. Sir Alexander Lacoste and was called to the bar in 1879, at which time he began practice as an advocate. He was created a king’s counsellor by the Earl of Derby in 1893 and for more than a third of a century he has been continuously and successfully engaged in law practice in Montreal, where he has been accorded an extensive and distinctively representative clientage.
