The history of the Montégut family pre-dates the colonization of this continent. It begins in France and moves to the new world about the same time that the Pilgrims were settling in Massachusetts.
Samuel de Champlain founded the city of Québec in 1608 nestled just below the high escarpments on the banks of the Saint Laurent. The first permanent white settler was Louis Hebert, who arrived in 1617.
Shortly thereafter, Guillaume Larchevéque and his wife Jeanne Alere from Rouen, Normandy in France and François Simon and his wife Louise Lemoine, bourgeois from the diocese Poitiers in the village Mauleon, France also arrived with their families.
These were middle-class people who forsook the relative comfort of their homelands to seek greater profits and adventures in a less hospitable environment. The winters of Québec brought over fifteen feet of snow and the summers were generally rainy and dreary.
Claude, the son of Guillaume Larchevéque and Jeanne Alere, married Marie, the daughter of François Simon and Louise Lemoine, on 6 February 1645. There they
raised a family of eight children. 1
The youngest son Jean (the oldest was also named Jean) was born 12 Aug. 1659 and on 7 Jan. 1683 married Catherine Delauney, the daughter of Jacques Delauney and Catherine Besnard (also spelled Benard) another pioneering family.
Jacques Delauney's' parents were Louis Delauney and Marguerite Orleans of Sandouville, France. Catherine's parents were Guillaume Benard and Marie Mayet of Notre Dame, France.
Jean and Catherine had thirteen children before Catherine's death on 28 Sep. 1715. 2
Three years later, on 24 Apr. 1718, Jean married Marie Cartier who bore him four additional children.
Of the thirteen children of Jean and Catherine, four of them, François, Jacques, Joseph and Louis-Alexander are recorded as "engagé ouest."
This was the indication that they had contracted their services to assist in the development of a new land. The land was Louisiana.
François was the first to come to Louisiana and was called Grand-Pré. He was twenty-four years of age when he arrived with his wife and two children to settle on Bien
ville's land in 1718. He was a brick-mason.
François shortened his name to Larch. Thereafter the records use the two forms of the name interchangeably. Jacques came in 1716 for a voyage and returned to stay on 22 Sep 1730.
Joseph Larchevéque came in 1719 and found land across the river from his brother, Francois, and on 7 Nov. 1729 he married Marguerite Le Coq, the daughter of Francis Le Coq and Susanne Demous.
Joseph died in 1732 after fathering one child, Françoise Julienne Larchevéque, called "Julie."
Julie was placed under the tutorship of Jacques (Santiago) Chaperon, but was allowed to marry Nicholas Delille Dupart in 1750. Julie was described as "feeble-minded." 3
Nicholas was the son of Pierre Joseph Dupart and Micaele Jacqueline Michel and the grandson of Joseph Dupart.
The Dupart family poses problems for the researcher. Joseph Dupart, the father of Pierre Joseh Dupart, is mentioned only once in the records.
That notation is found in the Louisiana Historical Quarterly, record number 4030, dated 16 Feb 1770 and titled "Sale of Estate left by death of Joseph Deport (Dupard)" The same article gives his name as Joseph Dubord. In this document, Pierre Joseph Delille Dupard and wife, Jacqueline Michel petition Captain - General O'Reilly for permission to free five slaves inherited from their father Joseph Dubard (sic). This was in accord with the wishes of the deceased, as stated in his will. The will is not included.
It is noticeable that Pierre uses the surname "Delille" but his father did not. It was a common practice in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to add the name of one's estate after the surname. This was indentifying information and also served as an address.
As time moved on, this also became a caste indicator and remote relatives of the owner of an estate, who may have been far removed from that locale, still added the estate name to their own.
The only passenger record to list either "Delille" or "Dupart" was that of the bark, "Marie" on 23 May 1718 which debarked its passengers at Mobile. One passenger is listed as Jacques Dupart from Condé. He may have been Joseph.
In this new world, it was a common practice for people to change their names, either to create a break with their past or to enhance their current status. Thus the possibility exists that Pierre added "Delille" to make himself more prominent. There were Delille Duparts in France, but there is yet no evidence that they are related to Pierre Delille Dupart or his descendants.