M-THERESE LAMBERT BRIERE VINCENNE 1688-1730

           There appears to be much confusion as to the actual name of Jacques Côté’s second wife and who she might have been. I have yet to find where parts of the name originated. I found her with many of the aliases. With no registration of her actual birth confirmed and documents pertaining to marriage, death, and births of her children use different names.

Many confuse her with Catherine Elizabeth Lambert, born December 20, 1682, as per a baptismal certificate from Neuville, identifying her parents as Aubin Lambert dit Champagne and his wife Elisabeth Aubert. This appears in the research of François Marchi. However, that same Catherine Elisabeth also appears to have married Jean Gatin in 1706, and by 1724, the couple had fourteen children. That would make it impossible for her to have married Jacques Côté.

She does not appear in either of the of the two volumes published in 1991 on the Lamberts in “Nouvelle France”. In the Quebec General Collection of Canadian Families - (Tanguay) they identified her as Catherine Elizabeth b.  December 23, 1682 at Point aux Trembles, married to Jacques Côté  April 26, 1713. 

Her wedding to Jacques, the widower of Madeleine Rondeau, shows she is living in St-Antoine-de-Tilly, as was Jacques. Identified as Thérèse Elizabeth dit Lambert. The parish priest gave blessings for the union. People who attended the wedding were Aubin Lambert dit Champagne, Jacques et Augustin Lambert, listed as friends and witnesses. Take note that the Aubin Lambert mentioned would have been the son of Aubin Lambert dit Champagne and his wife Elisabeth Aubert, as the senior Aubin died prior to the wedding April 04, 1713. Jean Aubin dit Champagne (1674-1727).

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           Thérese Elizabeth dit Lambert as per her marriage to Jacques, and as Thérese Vincennes upon her death. Find a Grave has her as Marie-Therese Briene dit Lambert dit deVincennes.

 

           While reading the marriage certificate, it appears there was a problem that was solved to allow the marriage to go ahead. She would have been of age, but perhaps an annulment of a promise of marriage or marriage to someone else was the problem. The text is of poor quality and difficult to read.

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           ​Marie-Thérese's birthdate is uncertain, but according to her burial registration, she was born around 1688. This would also contradict her birth in Neuville, Québec, December 23, 1682,(1)to parents Aubin and Elizabeth (Aubert). She would have been the tenth child in a family of possibly six girls and five boys. Neuville is situated directly north of Saint-Antoine de Tilly on the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River. Like others, the aggressive resettlement plan proposed by Pierre-Noël LeGardeur, Lord of that seigneury, possibly lured her family to the south shore.

           There are several speculations who she was. She appears to have a connection to the Lambert dit Champagne family, but it is unclear what that is. Some speculate she was the illegitimate daughter of Aubin Lambert, which is quite possible. There is also the speculation that she was of indigenous heritage. this would explain why she traveled with the family, possibly in more of a servant of the family than sister to the others.We could then extrapolate why she constantly recorded herself under different names, camouflaging her true identity.

           ​She and Jacques married the April 26, 1713,(2) seven months after the death of his first wife Madeleine. They settled in Saint-Antoine de Tilly shortly after the wedding. He would have needed a mother for his four small children, all under the age of six.

           ​​Marie-Thérese and Jacques had six children of their own over the next seventeen years. All were born in Saint-Antoine-de-Tilly, confirming the couple moved shortly after their marriage to the village of Saint-Antoine.

           ​​Thérese died in Saint-Antoine November 23, 1730,(3) leaving Jacques, as did his first wife with small children to care for. The eldest of his children with Thérese would have been ten, and the youngest was just over one year of age. We should note that he most likely had children from the first marriage that would have been there to help him with the younger ones. However, still a young man at forty-four years of age, he remarried within two years.