Manuscript

A seigneur in New France must grant land to anyone who requests it. He first signs a billet de concession to the applicant. After a while, a notarized contract replaces this temporary title.

On August 16, 1730, François-Antoine Pécaudy de Contrecœur, captain of the Navy troops, commander of Fort Chambly and Seigneur de Contrecœur, granted Joseph (alias Jean) Chartier four by twenty acres of land on the banks of the Chambly (Richelieu) River. Two days later, Contrecœur added another 20 arpents to this grant.

Joseph or Jean Chartier, originally named John Carter, was born in Deerfield, Massachusetts, in 1695. In March 1704, he was captured by Kahnawake Iroquois during a raid. Bought back by an inhabitant of Pointe-aux-Trembles, he was naturalized French, converted to the Catholic faith like many other captives, and married in 1718. First settled in Rivière-des-Prairies, he moved his entire family in 1727 to the seigneury of Contrecœur (today Saint-Antoine-sur-le-Richelieu).

In 1734, he demanded that Intendant Hocquart require Contrecœur to sign a formal contract to formalize his concession, which the latter refused to do, as he wanted to increase the cens et rentes. The dispute was settled when Jean Chartier died in 1772 at Saint-Antoine-sur-Richelieu, aged 74.