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The baptismal records of Josué, Jacques, and Madeline Le Neuf in the Protestant church of Caen. |
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The marriage record of Mathieu Le Neuf, sieur du Hérisson, and Jeanne Le Marchand, in the Protestant church of Caen. |
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The names of the grandparents of the Canadian Le Neufs: Jean Le Neuf and Marguerite Le Gardeur. |
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Provided generation by generation evidence of the Le Marchand maternal pedigree of the Canadian Le Neufs going back to Robert II, King of France, and to Charlemagne. |
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Established the exact relationship of the Canadian Le Neufs to their French cousins. |
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Documented a missing generation along the Le Neuf lineage to Richard Le Neuf, namely Jean Le Neuf, m. —?— Porin. |
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Found that much of the earlier generations were misrepresented in papers submitted to the Judge of Arms as nobles when they were bourgeois and involved in the tannery business. |
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Documented their occupations and residences in France. |
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Established that the Le Neufs were in debt before leaving France for Canada. |
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Established how Marguerite Le Gardeur, the wife of Jean Le Neuf, is related to the other Le Gardeurs in France. |
In addition to the Le Neuf findings, Gagné has collected data on the Le Gardeur family that has not been previously published.
A genealogical table using the most recent data that Gagné has published summarizing the relationship between the Canadian and French branches of the Le Neuf family may be found here:
Connection Between the Canadian and French Le Neufs
A careful review of this table will show how the Le Neufs metamorphosed from bourgeois to nobles over several generations with one of them ultimately becoming a Count. Unfortunately, just as Count Louis Bernadin Le Neuf reaches the level of the titled nobility the French Revolution came along and he was one of the Reign of Terror victims to lose his head on the guillotine.
The Le Neuf story was even highlighted on Canadian television on the show Qui êtes-vous? (session 1, episode 5) broadcast on 7 décembre 2013. Guy A Lepage, a Québec comedian and director, was spotlighted and his ancestry leads back to the Le Neufs. In the image below Gagné is on the right reviewing some Le Neuf information with Lepage on the left.
A chart showing Lepage's ancestry back to Henry I, King of England, and his relationship to Prince George can be found at Radio Canada.
Published Le Neuf Research
The following published works are listed in chronological order:
Hozier, Louis Pierre d'. Armorial général de la France, ou Registre de la Noblesse de France. 13 vols. Paris: Firmin-Didot, 1738-1908, Le Neuf chapter, vol. 9, part 2, 5th registry. pp. 861-868 plus leading genealogical table.
Here you will find the summary of the Le Neuf family prepared by the royal Judge of Arms based mostly on documents submitted by the family and now residing in the Cabinet des titres at the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris. For your convenience I have prepared a copy of the chapter for you to view. Please note that the earlier generations must not be accepted without reading through Gagné's published findings.
Sulte, Benjamin, "La famille Godefroy," Mélangues historiques, vol. 11, Montréal: G; Ducharme, 1923, 7-38.
Jean Godefroy was married to Marie Le Neuf, the daughter of of Mathieu Le Neuf, sieur du Hérisson, and Jeanne Le Marchand. They left behind many Godefroy descendants.
______, "La famlle Pouterel," Trois-Rivières d'autrefois, Mélanges historiques, 2nd series, vo.l 19, Montréal: Éditions Édouard Garand, 1932, 64-69.
Jean Poutrel, sieur du Colombier, was the husband of Madeleine Le Neuf, the daugther of Mathieu Le Neuf, sieur du Hérisson, and Jeanne Le Marchand. She remained in France, but two of her children came to New France. However, they did not leave descendants in Canada.
Godbout, Archange, Les pionniers de la région trifluvienne, (1st series 1634 to 1645), Trois-Rivières: Les Éditions du bien public, 1934, see 19-20, 29,52-53, and 71-72 for Le Neuf related entries.
Godbout provides well researched information concerning the Le Neufs especailly their activities as they relate to Trois-Rivières.
Douville, Raymond, "Le dictature de la famille Le Neuf," Cahiers des dix XX (1955):61–89.
This article discusses the role of the Le Neuf brothers in colonial affairs and their often harsh relationships with other colonists.
______, "LENEUF DU HÉRISSON, MICHEL," in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 1, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed April 1, 2014, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/leneuf_du_herisson_michel_1E.html.
Lamontagne, Léopold, "LENEUF DE LA POTERIE, JACQUES," in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 1, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed April 1, 2014, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/leneuf_de_la_poterie_jacques_1E.html.
Barry, Mary J., trans., and John P. DuLong, ed. "The Le Neuf Family Nobility Evidence." Michigan's Habitant Heritage 12:3 (July 1991):73-80.
This is a translation of the papers Jacques Le Neuf, sieur de la Poterie, submitted in 1675 to the Sovereign Council of New France to prove his noble status. These documents were previously published in French in George-Pierre Roy, Lettres de nobless, généalogies, érections de comtés et baronnies insinués par le Conseil Sourverain de la Nouvelle-France, 2 vols. (Beauceville: L'Éclaireur, Ltée., 1920), vol. 1, pp. 57-65.
DuLong, John P. "The Family Secrets of the Le Neuf Origins in France." Lost in Canada? 17:2 (Spring 1993):58-71.
In this article you will find information about the Huguenot background of the Canadian Le Neufs, the Protestant marriage of their parents, and speculation on why Jacques Le Neuf, sieur de la Poterie, would be vague about his ancestors. DuLong thought that Jacques was hiding both his Protestant upbringing as well as the downward mobility of his family from the ranks of the nobility into the bourgeois. Gagné would demonstrate in his research that the secret being covered up was upward mobility, that is, the Le Neufs were bourgeois masquerading as nobles.
Langlois, Michel. Dictionnaire biographique des ancêtres québécois (1608-1700), 4 vols., Sillery: La Maison des ancêtres inc., 1998-2001, see 3:227-228 for Jeanne Le Marchant, 3:246-250 for her children and grandchildren, 2:89 for Anne Le Neuf, the wife of Antoine Desrosiers, and 2:369-370 for Marie Le Neuf, the wife of Jean Godefroy.
Langlois not only uses information from the Programme de démographie historique of the University of Montréal, but also notarial and other documents from the Archives nationales du Québec. Although he is mentioned in passing, Michel Le Neuf du Hérisson does not receive his own article.
Jetté, René, Roland-Yves Gagné, John Patrick DuLong, and Paul Leportier. "Les Le Neuf: état des connaissances." Mémoires de la Société généalogique canadienne-française 51 (Autumn 2000): 209-227.
This article summarized what was known about the Le Neuf family. The authors establish that Anne du Hérisson was most likely the illegitimate daughter of Michel Le Neuf, sieur du Hérisson. Although progress is made in extending the Le Neuf lineage, we were unable to connect the Canadian Le Neufs to the noble French Le Neufs. The article then proceeds to trace the pedigree of Jeanne Le Marchand, the mother of the Canadian Le Neufs, back to several noble families and eventually to Robert II, King of France, and Charlemagne. It concludes with a demonstration of how the singer Céline Dion is related to Elizabeth "Sissi," Princess of Bavaria, and wife of Franz Joseph, Emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, through their common descent from Jean de St-Germain and Jeanne de La Poterie who were ancestors of Jeanne Le Marchand.
Jetté, René, "Du neuf sur les Le Neuf," Mémoires de la Société généalogique canadienne-française 53:2 (Summer 2002): 143-144.
This is an update to the 2000 article in which Jetté reviews information regarding the marriage of Jean Le Neuf, sieur de Vaux, to Anne Jemblin in 1613. We learn from this document that Matthieu Le Neuf, sieur du Hérisson, is an uncle of the groom, and the brother of Jean Le Neuf, the husband, of Suzanne Blanchard. We also learned that Pierre Le Neuf, écuyer, sieur de Montenay, was a paternal cousin. Thus indicating that the relationship between the Canadian and the French Le Neufs is probably not as remote as we thought in the 2000 article.
Jetté, René, Roland-Yves Gagné, John Patrick DuLong, and Paul LePortier. "The Le Neuf Family: State of Knowledge." Michigan's Habitant Heritage, 3 part series:
- Part I, 23:4 (October 2002): 149-159;
- Part II, 24:1 (January 2003): 1-9;
- Part III, 24:2 (April 2003): 49-55.
Our 2000 article was translated and published in English by the French Canadian Heritage Society of Michigan.
Vaillancourt, Marie, "Michel Le Neuf, Sieur du Hérisson," http://histoiresdancetres.com/vaillancourt/michel-le-neuf-sieur-du-herisson-un-ancetre-issu-de-la-vieille-noblesse-francaise/#comment-97339, 2011 (accessed 8 April 2016).
A good example of how information about the Le Neuf should be presented, nicely illusrtrated, citations given and a bibliography provided.
Gagné, Roland-Yves, "Les origines des familles Le Neuf et Le Gardeur," Mémoires de la Société généalogique canadienne-française:
- Part I, "Les origines des familles Le Neuf et Le Gardeur," 63:3 (Autumn 2012) : 174-198;
- Part II, "De Richard Le Neuf à Jean et Jean dits Le Neuf, frères," 64:1 (Spring 2013): 9-27;
- Part III, "Les enfants de Jean Le Neuf le jeune et de Marguerite Le Gardeur," 64:3 (Autumn 2013): 199-216;
- Part IV, "Les cinq enfants de Mathieu Le Neuf et Jeanne Le Marchand," 64:4 (Winter 2013): 261-280;
- Part V, "Les frères Robert et Jean Le Gardeur," 65:1 (Spring 2014): 23-40;
- Part VI, "Les familles alliées Lainé et Poullain," 65:2 (Summer 2014): 97-108;
- Part VII, "Jean Le Gardeur, Jeanne Le Tavernier et leurs enfants," 65:3 (Autumn 2014): 213-226;
- Part VIII, "Boniface et René Le Gardeur, sieurs de Tilly," 65:4 (Winter 2014): 261-276.
All previous research published on the Le Neufs, with the possible exception of the maternal lineage back to royalty, were small steps, Gagné's solo research in the original records of Normandie makes giant steps towards uncovering the facts regarding both the Le Neufs and the Le Gardeurs.Gagné's articles are essential readings and finally solve the problem of how the French noble Le Neufs and the Canadian Le Neufs are related. Gagné also demonstrates how both sides of the family managed to hide their bourgeois origins. Lastly, his series of articles reveals information about the Le Gardeurs not previously known.
You can order copies of articles published in the Mémoires from the Société généalogique canadienne-française (SGCF). You can visit the SGCF web site or write them at:
Société généalogique canadienne-française
3440, rue Davidson
Montréal, Québec H1W 2Z5
CANADANo English translation of this series is currently planned.
Misuse of Le Neuf Reseach
Unfortunately, I have often noticed on the Internet examples of the research done on the Le Neuf family either not cited properly, ignored, or mangled. The worse misuse example I have seen so far is a book entitled Templar Sanctuaries in North America: Sacred Bloodlines and Secret Treasures by William F. Mann (2016). On 31 May 2016, I posted the following review on Amazon.com entitled: "The Author Manhandles the Le Neuf Family." I post it here for your consideration:
| I am by no means an expert on the Templars or sacred bloodlines, but I think I qualify as an expert on the Le Neuf family mentioned by Mr. Mann in this book. I had the good fortune to be part of the team of genealogists that found the royal gateway lineage for the Le Neuf brothers. Often I find our Le Neuf research being used without attribution, as it is in this book, but on top of this minor sin, Mann reaches out to commit major sins against the truth regarding the Le Neuf family. Mann states that Michel Le Neuf, sieur du Herrisson, married a “young Algonquin princess.” First of all, the Algonguins, like all other tribes of Canada, did not have princesses or the concept of royalty. Secondly, there is absolutely no evidence that Michel Le Neuf ever had any liaisons with any women in New France, native or French. Thirdly, the author claims that his daughter Anne Le Neuf du Herisson was also the daughter of this mythical Algonquin princess. Our research was unable to establish her mother, but we believe she was most likely the illegitimate daughter of Michel Le Neuf. And most importantly, she was born in France around 1631-1632 and not in New France. Her father did not come to New France with her until 1636. Not many Algonquin princesses were roaming the streets of Caen, Normandy, in the 1630s. Mann then states that the father of Michel Le Neuf, namely Mathieu Le Neuf du Herrisson, married Jeanne Le Marchand de La Celloniere [sic] et de La Rocque, who “belonged to one of the most illustrious Norman families at the time.” Now as much as I appreciate that her father, Gervais Le Marchand, was the seigneur of La Belloniere [and] of La Roque, I know that he was a relatively minor noble and that the Le Marchands were hardly worthy of being considered “illustrious.” Furthermore, Mann says that Mathieu Le Neuf and Jeanne arrived in New France in 1636. However, Jeanne Le Marchand was a widow by then and accompanied her sons and a daughter to New France without I am sure the deceased Mathieu in tow. To add further humor to his mistakes, Mann goes on to say that the deceased Mathieu Le Neuf “was sent to New France to establish the feudal aristocracy in the name of French king Louis XIII.” He clearly does not understand that although New France had seigneuries, it was not a rigid feudal society. New France was populated by habitants and not serfs. Moreover, it is very unlikely that Louis XIII or Cardinal Richelieu would have entrusted such an assignment to a corps. Turning to Michel Le Neuf’s brother, Jacques Le Neuf, Mann states that he “was made sieur de la Potterie.” He was not “made” this title, he assumed it. Nowhere does Mann mention that the Le Neufs were really bourgeois pretending to be nobles which has been proven beyond doubt by the recent research my colleague Rolland-Yves Gagné published. According to Mann, “The Le Neuf family prospered through the fur trade (much like the Templars had two hundred years earlier), thanks in part to Michel’s in-laws, and became fabulously wealthy by seventeenth-century standards.” What malarkey! The Le Neufs became prosperous by colonial terms not because they had native in-laws, but due to their exploiting their pretend noble status and engaging in the distasteful liquor for furs trade. They were certainly not “fabulously wealthy” by contemporary French standards. Lastly, when he presents the ascending lineage for the Le Neufs he lists the wife of Jean II Tesson as Thomasse Inconnue, as if Inconnue was her surname and not the French word for unknown—we simply do not know her surname or parentage. All in all, just judging from the way this author manhandles the facts regarding the Le Neuf family, I would suspect the rest of his book is filled with similar mistakes, leaps of logic, and absurd statements. He is clearly incapable of reading and understanding genealogical reports and any statement he makes regarding any family or lineage should be considered suspect. As for the Templar and sacred bloodlines nonsense, please people, history is interesting enough without relying on wacky conspiracy theories and myths, stick to the facts and enjoy actual history and not concocted gibberish. |
Le Neuf Arms
The Le Neuf arms are De gueules à trois coussinets d'or, les houppes posées en sautoir [On a red field three small cushions of gold, the tassels laying saltire crosswise]. A colored depiction of the arms can be found in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Cabinet des Titres, Armorial général, Normandie mss. vol. 20, Caen part 2, p. 626, ca. 1696. These were the arms recorded for Gabriel Le Neuf, sieur de Montenay, écuyer, seigneur de Sourdeval. His exact relationship to the Canadian Le Neufs has now been established by Gagné. They were second cousins, once removed. A drawing of the arms in black and white is found in d'Hozier, Armorial général de la France, vol. 9, part 2, p. 861.
Pierre Le Neuf, priest, sieur de Courtonne, and François Le Neuf, esquire, sieur de Montenay, brothers dwelling at Caen, Normandie, attested before Ollivier and Bougon, royal scriveners, on 5 May 1673, that Jacques Le Neuf, sieur de la Poterie, formerly of Caen, was of the same family and carried the same name and arms. (Roy, Lettres de noblesse, vol. I, pp. 57-65).
While Jacques Le Neuf was acknowledged to be of the same family and carry the same arms, Gagné warns us that there is no evidence that he or his brother every used these arms, or for that matter any arms, while in New France. However, I know that Alexandre Le Neuf de Beaubassin, the eldest son of Michel Le Neuf de Beaubassin, governer of Acadia, and Marie Denys, and the grandson of Jacques Le Neuf de la Poterie, used these arms. In a letter mentioning his will from around 1713 he seals the envelop with two red wax impressions of the Le Neuf arms (ANQ, P1000,S3,D1252). So we know that this captian of the Marines, knight in the order of St-Louis, and heir of Jacques Le Neuf de la Poterie had a seal bearing the Le Neuf arms. Whether or not his father and grandfather used the same seal I do not know.
Furthermore, Gagné points out the erroneous assignment of different arms to Michel Le Neuf, sieur du Hérisson, the brother of Jacques Le Neuf. According to Édouard-Zotique Massicotte and Régis Roy's Armorial du Canada français (2 vols., Montréal: Beauchemin, 1915-1918 vol. 2, pp. 24 and 113), Michel Le Neuf used D'argent, à trois hérissons de sable [On a white field, three black hedgehogs]. The first impression is that these arms are an obvious pun on his alias and might refer to property his family may have once owned in Normandie. However, Gagné points out that these are actually the arms of a family surnamed Hérisson from Bretagne and has no relationship at all the the Michel Le Neuf or any other members of the Le Neuf family (Henri Jougla de Morenas, Grand armorial de France, 7 vols., Paris: Les Editions Héraldiques, 1934-1952; reprint ed., Paris: Frankelve, 1975, vol. 4, p. 297).
If either Jacques or Michel Le Neuf used the family arms, then they did so by presumption, even with the permission of their cousins. They were commoners posing as nobles in New France. Had they remained in France and had lived long enough, then they might have had arms assigned to them for the purposes of taxation in 1696. The following generic arms were found for a Jean Le Neuf, merchant, bourgeois of Caen. He might be Jean Le Neuf, the son of Jean Le Neuf, sieur de Vaux, and a cousin of the Canadian Le Neufs. These arms are registered in the Armorial général de France (Bibliothèque nationale de France, Cabinet des Titres, Armorial général, Normandie mss. vol. 20, Caen part 2, p. 261, ca. 1696):
The blazon would be D'or parti de sinople à trois barres d l'un en l'autre. Scanning pages before and after this illustration there are several similarly blazoned arms. The clerks assigned to collect the 1696 tax on arms would simply make up bogus arms and assign them to anyone they thought could afford the tax including merchants and well off peasant. It appears that this Jean Le Neuf was the victim of this tax scheme and was assigned rather plain and unimaginative arms.
This page, and all contents, are Copyright © 1995 by John P. DuLong and associates, Berkley, MI. Created 23 November 1995. Modified 12 May 2016. The heraldry art work on this web page was accomplished using Adobe Illustrator CS and Armorial Gold Heraldry Clipart ver. 15.4.