Liam+S

Diary of Pierre Paquet Dear diary,

I have now owned Seigneury for 2 and a half years now. I used to be a Soldier for France until I was given this large piece of land in New France. I, the Seigneur, am responsible for providing a school and a church for the tenants or habitants. I have also built a mill for everyone to use.

My family and I were working on our farm today. I sent my son to the common to check on the animals. There isn’t much growing at the moment but I have a feeling that it will be a warm year. Once the growing season has started I will be able to collect some more taxes from the habitants. In addition to what they grow, I collect fish, flour and wood.

Tonight my wife will be making pea soup as usual. After my work on the farm I walked around the Seigneury in my Deerskin and moose hide gloves and my bear and caribou skin jacket. I can’t wait to get back inside after making sure everything on the Seigneury is running smoothly; it is very cold outside.

When I got back to my manor house, I decided that I should continue on my project. I am making more chairs for my house. They take a long time to make. I was a little annoyed when my wife told me that dinner was ready as I was just getting into it. A little after my family and I ate dinner, we went to bed.

Dear diary,

I was walking around my Seigneury when one of the habitants approached me Her name was Eliane Olivier. She was very troubled at the time and asked me if I would not collect as much fish and wood from her family. After this confrontation, I was reminded of when I was back in France. Before I was a soldier, my family was barely getting by. I told her that I would think about it with a lot of empathy in my voice. My family and I went to church shortly after. After church was over I went to have a chat with the priest, Francois Collier. I had recently convinced Francois to lead my church because I discovered that the last priest was ripping off my habitants. He was trying use them for taxes or tell them that they would go to hell. I banished him from my Seigneury. The weather has warmed up a lot more but those with less fertile land are having trouble farming. I will have to find other ways to collect taxes from those tenants. I hope things go well for them though because the better they do the better I do.

 Smith, D.C. __The Seigneury of Longueuil__. Toronto: Ginn and Company, 1971.

Jamieson, Marshall. __Beginnings From the First Nations to the Great Migration__. Edmonton: Reidmore Books, 1996.

Dicks, Stewart K. __Les Canadiens: The French in Canada 1600-1867__. Ontario: Prentice Hall of Canada, 1980. 