The Recent Discovery Of The Corner Stone Of The Old Manor, And Of An
Inscription Dating Back To 1634, Have Given Rise To A Spicy Newspaper
Discussion Among Our Antiquarians.
THE SEIGNIORIAL MANOR OF THE FIRST SEIGNEUR OF BEAUPORT, 1614.
I.H.S. M.I.A.
LAN 1634 LE
NTE
25 IVILET.IE.ETE-PLA
PREMIERE.P.C.GIFART
SEIGNEVR.DE CE.LIEV
In March 1881, the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec, received
from the widow of the late Col. B. C. A. Gugy, of Darnoc, Beauport, a lead
plate, with the above quoted inscription, and a note, stating under what
circumstances Col. Gugy's family became possessed of it. This lead plate,
affords a written record of the laying of the foundation stone, on the
25th July, 1634, of the historical homestead of the fighting Seigneurs
of Beauport: the Gifart, the Juchereau, the Duchesnay.
The massive old pile alleged to have been the headquarters of the Marquis
de Montcalm, during the siege of Quebec, in 1759, and in which many
generations of Duchesnays and some of Col. Gugy's children were born,
became the prey of flames in 1879, 'tis said, by the act of a Vandal. Thus
perished the most ancient stronghold of the proud feudal Lairds of
Beauport, of the stone manor of Surgeon Robert Giffard; the safe retreat
against the Iroquois of the warlike Juchereau Duchesnays, one of whose
ancestors, in 1645, had married Marie Gifart, or Giffard, a daughter of
the bellicose Esculapius from Perche, France, - Surgeon Robert Gifart.
Grim and defiant the antique manor, with its high-peaked gables, stood in
front of the dwelling Col. Gugy had erected, at Darnoc, in 1865: it rather
intercepted the view to be had from this spot, of Quebec. One of the
memorable landmarks of the past, it has furnished a subject for the pencil
of Col. Benson J. Lossing, author of the "American Revolution," and "Life
of Washington," who, during his visit to Quebec, in July, 1858, sketched
it with others, for Harper's Magazine, where it appeared, over the
heading "Montcalm's Headquarters, Beauport," in the January number, 1859,
page 180, from which drawing it was transferred to the columns of the
Canadian Illustrated News, for May, 1881.
Whilst the deciphering of some of the letters I.H.S. - M.I.A. at the top of
the inscription has exercised the ingenuity of our Oldbucks and Monkbarns,
the plate itself and its inscription will furnish to the student of
history an indefeasible proof of the exact spot, and of the date, when and
where stood the oldest of our seigniorial manors, - that of Robert Gifart,
on the margin of the ruisseau de l'ours, at Beauport, in 1634.
J. M. LeMoine Esquire, President Literary and Historical Society,
Quebec:
BEAUPORT, 26th March, 1881
"SIR. - The tablet found in the Manor House of Beauport by some
workmen, last summer, and only recently restored to the proprietors,
is a circular plate of lead or pewter much injured by the fire which
consumed the building.
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