On A Table Below This Interesting And Valuable Historic
Relic, Now In Possession, As An Heirloom, Of J. Thompson Harrower,
Esq., Of This City, Was Exhibited The Full Uniform Of An Artillery
Officer Of The Year 1775.
Several quaint old sketches and paintings
were placed around the Library, which, with the Museum, was converted
for the
Time into an extempore conversazione hall, and while the
melodies of the 'B' Battery band were wafted hither and thither
through the building, the dames and cavaliers gossiped pleasantly over
their tea or coffee and delicacies provided by the members for the
guests, and declared, with much show of reason, that the Literary and
Historical Society's centennial entertainment was a red-letter day in
the annals of that learned and well-deserving body."
THE JESUITS' CHURCH.
This little church, of which the corner stone was laid by the Marquis de
Tracy, "Lieutenant du Roi, dans toutes ses possessions Francaises en
Amerique," on 31st May, 1666, existed until 1807. "It is built," says
Kalm, "in the form of a cross. It has a round steeple, and is the only
church that has a clock." The oldest inhabitant can yet recall, from
memory, the spot where it stood, even if we had not the excellent drawing
made of it with a half dozen of other Quebec views, by an officer in
Wolfe's fleet, Captain Richard Short. It stood on the site recently
occupied by the shambles, in the Upper Town, facing the Russell House.
Captain Short's pencil bears again testimony to the exactitude, even in
minute things, of Kalm's descriptions: his Quebec horses, harnessed one
before the other to carts. You see in front of the church, in Captain
Short's sketch, three good sized horses, harnessed one before the other,
drawing a heavily laden two-wheeled cart. The church was also used until
1807 as a place of worship for Protestants. Be careful not to confound the
Jesuits' Church with the small chapel in the interior of their college
(the old Jesuit Barracks) contiguous thereto. This latter chapel had been
commenced on the 11th July, 1650. The Seminary Chapel and Ursulines
Church, after the destruction by shot and shell, in 1759, of the large
Roman Catholic Cathedral, were used for a time as parish churches. From
beneath the chief altar of the Jesuits' Church was removed, on the 14th
May, 1807, the small leaden box containing the heart of the founder of the
Ursulines' Convent, Madame de la Peltrie, previously deposited there in
accordance with the terms of her last will.
You can see that the pick-axe and mattock of the "bande noire" who
robbed our city walls of their stones, and demolished the Jesuits' College
and city gates, were busily employed long before 1871.
THE JESUITS' BARRACKS.
There are few, we will venture to say, who, in their daily walk up or down
Fabrique Street, do not miss this hoary and familiar land mark, the
Jesuits' College. When its removal was recently decreed, for a long time
it resisted the united assaults of hammer and pick-axe, and yielded,
finally, to the terrific power of dynamite alone.
The Jesuits' College, older than Harvard College, at Boston, takes one
back to the dawn of Canadian history. Concerning the venerable
institution, we translate the following from the French of Mr. T. B.
Bedard. It appeared originally in the Journal de Quebec: -
"The recent discovery of human bones at the Jesuit Barracks has
excited the curiosity of the public in general, and especially of
antiquarians and all interested in historical research. Naturally, the
question presents itself - who were the individuals interred where
these bones were found, and what was this place of sepulture? An
attentive study of the subject leads me to believe that the remains of
the three skeletons discovered, with two skulls only, are those of
Brother Jean Liegeois, Pere du Quen, and Pere Francois du Peron,
deceased at Chambly, and whose mortal remains were sent to Quebec for
interment. The spot where the bones were found must have been the site
of the chapel built at the same time as the other portions of the
Jesuits' College. But inasmuch as the demolition of this more than
venerable edifice approaches completion, a sketch of the history of
its construction may not be amiss.
"Let us preface by saying, with the learned Abbes Laverdiere and
Casgrain, that the residence or the Convent of Notre Dame de la
Recouvrance, burnt together with the chapel of the same name in 1640,
should not be confounded with the College (turned later on into
barracks), the foundations of which were not laid until several years
afterwards. The Chapel of Notre Dame de la Recouvrance and the
Jesuits' house attached thereto, were situated upon the ground upon
which the Anglican Cathedral now stands. In the conflagration of 1640,
chapel and residence were destroyed; the registers of Civil Status
burnt, and the Jesuits lost all their effects. 'We had gathered
together in that house,' writes Father Lejeune, 'as in a little store,
all the maintenance and support of our other residences and of our
missions. Linen, clothing, and all the other necessaries for twenty-
seven persons whom we had among the Hurons, were all ready to be
conveyed by water into that distant country.' After this disaster, the
Jesuits were sheltered for some time at the Hotel Dieu. In 1637 the
Fathers of the Company of Jesus in Canada set forth to the Company of
New France that they wished to build a college and a seminary for the
instruction of Indian youths, the Hurons dwelling 200 leagues from
Quebec having sent them six, with the promise of a larger number, and
also for the education of the country, and that, for this purpose,
they sought a grant of land. The Company of New France awarded them
twelve acres of ground in Quebec to build a seminary, church,
residence, &c. This grant was made at a meeting of the Directors of
the Company, at the hotel of the celebrated Fouquet, on the 18th
March, 1637.
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