Notes for Jean-Baptiste Chapoton

Notes for Jean-Baptiste Chapoton

From the book, "Genealogy of the French Families of the Detroit River Region 1701-1936" Volume I, pg. 244:
"John Chapoton was born in 1684 in the old home in the parish of St. John Baptist diocese of Uzes city of Bagnoles on the river Rhone in the Province of Languedoc in the south of France. John studied surgery in France and became a surgeon in the French Army. He was send to Fort Ponchatrain of Detroit as the surgeon of the garrison late in the year 1719. John obtained from the French Government 20 arpents (a french measure of land with one arpent roughly equalling between 5/6 and 1 1/4 of an acre) frontage and 40 arpents depth now called private claim #5 or the Charles Moran farm bounded on the east side by Hastings Street. This grant was issued 18 Jun 1734 and Dr. Chapoton took residence on his farm. He did not confine himself to surgery but was the practician and the only phisician for the garrison and for the inhabitants of Detriot and vicinity."

According to Detroit River Connections by Judy Jacobsen, 1994, pg. 92-93:
Jean Baptiste Chapoton was born between 1684 and 1690 to Andre Chapoton and his wife Anne Lassaigne in St. Jean Baptiste Parish, Bagnols (Bagnols-sur-Ceze, Department Gord) on the Rhone River in France. After studying surgery in France, Jean Baptiste became a surgeon in the French army. He was sent to Detroit's Ft. Pontchartrain as garrison surgeon-major as late as 1719. Althought he involved himself in many other interests, for quite a while Jean Baptiste Chapoton was the only physician for both the garrison and the surrounding area. A 1758 parish register referred to him as the "master surgeon of this town". In addition, Chapoton became quite a tradesman, dealing at various times with medicine, grain, and building matireals. And he appeared in records as groomsman at the wedding of Jean Baptiste Gouyou dit la Garde and Mary Rose. According to Thwaites, when Chapoton married Marie Madeleine Estene / Esteve in July of 1720, his bride was only thirteen years old. But other records give her birth year as 1704, making Marie approximately siteen years old at the time of her marriage. In 1734 Jean Baptiste Chapoton was recommended for a grant of land by Commandeant Jacques-Hugues-Penn and former Commandant Henri-Louis Deschamp de Boishebert. On June 18, 1734, he was given private claim #5, which was twenty arpents by fourty arpents in size. But he sold that land nine years later because it was too far fromthe "sick". So he was granted a new piece of land four by fourty arpents located closer to his patients. In addition, Dr. Chapoton maintained a home inside the fort and appeared in Father Pierre Potier's census of French living in Detroit in 1743. In 1750, his family included 1 woman, 3 boys 15 years of age or older, 1 girl 15 or older, 1 boy under 15, 2 gurls under 15. He had 1200 sheves of what, 303 sheaves of oats, 3 horses, 4 ooxen, 13 cows, 2 hogs, and 30 poultry and he had 50 arpents of land under cultivation. Then in 1751, his land grant was doubled.
Jean Baptiste had twenty children. He retired circa 1752, leaving his surgeon's post at the fort to his son-in-law, Gabriel Legrand de Sentre, husband of his daughter Mary Magdelene.

Source: Dictionary of Canadian Biography, Vol. III, 1741-1770, pg. 102:
Chapoton, Jean-Baptiste, surgeon; b. c. 1690 in the parish of Saint-Jean-Baptiste, Bagnols (now Bagnols-sur-Ceze, dept. of Gard), France; son of Andre Chapoton and Anne Lassaigne; m. 16 July 1720 Marguerite Esteve at Detroit; d. 11 Nov. 1760 at Detroit. Jean-Baptiste Chapoton was assigned to Fort Pontchatrain (Detroit) as surgeon-major late in 1719. A description of him in the parish register for 1758 as a "master surgeon of this town" suggests that his duties as post surgeon expanded over the years to encompass the care of the sick in the surrounding region. Chapoton became an important landowner. In 1734 he received a grant on the recomendation of the commandant Jacques-Hugues Pean and the former ommandant Henri-Louis Deschamps de Boishebert. Nine years later he sold it because it was "too distant from the fort to enable him to care for the sick according to his duty as surgeon," and was granted another tract, four by 40 arpents, on which he had already erected buildings. The 1750 census shows that he was cultivating about 50 acres and raising wheat, oats, and livestock. In 1751 the size of his grant was doubled. He also owned a residence inside the fort. Like most other prosperous frontiersmen, he bought, sold, and traded goods whenever he thought he could turn a profit. Father Armand de La Richardie's accounts for 1742 show that Chapoton borrowed 100 livres in furs from the Huron mission, agreeing to repay within a year. He sold grain, medicines, and building materials to authorities at Detroit. On retiring from his surgeon's post at the fort about 1752, he was succeeded by his son-in-law, Gabriel-Christophe Legrand de Sintre. Most of Chapoton's children married well, as befitted a leading family of the community.

Source: Legends of Le Detroit, Early French Families, by Marie Caroline Watson Hamlin (published in late 1800s, book in Library of Congress collection) pg. 281-283:
The numerous branches of this family so well and favorably known in Detroit all descend from Jean, son of Tendrez and Dearne Cassaigne, Cazolle, Diocese of Duges, Lanquedoc. He was a surgeon in the French army with the rank of mjor, and wasordered to Fort Pontchatrain to relieve Forestier, the first physician to came to the post. For fourty years Dr. Chapoton's elegant and stereotype-like signature is affixed to every death notice in the colony. He ritired from the army several years previous to the English conquest, and settled on the land which he had recieved as a grant. He died in 1762. In 1721, he had married Marguerite Estene or Stebre, by whom he had twenty children, only seven of whom arrived at maturity:
1. Jeanne, born 1734, married 1749, Paul de Meuchel.
2. Marie Clemence, born 1736, married 1747, Pierre Chesne de St. Onge, son of Charles and Catherine Sauvage.
3. Madeleine, born 1739, married 1758, Gabriel Cristophe Le Grand, surgeon in the French army, eldest son of Gabriel Louis Le Grant, Sieur de Sintre, knight of the royal and military order of St. Louis, and of Anne Henriette de Crenay, parish of Roch, France.
4. Louise Clotilde, born 1741, married 1758, Jacques Godefroy de Marboeuf. She died in 1762, leaving one child, Gabriel.
5. Charlotte, Lieut. Duburon was godfather and Madame De Noyelle de Fleurimont godmother-born 1742, married 1760, Pierre Barthe, a brother of Charles, the ancestor of the family of Askins, Brushs, etc. Her daughter Charlotte, born 1763, married twice; 1st, in 1780, Lieut. Louis Reaume, an English officer; 2d, in 1784, Antoine Louis Descomptes Labadie (Badichon), whose descendants are Mrs. Willis, Mrs. Giesse, Mrs. Alexander Chapoton, Sr., the Lagraves of of St. Louis, etc.
6. Josette, born 1746, married 1764, August Chaboye, of Mackinaw.
7. Jean Baptist, born 1721. He was the one who held a parley with Pontiac in 1763. In 1755 he married Felice Cecyre by whom he had a large family; 1. Jean Baptiste, Jr., born 1758, married in 1780 Therese Pelletier. He died in 1836; 2. Benoit, born 1761, married 1788, Therese Meloche; 3. Louis Alexi, born 1764, married 1783, Catherine Meloche, whose daughter Catherine married in 1809 Major Antoine De Quindre; 4. Catherine Angelique, born 1769; 5. Josette, born 1771; 6. Isabelle, born 1773; 7. Nicholas, born 1776.

Michigan Medical History, Vol. 1, pg. 91
Dr. Jean Chapoton was a surgeon in the French army with the rank of Major and was ordered to Fort Pontchartrain to relieve Dr. Forestier. Jean Baptiste Chapoton was the successor to Forestier and appeared in 1719. In 1720 he married Madeline Esteve and became by her the father of twenty children. A tract of land assigned to Chapoton was exchanged for another more convenient that Chapoton "might be nearer the settlement in order to render his services as a physicians more convenient." Among the "Lists of Lands Granted at Detroit" is "3 arpents by 40, July 1, 1734, to Jean Baptiste Chapoton, a surgeon in the French Army, born in 1684, sent to Detroit post about 1718, as surgeon; married in July, 1720, to Marie Madeleine Estene [Esteve?], aged 13, by whom he had twenty-two children. He retired from the army several years before the English conquest; died in November, 1760."
Henry Belisle 1701-1711
Jean Baptiste Forestier 1713-1718
Jean Baptize Chapoton 1719- ?
The latter died at the age of seventy-six, a few days after the surrender of Fort Detroit to the British in 1760. In his later years his son-in-law was appointed in his place. This was Gabriel Christoph Le Grand.

From the book "Michigan Pioneers and Historical Collections Vol. XXXIV 1904":
"1 July 1734
Jean Chapoton, Surgeon 3 by 40
Jean Baptiste Chapoton, a surgeon in the French army (born 1684) was sent to the Detroit post (abt. 1718) as a surgeon for its garrison. In July 1720 he married Marie Madeline Estene, then but 13 years old, by whom he had 22 children. He retired from the army several years before the English conquest and settled on an estate that had been granted to him. His death occurred in November 1760. (Jes. Rel. Vol. LXIX pg. 308)."

[Brøderbund Family Archive #118, Ed. 1, Canadian Genealogy Index, 1600s - 1900s, Date of Import: Feb 2, 2000, Internal Ref. #1.118.1.14197.2]
Individual: Chapoton, Jean-Baptiste
Event: Married
Year: 1720
Place: Détroit 4
Province of record source: Québec
Source: Dictionnaire Généalogique des Familles Canadiennes Depuis la Fondation de la Colonie Jusqu'a Nos Jours, Deuxième Volume, Depuis 1608 jusqu'a 1700.
Author: L'Abbé D Tanguay, ADS
Publisher: Eusèbe Senécal
Publication year: 1886
Volume/Page(s): 620
Please note: The province and county are associated with the location of the record source and in some cases may not be the same as the place where the event occurred.

Michigan Historical Society Records, Vol. 8
Chapoton (Chaperon), Jean, surgeon Fort Pont Chartrain, granted deed, pg. 455-457.

According to Cindy Appleby: John was born in the parish of St. Baptist, Diocese of Uzes, city of Bagnoleson, the river Rhone in the province of Languedoc, in the south of France.

Source: Michigan Pioneer and Historical Collections, Volume 22
Dr. Chapoton came over (to Quebec or Detroit?) with Cadillac