Notes for Jacques Miville:

Jacques Miville still lived with his parents in 1667 at the age of 27 and was believed to be a "coureur des bois" making a living off the fur trade. For example, in January 1684, he buys goods from Jean Maheux, a merchant in Quebec City, and promises to pay him in the springtime"when he gets back from his trip." In October 1669, he married Catherine de Baillon, daughter of the late Alphonse de Baillon and Lady Louise de Marle, who had been provided with a large dowry. The wedding was attended by numerous personalities including Mssrs Daniel de Rémy Chevalier Seigneur de Courcelles and Louis Rouer Sieur de Villeray. To our knowledge, the marriage contract is the first document in which Jacques Miville, the groom, is identified as "Sieur desChesnes". We can not explain why Jacques has this title, which would become the Deschênes surname of many of his descendants.

A short while after the signing of the wedding contract, Jacques hired two men to cut down trees on his concession of land located in grande Anse au Cap Martin. In the spring of 1670, he performs "navigation and every day work." During the 1670's he carries out fur trade: in 1677, he is known to promise payments in the form of beaver skins. However, he also buys property, and this gives the impression that he wants to work the land. In June 1674, he buys property from Sieur de La Bouteillerie, Lord of Rivière-Ouelle, a domain measuring 12 acres in width to the Saint-Jean River, a short distance west of Rivière-Ouelle, and what is today in Pocatiere. This concession of land was situated in an area fought over by the Lord of La Pocatiere and the Lord of Rivière-Ouelle. In the end Jacques is guaranteed ownership by the lady of La Pocatiere. He settles on this land before 1675, this is evident since his daughter Marie is born in Rivière Saint-Jean, not in Saint-Jean-Port-Joli, as mentioned in Jette's dictionary. In 1676, he sells this property and buys another one in Riviere-Ouelle, where he lives for seven more years.

In 1684, he comes back to Rivière Saint-Jean to work as a farmer on his former property now owned by Charles Aubert de la Chesnaye, one of the richest notables in Nouvelle-France.

Jacques Miville died in Rivière-Ouelle Saint-Jean on January 27th, 1688: he was only 49. His wife died the very same day. He was buried the next day and Catherine, his wife, the following day. These simultaneous deaths are still unexplained. He was the father of six children aged from 6 to 17. Francois, his brother comes and settles in Riviere Saint-Jean, and becomes the guardian of his Jacques children. Francois has ten children of his own, ages 2 to 20, all of them born in Lauzon between 1663 and 1686. He pays for the farm lease from 1689 to 1693 at which time he gets married to Jeanne Sauvenier, his second wife, and moves to Rivière-Ouelle where he dies in 1711 at the age of 77.