SCOOP: A JEW FROM TURKEY IN QUEBEC CITY

BEFORE ESTHER BRANDEAU (1691-1697)

Nikolas-Samuel Baron Bernier

Turkish poster from the Netflix series "The Club" « Constantinople », Karl Neumann (1875)

Everyone knows the picturesque and tragic story of Esther Brandeau, our national
Yentl, this young Jewish woman disguised as a boy who tried to immigrate illegally
to New France by landing at the port of Quebec city in 1738. But who has ever
heard of the incredible story of Joseph Langeron, a Jew from Turkey who
nevertheless left eloquent (but discreet) traces in the archives, in particular during
his hospitalizations at the Hôtel-D.ieu in Quebec city in 1691 and in 1697, as well as
than in his quixotic duel with the justice system?

NO TRESPASSING
The Law of the time strictly stipulates it: no Jew has the right to settle in New France,
unless he converts to the Catholic religion. There is therefore no official Jewish
immigration before the British regime (1760). "The Esther Brandeau (Brandao) affair",
which kept the authorities in suspense from 1738 to 1739 and which resulted in the
expulsion of the young Sephardi from St-Esprit (Bayonne) at the expense of the King,
leads us to suppose that other marranos were able to settle incognito in the colony,
without “getting caught”.

“Esther”, work by Suzan Edith Baron Lafrenière “By candlelight” S E B L

The traces of a few exceptional cases remain, however, not very eloquent on the fate of
these illegal immigrants or, on the contrary, “legally converted”. The oldest appearance I
found in the list of ships that came to New France: July 4, 1631: “Le Don de D.ieu”
(meaning “the Gift of G‑d”) landed in Quebec "the Jew" who "signed a solemn protest"
concerning a commercial restriction imposed by the English (Trudel, Marcel, History of
New France, vol. 2, Fides, Montreal, 1966, p. 49).

“Until You Quebec city 2008 – Tribute to the King’s Daughters”, Suzan Edith Baron Lafrenière

JOSEPH LANGERON DIT PASSEPARTOUT, “TURKEY JEW”

Considering so many prohibitions on the passage to New France and resigned to the
shortage of historical documents on the question, what was my amazement when I
cleared this discovery during a sleepless night. It was downright “throwing me to the
ground”, especially since I was precisely rummaging through the Dictionnaire
généalogique des familles du Québec (Genealogical Dictionary of Quebec Families), a must
for “origin beggars” of the renowned René Jetté (Sorry my pun only makes sense in
french, since this discovery was “à m’en jetter par terre”!)

"The Saturday night writer", S E B L

A small notice of nothing at all, but which suddenly became the key opening the door to
other manuscripts unearthed during the same night. I share it here with you as I saw it
appear before my confused and incredulous eyes:
Excerpt from the Genealogical Dictionary of Quebec Families by René Jetté, bottom of page 644

I magnify everything:

“LANGERON, Joseph (Assin & Facq CASON) Jewish, from Turkey; cited 11-12-
1691 Hôtel-D.ieu Québec, 30 years old, Turkish and 11-10-1697 Provence, 39 years
old.
Mr. 06•08-1691 Quebec (Ct 25-07 Gilles Rageot) »

Continued on the right page, the bride:

“GALARNEAU, Marie-Madeleine (Jacques & Jacqueline HERON) rem. 1701 Jean

Deslandes. WITHOUT POSTERlTY” (Jetté, p.644)

I summarize for you:

The Hôtel-D.ieu Hospital of Québec city provided medical care at least twice to Joseph
Langeron, a Jew from Turkey, whose father was named Assin Langeron and whose
mother was Facq Cason (“Jacq” in the document below), the first once on December 11,
1691 and the second on October 11, 1697.
We also learn that Joseph Langeron was married on August 6, 1691 (actually August 8)
to Marie-Madeleine Galarneau, daughter of Jacques Galarneau and Jacqueline Héron (or
Néron, see below).
Finally, this notice by René Jetté in us informs that the couple had no children and that in
1701 Marie-Madeleine remarried with a man named Jean Deslandes.

“In secret” Missing work by S E B L

Of course, I won't hide from you that several questions came up:
How is it that Joseph Langeron was officially identified as a "Jew from Turkey" given the
laws in force in New France?
The most logical hypothesis: he converted to Catholicism; confirmed by the fact that he
was religiously married to Marie-Madeleine Galarneau at the Basilique of Quebec city, as
I was able to see when I found the following marriage certificate:
The reunion of soul mates, S E B L

(Marriage of Joseph Langeron and Marie-Madeleine Galarneau, Basilique Notre-Dame de Quebec, August 8, 1691. Source: Drouin
Genealogical Institute)

However, a doubt arises:

Olivia, work by Suzan Edith Baron Lafrenière

From which original archive(s) did Rene Jetté derive the information that he was a “Jew
from Turkey”? And the names of his parents?
No mention of this is even mentioned in the religious marriage certificate.
I must at all costs find the archives of the patients of the Hôtel-D.ieu in 1691 and 1697.
And now I discover that Joseph was treated as a soldier when he entered the hospital.
Indeed, by consulting the PRDH (Programme de Recherche en Démographie historique
de l’université de Montréal), we read that Joseph Langeron benefited from another
hospitalization of which Jetté does not speak on January 1, 1691, that his nickname is
"Passepartout", that he is a soldier by profession and that he is indeed from Turkey (no.
4), which is reconfirmed during the hospitalization of December 11 ("Turkish nation")
(no. 12):

Joseph Langeron, hospitalization no. 1 hospitalization no. 2 (Source: PRDH)

Following a lead indicated by Jetté and the PRDH, I came across a register of the notary
Gilles Rageot on July 24, 1691. Joseph and Marie-Madeleine also signed a wedding
contract before the notary before the religious marriage, as was customary under French
law.
I must absolutely find the original of this marriage contract: it is doubtless in these age-
old scribbles or else in the fly-like originals of the registers of hospitalized patients at the
Hôtel-D.ieu that the names of the parents and the Jewishness of Joseph Langeron.

DAILY REGISTER OF PATIENTS WHO COME, LEAVE AND DIE IN THE

HOTEL-D.IEU OF KEBEC IN THE YEAR SIXTEEN HUNDRED AND EIGHTY-
NINE

DAILY REGISTER OF SICKNESSES WHO COME, LEAVE AND DIE IN THE HOTEL-D.IEU DE QUÉBEC (1689-1698), title
page (excerpt), Fonds Hôpital du Monastère des Augustines de l’Hôtel-Dieu de Québec, Archives du Monastère Augustinians

Pursuing the investigation in these archives containing the handwritten list of patients
hospitalized at the Hotel-D.ieu in Quebec, I retrace as planned our Joseph dit
Passepartout of Turkey on January 1 of "the year one thousand six hundred and ninety-
one » (1691) (page 83) but to my great surprise his surname is not « Langeron » but
rather « Langello » (3rd patient in the list of this excerpt)
DAILY REGISTER OF SICKNESSES WHO COME, LEAVE AND DIE IN THE HOTEL-D.IEU DE QUÉBEC (1689-1698), p.83,
Fonds Hôpital du Monastère des Augustines de l’Hôtel-Dieu de Québec, Archives du Monastère des Augustines

Despite the interest that I take in these discoveries which teach us more about our Joseph
Langello of Turkey who became Langeron, it is not by consulting the archives of the
Hotel-D.ieu either that I will find in the roots of Joseph the son of Abraham, Itzkhak and
Yakov.

The three sisters, S E B L

IN SEARCH OF THE ORIGINS OF JOSEPH

I then carried out research to find the marriage certificate in the gold mine of the
Bibliothèque et Archives Nationales du Québec Numérique (BAnQ Numérique), more
specifically in the notarial acts of Gilles Rageot. This is the only place where the names
of Joseph's mother and father can appear, as well as the key to his Hebrew origin. I also
found documents concerning Joseph's legal misadventures (which I will tell you about
later) and none of this information is there either.
7,287 pages for a single notarial document covering several years (notary Gilles Rageot
1666-1691), in which I place all my hopes of finding what would indeed consist of direct
proof of the presence of a Jew in Quebec before Esther Brandeau . And, to my
knowledge, it would be the only tangible example of a Jew (and not a converso or a
marrano) who came to settle and lived several years in New France.

"The fruits of the heart", S E B L

ORIGINAL SOURCE FOUND: JOSEPH THE TURKISH WAS A JEW

Finally, I found on July 25, 1691 the civil marriage of Joseph and Marie-Madeleine
containing the written proof that René Jetté was not mistaken: « (…) et Joseph
Langeron, jeuif en cette ville (Québec), fils de Assin Langeron et Jacq
Cason, feu père et mère de Turquie (…) »
French to English Translation: “(…) and Joseph Langeron, Jew in this city (Quebec
city), son of Assin Langeron and Jacq Cason, late father and mother from Turkey
(…)”
 Civil marriage contract of Joseph Langeron and Marie-Madeleine Galarneau (original manuscript), July 25, 1691, Acts of Notary
Gilles Rageot (1666-1691), Notarial act N0 4306, Library and National Archives of Quebec (BANQ numérique) (https:
//numeric.banq.qc.ca)

Excerpt highlighting lines 8-9 “Joseph Langeron, “Jeuif (juif) en cette ville” meaning “Jew in this city (Quebec city)”, Civil marriage
contract of Joseph Langeron and Marie-Madeleine Galarneau (original manuscript), July 25, 1691, Actes du Notaire Gilles Rageot
(1666-1691), Notarial act N0 4306, National Library and Archives of Quebec (BANQ Numérique) (https://numerique.banq.qc.ca)

Sarah's Shabbat, S E B L
For the first time, therefore, we have direct proof of the Jewish presence in New
France other than that of Esther Brandeau.

A DUEL WITH THE JUSTICE OF NEW FRANCE

The Sovereign Council of New France, Charles Huot, 1927

In 1692 Joseph Langeron dit le Turque (meaning “J.L. said “the Turkish””), then working
as a servant for François Pain, is accused of theft by the latter. He is on trial. The
sentence: Joseph is "sentenced to be beaten and castigated naked, with rods by the
Executor of the High Justice (the executioner)..."
Joseph proclaims his innocence and asks for an appeal before the Sovereign Council
of New France.
He loses his case on June 16 and must therefore suffer the punishment.
Here is the judgment and the request for appeal on the following page (digital BAnQ,
followed by a transcript):
"Sentence declaring that it was judged well in the Provostship of Quebec against Joseph
Langeron said the Turk accused of having stolen François Pain, innkeeper, ..." and then
"Judgment declaring that he was judged well and badly appealed … "
Judgment declaring that he was rightly judged and wrongly called by Joseph Langeron dit le Turc, accused and prisoner of the Palace
concierge, appealing from a sentence rendered to the Provostship, declaring him convinced of the theft mentioned in François Pain’s
complaint, innkeeper of Quebec - files 1 to 2, Judgments and deliberations of the Sovereign Council of New France, June 16, 1692,
National Library and Archives of Quebec (BaNQ numérique) (https://numerique.banq.qc.ca/patrimoine /details/52327/3362858) (page
1 and page 2)

Judgments and Deliberations of the Sovereign Council of New France (Transcription) Vol III, Department of the Registrar of the
Province of Quebec, 1887, cover page and page 1086.

THE MYSTERY OF THE END

We do not know what precisely happened to Joseph Langeron afterwards. The mystery
still hovers around his last appearance in the archives of the Hotel-D.ieu on October 11,
1697 since the name and the age indicate that it is very probably about the same
individual, but it is written that he is “Provençal”. Would he have migrated to France and
then returned to Quebec before dying?
We know that during her second marriage to Jean Deslandes in 1701, Marie-Madeleine
Galarneau was a widow.
If we have discovered the wake of the passages in New France of Joseph
Langello/Langeron known as Passepartout, a Jew from Turkey and of Esther
Brandao/Brandeau, a Portuguese Jew from St-Esprit (Bayonne), other Sephardim lost in
the migrations of History may be waiting for us to patiently dust off a few kilometers of
archives in order to release and let their sparks shine.

“The Texture of Light”, SEBL “Mathilde”, SEBL “Zohar”, Suzan Edith Baron Lafrenière

Old World Map. I like its heart shape and the fact that New France, Turkey, Spain, France, Portugal and Israel seem close to each
other. Source: World Digital Library

—–
Thanks :

Thanks to my daughter Cassandre Madeleine Montreuil-Bernier and my nephew Jaime

David Torres Garcia for their help with research in the BAnQ while I was abroad. Thanks
to Sonia Sarah Lipsyc for her advice and encouragement. And thank you also to my
father Michel and my mother Suzanne Edith for having transmitted to me their passion
for History and the patience of scientific and legal rigour.

Many thanks to Pierre Anctil and Simon Jacobs for publishing the book The Jews of
Quebec: 400 Years of History (Pierre Anctil and Simon Jacobs, PUQ, 2015) in which the
reading of Pierre Anctil's article "A Jewish presence in New France?” gave me the
motivation to search the archives for this Jewish presence before 1760

In closing, thank you also to Mr. Jean-Marie Gélinas for having published his article "A
well-kept secret" in the Voix Sépharade (Dec. 2003) and for having, in a way, paved the
way for research on hidden Jews (from 1973) in the History of New France.)

Anctil, Pierre et Jacobs, Simon (direction), The Jews of Quebec 400 years of history, PUQ, 2015
In closing, thank you also to Mr. Jean-Marie Gélinas for having published his article "A
well-kept secret" in the Voix Sépharade (Dec. 2003) and for having, in a way, paved the
way for research on hidden Jews (from 1973) in the History of New France.

Gélinas, Jean-Marie, “A well-kept secret” in La Voix Sépharade, December 2003/Kislev 5764

Nikolas-Samuel Baron Bernier