FRANCHEVILLE, PIERRE, priest, secretary to Bishop Laval, parish priest; son of Marin Terrier de Repentigny et de Francheville, originally from the province of Normandy, and of Jeanne Jallot, from the province of Poitou; baptized 14 July 1649 at Trois-Rivières; d. at Longueuil and buried 7 Aug. 1713 at Montreal.

Bishop Laval was later to write of Francheville: “He was brought up at the seminary from the time he was quite Small.” A school in the presbytery, headed by Martin Boutet*, had indeed existed before the creation (in 1668) of the Petit Séminaire of Quebec. As early as 1666 Francheville, a student at the Jesuit college, publicly defended a thesis in philosophy, together with Louis Jolliet*, and the following year he took part, with Amador Martin, in a disputation “on the whole of philosophy with honours.” Francheville received the tonsure 8 Oct. 1667. From 1670 he acted as secretary to Bishop Laval until the latter left for France in 1671. The bishop made his appointment as secretary official on his return in 1675. Francheville was ordained on 18 Sept. 1676. He was a member of the community of the seminary, and parts of the regulations ratified in 1683 are in his handwriting.

At the time of the proceedings brought against François de Salignac* de La Mothe-Fénelon, Francheville was fined for having failed to obey two summonses by the Conseil Souverain in October 1674, arguing that holy canons forbade him to appear before a secular court on a criminal matter.

Francheville served as parish priest at Beauport (1678–81), Saint-Pierre, on Île d’Orléans (1681–1689), Rivière-Ouelle (1689–92), Cap-Saint-Ignace and Saint-Thomas (1692–98), and finally at Longueuil (1701–13). It was during his stay at Rivière-Ouelle that, armed with a musket, he led his parishioners in repelling an attempted landing by the troops led by Phips* in 1690.

Honorius Provost