By MICHAEL DWYER
In 1850, when a native Vermont census-taker attempted to record details for a French-speaking family in Shoreham, you got results like these: Josiah Maris, age 31, laborer, born Canada, along with Charlotte, age 30, Phebe [female], age 9, Toison, age 9, Francis, age 12, and John, age 1. Ten years later, a different census-taker rendered Josiah as Thomas Moris, age 28, wife Clara, 40, and Phebe of the previous census was Fillebar [male, real named Philibert], age 15. How do we know that in spite of fluctuating names and ages it was the same family? This couple and their children remained in Shoreham for the next twenty years. The father, now written as “Tusan” [Josiah/Thomas] Morris died from cholera on 14 September 1871. Unraveling both a garbled first and last name began with the rare instance of a French-language gravestone in Shoreham Village Cemetery. His true name was Toussaint, heard as Thomas or Tusan, and the last name Lavoie—and you guessed it—Lavoie had a dit (“also known as”) name, St. Maurice, which sounded like Morris. Other details on the death certificate allowed more pieces to fall into place: birthplace, Napierville, Canada; his father, “Peter Morris,” [Pierre Lavoie], and mother, “Zebelanda,” [Isabelle Landry].
More than the restoration of the Lavoie family’s name, further research opened a gut-wrenching back story. While the rebellions in Lower Canada in the late 1830s spurred French-Canadian immigration to Vermont, we know few specific stories. Pinpointing Napierville, however, provided a wealth of details. There, in November 1838, “Patriotes” continuing to rebel against the British Crown embarked on a swath of destruction that spilled into other villages. These ragtag rebels were soon defeated by larger forces. Among those rounded up was Pierre Lavoie, Toussaint’s father, caught on horseback with a saber in hand.
In February 1839, Pierre Lavoie came to trial in Montreal for a capital offense. Several people testified that Lavoie had been coerced to join the rebels after hearing death threats to his family. Even with those mitigating circumstances, Lavoie was sentenced to death by hanging. However, later that month, “the merciful consideration of the crown” commuted his sentence to penal servitude and exile in New South Wales [Australia.] In the meantime, the government seized his property, burned his house, and dispersed Lavoie’s family of nine children.
Lavoie endured a five-month journey to Australia aboard H.M.S. Buffalo, during which he spent much of the voyage below deck—darkness, vermin, heat, and hunger adding to his torment. We learn further details of Lavoie’s imprisonment from the published journal of fellow prisoner Francois-Marie Lepailleur. In June 1844, after four years of hard labor, Lavoie was pardoned but had to pay for his long voyage home. Unsurprisingly, having endured so much privation, he died only a year after being reunited with his family.
Among the 288 individuals born in French Canada counted in Shoreham’s 1850 census, there were other ex-rebels like David “Sears” [Cyr]. Toussaint’s younger brother, Isaie Lavoie, also moved to Shoreham, where he became known as Esau Morris, but some of his children were recorded in Vermont records with the surname Lowell. His descendants knew nothing about their ancestor’s extraordinary trial and imprisonment.
How does one navigate the labyrinth of bewildering name changes? Experience helps along with collecting all available information on an individual’s extended family and social connections. Many more stories of immigrants to Vermont have yet to be told.
For further details and documentation of sources see “Names of French Canada Lost in Vermont: Esau Morris of Shoreham,” Vermont Genealogy 24 (Fall 2019), 182–194.
