Jean alexis lemoine biography of michaels

LEMOINE, ditMonière, ALEXIS (Jean-Alexis), merchant; b. 14 April 1680 at Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade, son of Jean Lemoine and Madeleine de Chavigny de Berchereau; d. 23 June 1754 at Montreal.

The career of Alexis Lemoine, dit Monière, is fairly representative of that of the average Canadian “merchant-outfitter” in the first half of the 18th century. His father, a shareholder in the Compagnie de la Colonie, was a small trader in the region of Trois-Rivières. The family had few means, and when the sons reached manhood the trading networks formerly about Lac Saint-Pierre had shifted towards the interior; trade had become more structured and less easy of access. Like his older brother, René-Alexandre, dit Despain, Alexis had to leave for Montreal, whence the convoys for the west set off. He spent his entire youth as a voyageur and fur-trader on behalf of others, particularly for Cadillac [Laumet*]. Towards 1712 he began financing his own voyages to Michilim