A rebel in the family

Édouard Bourgeois, Eulalie's father, was the son of Ambroise Bourgeois who in turn was the son of Henri-Marie Bourgeois and Marie Coupal. Marie Coupal was the sister of Antoine Coupal dit Lareine, a man who played a role in bringing responsible government to Canada.

Since 1791, Lower Canada (Quebec) and Upper Canada (Ontario) had each been ruled by a governor general, invariably an english military officer named for a brief stint. He was advised by a council in whom resided all executive power. In Upper Canada, this council was controled by a handful of families known as the family compact. In Lower Canada, the council was dominated by a handful of english merchants. There was also an elected assembly in each province. This parliament had the power to pass legislation and budgets but not to enact them. This led to governement paralysis with budgets and laws being passed but not acted upon.

For more on the history of this period:

http://www.collectionscanada.ca/2/18/h18-2002-e.html

The elected assembly submitted a list of 92 resolutions expressing Lower Canada's discontent to London. These resolutions were rejected. In the face of mounting public unrest, hundreds of men decided to take up arms, and three major bloody battles ensued. The first, the Saint-Denis battle on November 23, 1837, was a victory for the Lower Canada Patriots over the British soldiers. One interesting historical fact is that this battle was led by the patriot Wolfred Nelson, a doctor of English origin married to a French Canadian, who, against the better judgement of his comrade Papineau, incited the population to violence with the declaration that "the time has come to melt our spoons into bullets."

The other conflicts that followed, in Saint-Charles on November 25, and in Saint-Eustache the following month. When the patriots were defeated, towns were burned, people attacked, women and children thrown out of their homes in the dead of winter.

The troubles started again in 1838. This time the patroits established camps in the area south of Montreal where they waited in vain for their leaders who had fled to the states the preceding year to return with arms. Repression was terrible with over a thousand people jailed and villages pillaged and burned.

Antoine Coupal was a lieutenant of Wolfred Nelson. He was one of the ones responsible for recruitment and setting the camp in Napierville. He commanded a brigade at the battle of Odelltown where the patriot forces were finally defeated. This sounds grandiose but in reality the patriot forces consisted of farmers with little military experience and armed more often with pitchforks rather than guns.

He was jailed in Montreal from November 13th 1838 and appeared before the martial court in January 1839 where he was sentenced to death by hanging. His sentence was commuted to exile in Australia for life. He along with 57 other men convicted of the same crimes and 82 americans who had taken part in the rebellion were embarked on the Buffalo which sailed on september 28th 1839 from Quebec city to Australia by way of Rio de Janeiro. The american prisoners were left in Hobart, Tasmania. The Quebec contingent were dropped off in Sydney.

Archives in Sydney (Butts of tickets for employment 1841-42, CGS 12199 (4/4287-88; microfilm copy SR Reel 592, photocopy [City] COD214). 2 vols.:) record detailed information about these prisoners. From these documents we learn that Antoine Coupal was the shortest man in the group at 5 feet tall. He was also the oldest (50 years old, born in 1790) and had the largest family with 12 children. He could not sign his name, described his employment as farmer, and bore scars to his left hand and right thumb.

The exiles at first were held in the Longbottom stockade and employed at building the Paramatta road. Later on , they were allowed to take up residence with friends in the village and to excercise a variety of employment.

The life of the convicts there is well documented as three of the rebels wrote memoirs of their stay. These books do not seem to be available in Canada but were translated into english and reprints are still on sale in Australia. The rebels were reprieved in 1844 and all but three left (2 died there, Joseph Marceau a widower married a local woman) Sydney for Montreal on January 18th 1845.

When Antoine Coupal returned, Canada had responsible government but two his children had died during his absence. He returned to farming in Lacadie and died in 1875.

Australia keeps a memory of the presence of canadian rebels on its shore. Several place names reflect this: Canada bay, Exile Bay, and France Bay.

For more on the life of french canadian rebels in Australia see:

http://www.siwvl.nsw.gov.au/resources/reading/canadian_exiles.html

For an explanation of the american role in the rebellion:

http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/llt/52/bonthius.html

I am grateful for some of these notes to Pierre Coupal great great grand-son of Antoine. Pierre just returned to Quebec after a twelve year stay in Australia. He has an Australian wife and two children.