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- ! MariagePRDH # 77343Beauport (Civil archives) 1696-10-29Rank Name Age M.S. Pr. Sex01 JEAN POITEVIN SPOUSE OF 02 DECLARED NOT BEING ABLE TO SIGN --- c p m Residence : CHARLESBOURG02 FRANCOISE ROZOTTY SPOUSE OF 01 DECLARED NOT BEING ABLE TO SIGN --- c p f Residence : BEAUPORT Origin : BOSTON03 JEAN POITEVIN FATHER OF 01 SPOUSE OF 04 --- m --- m Residence : CHARLESBOURG04 MADELEINE GUILLAUDEAU MOTHER OF 01 SPOUSE OF 03 --- m ---f Residence : CHARLESBOURG05 JACQUES PARENT --- --- p m Residence : BEAUPORT06 PIERRE MOREL --- --- p m Residence : BEAUPORT07 MAURICE DERRY --- --- p m Residence : CHARLESBOURG08 E BOULLARD --- c p m Occupation : CURE Residence : BEAUPORTL'EPOUSE EST "UNE FILLE ANGLAISE DEMEURANT DEPUIS SON BAS AGE EN CETTEPAROISSEOU ELLE A ETE AMENEE DE BOSTON, SON PAYS NATAL, PAR LES SAUVAGES"! <http://genforum.genealogy.com/otis/messages/752.html>Re: Rose Otis m. Jean Poitevin 24 Oct. 1696Posted by: S Strahan (ID *****1106) Date: April 10, 2008 at 10:20:30In Reply to:Rose Otis m. Jean Poitevin 24 Oct. 1696by tom dunnAt her death in 1729, she was said to be 52 years old,so therefore born in 1677 or 1678. She was certainly born in New England, and probably at Concheco, now Dover, NH. This Rose was the daughterof Stephen Otis and Mary Pitman, the granddaughter of Richard.Descendants ofFrancoise "Rozotty" Otis may find the following article interesting:Excerpt from Foster's Daily Democrat, Dover, NH, Wednesday Evening, June 28,1989:"A Tercentennial Story by Jim Aldrich, Special to the Democrat"An eleven year old Dover girl taken captive by Abenaki Indians 300years ago this summer -- and whose exact identity has always been a mystery-- has now been identified by a Canadian nun researching her family history. The Abenaki seized the child in the June 28, 1689, raid on Cocheco, now downtown Dover, New Hampshire, in what was the opening attack of the five French and Indian Wars."TheIndians carried her across the vast northern New England wilderness to Canada where she was raised by a French family in a small village near the City of Quebec. She married there seven years later as a comely bride of 18, and spent therest of her life in New France, much of it at a time when New England andNew France were at war."Although she has been well known by her French name, her precise English identity hasremained a mystery to historians and genealogists alike. That is, until now."The discovery by Sister Annette Potvin of Edmonton, Alberta,made in the course of family research, clearsup the mystery and establishes for the first time the true parental identity of "Francoise Rozotty," the name of the captive as it appears onan ancient French document."The puzzle began over a hundredyears ago when 19th Century researchers, seeking to discover the fate of hundreds of New Englanders carried captive during the 74 years of the French andIndian wars, found the name "Rozotty" on a Canadian marriage certificate. The certificate, writtenby the cure of the parish in Beauport adjacent to Quebec, certifies that on October 26, 1696, he married Jean Poitevin of nearby Charlesbourg and Francoise Rozotty, "English girl, living since her childhood in this parish.""The priest goes onto note that Francoise had been "brought from Boston, her native country, by the savages." Boston, in the parlance of 17th Century New France, included muchof Maine and New Hampshire, territory claimed at one time or another by the Provinceof Massachusetts Bay."Just about everyone in that region was known to the French as "Bastonnais", so far reaching was the political power of Puritan Boston. Francoise Rozotty's age at the time of hercapture was established by the record of her death in 1729, listing her then as 52 years of age. This meant she was born about 1677 or perhaps 78, the way the calender was thenarranged elevenyears before the 1689 attack. It did not take much imagination for researchers to see in the name of FrancoiseRozotty, first a French name of Christian baptism, then an English name of Rose Otis."Anyone familiar with the captivity narrativesknew the name "Otis" and immediately associated it with Dover. There were so many members of this family captured, or killed, in earlyIndian warfare that the name became almost synonymous with captivity itself. But there was a catch. The original Rose Otis of Dover had been dead for about 15 years when the Abenaki attack was launched against the five Dover garrisons. Moreover, she had been born in 1629, much too early to be 11 years old at the time of the raid. The names fitted,but the dates did not."Who, then was the Rose Otis with the odd, almost Italianate name of Rozotty on the Canadian records? In order toadequately answer that question, we must first go to the original Rose, even thoughshe was long dead whenthe Rose Otiswho became Francoise Rozotty, was taken captive. The first Rose was Rose Stoughton Otis who came from England to Boston as a 14year-old girl in 1643 when civil war raged between Puritans and royalists in old England. She wasarelative of the influential and Puritan Stoughton family of Boston, and there, it was thought, she would be safe from the dangers she might face in war-torn England."In Boston, or its immediate surroundings, Rose Stoughton met and married,about1649, Richard Otis, then a24 year-old blacksmith, four years her senior, and with a promising future. He had been born in Glastonbury, England, and probably had not been very long in the American colonies. About 1655 Richard moved hissmallbut growing family from Bostonto Cocheco where his talents might be profitably employed in shoeing the hundreds of oxen needed in the then fast developing Piscataqua mast tradethat right up to the American Revolution kept "His Majesty's ships" afloat and sailing on the high seas."Among their several children born inCocheco was a daughter Rose, obviously named for her mother. Young Rose andher sisters were made captives when the French supported Abenaki attack againstDover camein the pre-dawn darkness of that fateful Friday in 1689."French records of the day reveal that the gunpowder, and perhaps weapons used in the attack, were French supplied. The governor general of New France later claimed credit for the "success" of the raid andthe rest of the Abenaki attacksin Maine and New Hampshire later that summer."Shortly after their capture, Rose and her sisters were rescued from the retreating, Canada bound savages, near Conway, New Hampshire."This Roselater married one of her rescuers, John Pinkham of Dover Pointand settled down to raising a family of her own."Who, then, was the Canadian Francoise Rozotty? She was, obviously, neithermother nor daughter, the first being dead andthe second never having set foot in New France. Researchers were puzzled."Anotherpossibility arose. After his wife's death, which probably occurred before 1675, Richard Otis married again, sometime prior to November of 1677. Some researchers havespeculatedthat after Widower Otis wedded Widow Shuah (sometimes Susanna or Anna)Heard,he fathered a child whom they named Rose. New Englanders were known to do such things. Child mortality rates were so high that parentsgave morethanone childthesame name, in hopes of assuring the name's perpetuationinto future generations as sortof"nominal" immortality."A child born early in the marriage of Richard and Shuah would have been age 52 in 1729, as stated on the record ofFrancoise's death. It was a tempting thought and one supported by a number of persons."Other researchers,however, speculated that this was not the case at all, that the Rose Otis carried to Canada was grandchild of RichardOtis, perhaps throughRichard Otis Junior, like his father a blacksmith but located at DoverPoint somemiles from Cocheco wherethe raidtook place. This was the thought of Emma Coleman when in 1925 she published in Portland, Maine,her authoritative two-volume study "New England Captives Carried to Canada." This work was the result of a lifetime of research, much of it as an understudytothat other devoted student of the fate of New England captives, C Alice Baker, whose book, "New EnglandCaptives Carriedto Canada,' -intrigued so many New Englanders when published in 1897. Francis Parkman, Boston's celebrated historian of the French and Indian wars, told Alice Baker, "we are all your debtors" - a ringing tribute to her research."Together, these two women poured over the Canadian and New England records, year after year, threading the captivity stories into an assembled patchwork of history, as lived by persons who would have beentheir friends and neighbors, hadtheylived inanotherera."Coleman, in considering the Francoise Rozotty story, wrote: "Rose died 7 July 1729, and two years later Jean Poitevin, sometimescalled Laviolette, took another wife. But who was (this) Rose Otis? Probably a granddaughterof RichardofDover.Shehas been called his daughter, but did he have two named Rose? One married John Pinkham in New England"."In the 64 years sinceColeman publishedher work, no one known to this writer has come any closer to answeringthequestion, "Who wasFrancoise Rozotty?" We know littleof Francoise, only that in 1702 she still was "living in the region ofQuebec", and was awarded. .30 "livres" (pounds) of theKing's money, that in 1710 she became a naturalized citizen of New France, that sheandJean Poitevinintheir 33 years of marriage had 10 children, and that when she died on July 7, 1729, she was 52 years of age."From the origin ofher name and periodof captivity, we can conclude that she had been one of the 29human souls,most of them womenand children, who on the rain swept Friday morning of 1689 had trudged out of their burning town, acrid smoke in their nostrils, their hands probably laced behind them withrawhide, circulation cut off at the wrists, tiedbytheirnecks one to the other ina long line, prodded by spears, stumbling, their hearts heavywith grief and their eyes wet with tears, facing a long march into a grave andforbidding unknown. Most of what they loved was dead or burning.As the sun rose behind the clouds and the lastmusket shots were firedat the one hold-out garrison, the 250 Indians involved inthe raid hustled their captives at a hurried pace along the Cart Way,the town's main thoroughfare, northward into thewilderness and on toward Canada. Lookat CentralAvenue today and picture the scene. Among the captives was this tearful, 11 year-old child, barefoot and frightened. Death and carnage lay abouther, herfather probably killedat her feet, hermother with him, or, likeher children, tied to the string of departing humanity."We come now to the answer to the 300 year question. It does, however, require some further background to be understood.RichardOtisSenior had builttwo houses after he and Rose and their firstborn children came from Boston to Dover, those 34 years before the raid. Both structures are clearly visible on a circa 1680 map of the Piscataqua region."The firstwas on ariseof landoffwhatisnow Central Avenue, then called the Cart Way. The second was built across the way near what is now the intersection of Milk Street and the avenue. Its foundations were uncovered during an excavation early in thiscentury. Items found there are nowwith the Woodman Institute in Dover. Richard probably gave the first houseto his son, Steven, probably upon completion of the second home."The son's name is often spelled "Stephen", but for purposes that will becomeclear, wewill stay with"Steven". In1674 Steven married Mary Pitman, daughter ofWiliam Pitmanof nearbyOysterRiver, today's Durham. They had,it is known, sons Steven and Nathaniel, and a daughter Mary. Until nowthere has been no records of other children. About 1684,probablyin the spring and summer thereof, the elder Otis' new home and blacksmith shopwere surrounded by a tall stockade, and fortified."Several militia were probably stationed there, on a rotating basis. The palisade did nogood. Whentheattackcame five years later,Richard Otis was killed, as was his two-year-olddaughter, Hannah.So washisson Steven, and others, many unknown. Most of the 23 deaths in the raid probably occurred at theOtis and the nearby Waldron garrisons.Members of both Richard'sand son Steven'sfamilies were made captive.We do not knowwhat happened to Steven'swifeMary. She too may have died in the attack, or have been carriedcaptive.Their two sons, Steven and Nathaniel, boys whencaptured, latermarried in New France and spent the rest of their lives there."What does all of this have to do, onemight ask, with Francoise Rozotty Poitevin? A great deal."In early January of this year, Sister Annette Potvin wrote to Robert Whitehouse, president of Dover'sNorthamColonists, thecity'shistorical society. Could he help her,she asked, trace the parentage of her captive English forebear, Rose Otis of Dover, who became Francoise Rozotty on the Canadian records?"Whitehouse sent the letter on to this writer whomhe has helped for the pastnineyears in a study ofseveralmembers of the Otis family and the Abenaki raid on Dover. An examination of nine years of recordsrevealed the expected: Materialwasavailable onother members of the Otis family, but researchhad not turned up much on Francoise Rozotty. What we had,we mailed off to Edmonton, but it did not adequately address Sister Potvin's question. Sister Potvincontinued her studyof the oldCanadian records. Then in mid-February --fast as historical research usually goes -- camea letter from her, dated the 12th of the month. Enclosed were a photocopy and a typed versionof an until then unknown, French language, marriage contract-- not well known and already heavily pored over marriage certificate -- between Jean PoitevinandFrancoise Rozotty, dated three days before their marriagein1696 and spelling the rest ofFrancoise's name, notas "Rozotty" butclearly as"Rosotis.""But, there was more. A part of that marriage contract,in translation reads:"Francoise Rosotis, daughter ofdeceased Stinodis, and of deceased Mary Otos,her father and mother, of English birthin the environs of Boston...." Afterthree hundred years, yet another bit of that 1689 raid on Dover had fallen into place.The parental identity of the captive RoseOtis, long lost to history, was nowon the record.Theyears of speculation were gone.It was a moment that Alice Baker andEmma Coleman would enjoy."Sister Potvin, like any cautious researcher,wrote:"Now, ifthis is correct, if Francoise's mother is Mary, then Stinodis may be Stephen (Steven) Otis. Weshould be aware that for theFrench who did not know English, names like Steven and Rose Otis were mysteries. "If Francoise said that her father's name were Steven, the (French) Notary (whodrew up the marriage contract) wrote what sounded tohim as Stin. In Frenchthe "i" is pronounced like the English "e". He forgotor missed the "v" but the "n" standing for "en" (in Steven), is there."Such misspellings of English names were not uncommonamong French"notaires", village priestsand other drafters of officialdocuments. Thename"Otis", for instance, has had no less than eight major variations on theFrench records. As Emma Coleman listed them: Otheys, Oteys, Otesse, Autes, Hautesse,Hotesse, Rozotty, and Thys. Wemay nowadd: Odisand Otos. Toencounter"Steven Otis"as "Stinodis," (pronounced Stee en odis, with aFrench inflection) should therefore come as no surprise."The fact the Steven'sname in the marriage contract is associated with thenameofhis wife,"Mary Otos," makes the conclusion that thesetwo Doverites were Francoise's parents, almost inescapable."Coleman said of her work with Alice Baker that "the phonetic spelling of the (French) registrars (of Englishnames) made guessing imperative." There isnot much to guess athere; it is allquite clear.Many New Englanders didn't spell their own names as well."Undoubtedly Sister Potvin's analysis, despite her caution, is correct. Francoise Rozotty - or RoseOtis - was the 11-year-olddaughter of Richard Otis Senior's sonStevenand Steven's wife, Mary Pitman Otis of Durham, when she was taken captive in this first assault of the first of the French and Indian wars."The original RoseOtis - a refugee fromwar-torn England,and the firstwife of theDover blacksmith - was hergrandmother. Six years after Francoise's death, the name of the Dover captive showed once again on the Canadian records. On November 14, 1735,as Sister Potvinnotes in her February 12 letter, "MichelPotvin, son ofJean Poitevin andRose Otice"marriedat Petite Riviere St. Francois Sister Povin plans a book on her early Canadian family. Perhaps it will tell us more of old Dover - so deeply interlaced, even then, werethe lives ofthe people ofNew FranceandNew England."(I'm includingthe Editor's note: "The writer was a reporter and later managing editor of this newspaper. He is semi-retired from the U.S. Information Agency in Washington, DC,and resides in Woodbridge, Virginia. His interestin Dover history stems fromyears of"localhistory talks" with the late Philip C. Foster, his editor and an enthusiastic student of Dover's past.")
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vers 1678 - 1729 (51 ans)