Maison Busteed

Maison Busteed (French for 'Busteed House'), a.k.a. Bordeaux House, was a house in Quebec, the oldest within the geographical boundaries of Gaspésie.[1] It was situated within the unceded territories of Listuguj Miꞌgmaq First Nation on the banks of the Restigouche River.[2] The house, wooden and built in a British style,[3][4] burnt down on May 31, 2020.[1] As of June 2020, the fire was being investigated as arson.[2]

Maison Busteed
LocationQuebec, Canada
Nearest cityPointe-à-la-Croix
Coordinates48°0′41.652″N 66°44′17.232″W
Builtc. 1800
Patrimoine culturel du Québec
DesignatedOctober 9, 1987
Reference no.92519 (in French)
Designated byMinistry of Culture and Communications
DesignatedDecember 6, 2007
Delisted2012

Etymology

The house's two names refer, respectively, to the Busteed family, which occupied the house for much of the 19th and 20th centuries; and to local place names.

Thomas Busteed, Esq. immigrated from Ireland to what is now Quebec in 1786, following his brother William—a Loyalist who left America following the Revolution.[2] Thomas built the house around 1800.[3][4] He evidently grew involved in local politics: as of 1837, he was a commissioner of affidavits in the Ristigouche area;[5] and on September 18, 1842, he petitioned the Parliament of the Province of Canada for "the establishment of certain Judicial Courts" in Gaspé.[6]

As to "Bordeaux," a 19th-century surveyor says:

Point au Bourdo, the residence of Thomas Busteed, Esquire, about three miles above the Mission Point, was once the site of a French town called Petit Rochelle, and the shores on each side of the river were formerly occupied by French villages.[7]

The Quebec Cultural Heritage Directory suggests that "Bordeaux" (and hence "Bourdo," "Bourdeau," and other orthographic variants) refers to Jean-François Bourdon de Dombourg, an officer who commanded a military installation on or near the property in the mid-18th century.[3]

History

The Miꞌkmaq have lived in the Gaspé Peninsula—a region colonized by France, later conquered by Britain, and now within the provincial jurisdiction of Quebec—for 5,000 years or more.[8] By 1800, when the house was built, it was located in what was then called Lower Canada.

According to Margaret Grant MacWhirter, an early 20th-century travel writer,

Shortly after the conquest this property was occupied by a Frenchman—Jean Baptiste Marceau—but in 1784, Henry Rimphoff of Carleton came into possession, remaining till July 5th, 1800, when he sold to Thos. Busteed, Esq. (great grandfather of the present owner) and the property has remained in the family ever since.[9]

The "conquest" to which MacWhirter alludes is the British victory in the Battle of Restigouche, a naval battle of the French and Indian War, and the British acquisition of Quebec and other French possessions that ensued shortly thereafter. Rimphoff, for his part, was a veteran of the Revolutionary War and had commanded, according to a present-day historian, a "battalion of militia in the Gaspé."[10]

"Marceau" is likely a misspelling on MacWhirter's part. The entry on Maison Busteed maintained by the Quebec Cultural Heritage Directory states that Busteed purchased the property from Jean-Baptiste Marcoux, but due to apparent defects in the sale he had to purchase it again from Rimphoff in 1800.[3]

At the time of MacWhirter's visit in the 1910s, "[t]he old house, recently repaired [sic] [was] a veritable museum of relics of the French period."[11] James Le Moine, a late 19th century chronicler, concurred:

Mr. Busteed's house … contains several interesting relics of former times—substantial mementoes of the strife which in 1690 and 1758–60 raged between the navies of France and England. At the entrance of the Restigouche, Admiral Byron sunk a French frigate close to Cross Point; a few miles lower down, Percé and Bonaventure had been mercilessly pillaged in 1690. The hulls of the French vessels can yet be seen in very low tides, from one of which a massive cannon was procured some years back, and now ornaments the fireplace of Mr. Busteed’s dwelling; it was shown to us.[12]

The property on which the house was built was thought to be near to—or coextensive with—the Acadian settlement of Petite-Rochelle, which was sacked by the British on July 2, 1760.[13][14] Locals, including the Busteeds, have long maintained collections of historical artifacts dating from the period of French occupation.[15]

Present day

The house and surrounding property are located within a region, covering much of the Gaspé Peninsula, which the Mi'gmawei Mawiomi Secretariat claimed in October 2007 on behalf of several First Nations. Canada is currently negotiating this claim with the Secretariat as it pertains to territories located in Quebec (although not with regard to territory in New Brunswick).[16] The negotiations may eventually result in a land claims agreement.

Public Services and Procurement Canada bought Maison Busteed from a member of the Busteed family in 2009.[17] In 2015, following litigation brought by the Listuguj Miꞌgmaq First Nation, Canada entered into a separate agreement by which, among other things, it assigned Maison Busteed and the surrounding property to the Listuguj Miꞌgmaq First Nation.[4][18] However, as the lands had never been assigned by the Miꞌgmaq people to Canada by treaty,[2] it is unclear whether such an assignment was strictly required.

Given its links to colonialism, the status of the house has long been controversial. Some members of the community favoured removing the building, viewing it as a monument to colonization; while others favoured retaining for purposes of historic preservation.[2][4] That debate was mooted on May 31, 2020, however, when the building burnt down after having been left in disrepair for many years.[1] As of June 2020, the fire was being investigated as arson.[2]

See also

References
  1. Nadeau, Jean-François (June 2, 2020). "La maison Busteed, la plus vieille de Gaspésie, n'est plus". Le Devoir (in French). Archived from the original on July 1, 2020. Retrieved June 30, 2020.
  2. Smith, Marie-Danielle (June 30, 2020). "After a Quebec heritage house is set on fire, what can emerge from the ashes?". Macleans. Archived from the original on July 1, 2020. Retrieved June 30, 2020.
  3. Quebec Cultural Heritage Directory (2004). "Maison Busteed (détruite) - Répertoire du patrimoine culturel du Québec". Archived from the original on July 1, 2020. Retrieved July 1, 2020.
  4. Van Dyk, Chris (February 2, 2019). "Listuguj Mi'kmaq, heritage advocates disagree on fate of historic Gaspesian residence". CBC News. Archived from the original on February 5, 2019. Retrieved June 30, 2020.
  5. The Quebec Almanack, and British American Royal Kalendar, for the Year 1837, Etc. Quebec City: Samuel Neilson. 1836. p. 60. Archived from the original on September 23, 2020. Retrieved August 22, 2020.
  6. Journals of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada, September 8 to October 12, 1842, 55 Archived July 1, 2020, at the Wayback Machine.
  7. Gesner, Abraham (1842). Fourth Report on the Geological Survey of the Province of New-Brunswick. Saint John, New Brunswick: Henry Chubb. p. 42. Archived from the original on September 23, 2020. Retrieved August 22, 2020.
  8. Reid 1995, p. 9.
  9. MacWhirter 1919, p. 94.
  10. Christie, Nancy (January 23, 2020), ""The World is Made for Men": Interpersonal Violence in Quebec, 1763–1837", The Formal and Informal Politics of British Rule in Post-Conquest Quebec, 1760–1837, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 155–197, doi:10.1093/oso/9780198851813.003.0004, ISBN 978-0-19-885181-3, archived from the original on July 2, 2020, retrieved July 1, 2020
  11. MacWhirter 1919, p. 95.
  12. Le Moine, James MacPherson (1878). The Chronicles of the St. Lawrence. Montreal: Dawson Bros. p. 153. Archived from the original on July 3, 2020. Retrieved July 1, 2020.
  13. "Familles rebelles de La Petite-Rochelle : un pan méconnu de l'histoire des Acadiens". Radio-Canada (in French). November 14, 2017. Archived from the original on July 2, 2020. Retrieved July 1, 2020.
  14. Clarke 1999, p. 3, 19.
  15. Clarke 1999, p. 18.
  16. Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, Aboriginal and Treaty Rights Information System Archived July 16, 2020, at the Wayback Machine, claim ID CC9505 ("Mi'gmawei Mawiomi Secretariat (2007) - Quebec Claim").
  17. Gagné, Gilles (June 2, 2020). "Un feu détruit la Maison Busteed, bâtie en 1800, en Gaspésie". Le Soleil (in French). Archived from the original on July 3, 2020. Retrieved June 30, 2020.
  18. Settlement Agreement between Listuguj Miꞌgmaq First Nation and Canada Archived December 21, 2014, at the Wayback Machine, executed by both parties as of April 29, 2015 Archived July 2, 2020, at the Wayback Machine. See especially the preamble; definition 1.1(a) (defining "Acquired Busteed Lands"); sections 3.1–3.3; and Schedule A (defining the geographical plots that constitute the "Acquired Busteed Lands"). See also Order in Council No 2012-0829 Archived July 1, 2020, at the Wayback Machine, dated June 19, 2012, by which Canada assigned 338.997 hectares of land to Listuguj Miꞌgmaq First Nation.

Bibliography
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