François-Jean BAILLY dit LAFLEUR
Biography

BAILLY, dit Lafleur, FRANÇOIS, master-mason; b. in France c. 1627 (1630 according to the census of 1681); d. 1690.

Bailly was hired by the Abbé Queylus [see Thubières] at La Rochelle 8 June 1659. With his wife, Marie, and his father-in-law, Jérémie Fonteneau, he arrived in Montreal the same year. Jeanne Mance soon engaged him to build a barn for the Hôtel-Dieu, inside Fort Ville-Marie, and on 4 April 1660, he entered into partnership with mason Urbain Brossard*. Later he worked in partnership with the other leading Montreal mason of the period, Michel Bouvier; the contract they jointly signed to build a bakery in 1683 calls them “architect-masons.” Bailly was in the militia of Sainte-Famille in 1663 and he was also a civic official, serving as sergeant-royal (huissier) from 1667 and prison warden (geôlier et concierge des prisons) from 2 July 1676 until his death. Bailly’s chief work, however, was on the parish church of Notre-Dame begun under the leadership of Dollier de Casson* in 1672, and completed in 1683. Constructed entirely of stone, 129 ft. long and 38 ft. wide, it was considerably larger and more impressive than Laval’s* cathedral in Quebec. Bailly was buried 25 July 1690 and his wife on 29 Oct. 1692.

Alan Gowans

Dictionary of Canadian Biography, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003

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