The “Association des familles Morissette Inc.” offers you the possibility to be proud of your Morissette family name (in all its variations), to know your origin and your history and that of your ancestors and their descendants.
We have been able to trace nine (9) ancestors with the Morissette surname who emigrated from Europe in the past centuries. Seven (7) went to North America, one (1) went to Australia and one (1) went to Haïti.
Four (4) settled in Canada, and three (3) of them, Jean Moricet, Mathurin Morisset and Pierre Maurisset, left descendants. Were they related? We don’t know, but we know that some years separated their arrival.
1) Mathurin Morisset, merchant and builder of mills, left no known descendants. He had a wife and children in La Rochelle, Aunis, France. He is listed as married and aged of 45 in the 1666 Census.
2) Jean Moricet , born August 18, 1641, in Surgères, Aunis, France, married Jeanne Choret in Beauport, QC, on January 14,1669, and they established their home in Ste-Famille, Ile d’Orleans, QC. They are related in general to the Morissettes living south of the St. Lawrence River. Some descendants have also emigrated to United States.
3) Mathurin Morisset, born May 9, 1648, in Thouarsais-Bouildroux, Poitou, France, married Elisabeth Coquin in Neuville,QC, on January 9,1690, and they established their home in Cap-Santé, QC. They are related in general to the Morissettes living north of the St. Lawrence River. Some descendants have also emigrated to the United States.
4) Pierre Morisset, originally from St. Sauveur-de-Nuaillé, Aunis, France, married the widow Marie Charland in St-Jean, Isle of Orleans, QC, on August 16, 1719. No male descendants are known after the second generation.
Three Morissettes settled in the United States. Some were Huguenots, who were forced to flee France because the Catholic Church persecuted them for their religious beliefs. Some went to England first before settling in the United States.
5) Thomas Morissette, born in 1675 in Essex, England, arrived in Virginia as part of the “John Randoph Expedition” which sailed from Scotland to Princess Ann, Virginia. He was supposedly a sailor. He married Mary-Anne Wade, born in 1678 in Scots, England, before 1702. They are the ancestors of the owners of the vineyard Château Morrisette in Virginia.
6) Pierre Morriset, a French Huguenot, arrived at James City, Virginia, on July 23, 1700, on the ship Mary & Ann via London. His future wife, Elizabeth Faure, was also on the same ship with her mother, 2 brothers and a sister; they were identified as the widow Faure and four children. They spent most of their American life in Mannikintown, Virginia, with their four children: Jeanne, Jean(John), Katherine and Elizabeth.
7) Jean Marisset, a French Huguenot, also arrived at James City, Virginia, on September 20, 1700, on the ship Peter & Anthony via London.
C) We have located a eighth ancestor who founded Morisset City in Australia in April 1823 and who lived there.
8) Lieutenant-Colonel James-Thomas Morisset (1781-1852), born in England but living in Australia, returned to England to marry Emily Vaux on May 2, 1826, in Ryde, Isle of Wight. He was probably a descendant of a French Huguenot who fled France during the previous century. Additional information is available at “The Morissets of Australia” page.
We have located a ninth ancestor who emigrated in Haïti and who lived there.
9) Louis Morisset (1766-1819), originating from Saintonge, France, who lived in Port-au-Prince. His son Alexandre became a hero when he fights against Bonaparte to help Jean-Louis Pierrot to become the president of Haïti in 1845.
We have traced other ancestors with Morisset maternal roots who emigrated from France and established a family in New France:
A) Antoine Rousseau, son of Jean Rousseau and Blaise Moricet, was baptized on April 7, 1643, in Bournand, Vienna, France. He married Marie Roinay/Roanès on January 10/1676 in Laprairie, QC.
B) Adrien Leconte/Lecomte dit Lafuie, son of Adrien Leconte/Lecomte and Catherine Morisset, from Rilly-sur-Vienne in Touraine, and Jacquette Moreau, daughter of Jean & Jacquette Mousset from St-André de Chartres in Eure-et-Loir, got married in Quebec City on November 23, 1679.
To summarize, if you are a Morissette (in all its spelling variations) living in the United States, you may originate from one of the four following ancestors:
Jean Moricet married to Jeanne Choret, from Ile d’Orleans, QC, Canada,
Mathurin Morisset married to Elisabeth Coquin, from Cap-Santé, QC, Canada,
Thomas Morrisette married to Mary-Ann Wade, from Virginia, USA,
Pierre Morriset married to Elizabeth Faure, from Virginia, USA.
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