[m'lachlan] FLEURY MESPLET, FIRST PRINTER AT MONTREAL 199 



with such conclusions and chronological sequences as I have been able 

 to deduce therefrom. 



Fleury Mesplet was born in the Parish of St. Xizier, diocese of 

 Lyon, in France, about the year 1735. His father's name was Jean 

 Baptiste Mesplet, and his mother's Marie Antoinette Capeau. There 

 are four parishes of St. Nizier in the dioeese of Lyon, one in the 

 city and three in the country. The latter are known by sub-names, 

 as St. Nizier d'Azergnes, St. Nizier de Formas, and St. Nizier sous 

 Charlier. As none of these sub-titles are mentioned, we may conclude 

 that Mesplefs birthplace was in the City of Lyon, where he received 

 a good (common school) education sufficient to fit him for his chosen 

 trade; that afterwards he was apprenticed to that trade, and that in 

 due course he became a capable printer. 



As Mesplet did not marry until he began to be about thirty years 

 of age, we may conclude that, it was during his bachelor days, while 

 meeting in secret with others of his own craft, he became saturated 

 with the republican ideas that then prevailed in France; which ideas 

 were believed to be a cure-all for the distress caused by misgovernment. 

 As the church was intimately connected with, or rather formed part 

 of the government, it became involved in the same condemnation ; there- 

 fore Mesplet, following the lead of his companions, became not only^ 

 a republican, but an open free thinker ; which belief, or rather unbelief 

 clung to him for many years afterwards. 



It was, at least, as late as 1765, that he married Marie Mirabeau, 

 then a girl of eighteen, who, although twelve years his junior, proved 

 a good and faithful wife during his wanderings and under his many 

 vicissitudes of fortune. From this union there does not appear to 

 have sprung any children, as none are referred to in his later history. 



Some eight years after his marriage his dissatisfaction with the 

 political and commercial outlook in France led him to seek success else- 

 where; whether before this he had launched out as a master printer 

 it is so far not known. In any case the incapacity of the government 

 of Louis XVI was such, and the taxation imposed had become so oppres- 

 sive and repressive as to bring France to the verge of bankruptcy and 

 make it almost impossible for an honest worlonan to earn a living. 

 Mesplet determined therefore to migrate. Avoiding the French colonies, 

 in which he feared that similar oppression and repression prevailed, 

 he struck out for London and landed there not later than early in 

 1773, Avhere he set up his press at an address near Covent Garden. 

 From this press was issued " La Tiouisiane ensanglantée," a book of 

 about 200 pages, written by ^ Chevalier de Champigny. This is the 



^ See appendix A, No. 1. 



