The mystery of the famous “LX” of Proulx
A fantasy of Father Antoine Proulx

By Jean-Pierre Proulx

NOTE : This article first appeared in the Mémoires de la Société généalogique canadienne-française. PROULX, Jean-Pierre. “Les Proulx – Pour en finir avec notre LX! (Part 2)”, in Figure de Prou, Figure de Prou, Issue 15 – September 9, 2016, pp. 1, 4-5. We have added here the reference to the marriage of Pierre Proulx to Louise Robineau.

In Poitou, Jean of Neuville, our ancestor, as well as Jean of Montmagny, his contemporary, were both Prousts, a contraction of provost or prévôt, the title of an officer of the law1. But as soon as they arrived here, around 1670, they were renamed Prou. No doubt because the “ST” could not be pronounced. And the priests and notaries of the time were probably not from Poitou.

But here we are Proulx! Someone has come up with a nice explanation: as our ancestors were illiterate, the notaries and priests would have placed a bar at the end of Prou after which the person concerned would add his cross. But this is a nice legend!

Il y a plusieurs années, un jésuite a proposé une explication savante : « …la terminaison « lx » indique un diminutif en “ulus” ou “ellus”2». Interesting, but hardly convincing.

We looked for a better explanation and we think we found it. This “LX” is simply a fantasy of Father Antoine Proulx, born on June 15, 1726 in Neuville, son of François Proulx and Marie-Thérèse Faucher. Ordained in 1751, he was appointed parish priest in Yamaska and then in Terrebonne in 1758. He died in Montreal on November 7, 1758; his biographer, J.-B. Allaire3 erroneously gave him birth in Pointe-aux-Trembles of Montreal, confusing this village with Pointe-aux-Trembles near Quebec City, today Neuville.

Fantaisie, car le curé qui a rédigé son acte de baptême à Neuville avait écrit « Prou ». Antoine a décidé d’ajouter un « LX » à son nom. Quand ? Peut-être au petit séminaire de Québec dans les années 1640. Cela n’a pu être vérifié. Au début du 18e siècle, observe-t-on, les curés et les notaires avaient commencé à ajouter un « X » à la fin du patronyme Prou. Et la forme Proux finit par remplacer le Prou d’origine. Peut-être parce que bien des mots se terminant en « ou », au singulier comme au pluriel, prennent un « X » à la fin. Ex. : époux, doux, jaloux, etc. Mais un « L »en plus d’un « X » ! Voilà qui est bien curieux.

However, a careful examination of the original acts listed in the PRDH database4 reveals that the priest Antoine did indeed sign “Proulx” at the bottom of the acts of baptisms, marriages and burials that he celebrated. This spelling is first noted on October 23, 1751, in the Yamaska register (Proulx is indeed found in the Oka register at the same time, but it is a register reconstituted after a fire).

Mais la fantaisie du curé Proulx pourrait bien avoir son origine en France même! En effet, la graphie « Proulx » s’y retrouve aussi. Ainsi dans l’acte de mariage du 16 juillet 1748 de Pierre Proulx et Louise Robineau, dans la paroisse de St-Martin de Méon (Maine et Loire), on lit bien « Proulx »5. These are the probable ancestors of René Proulx, husband of Marguerite Brunet, married in Deschambault in 1820. The priest Antoine Proulx may well have learned this usage through his contacts with other priests from France. This is a plausible hypothesis, but it cannot be verified.

Marriage certificate of Pierre Proulx and Louise Robineau, July 16, 1748.

The appearance of the spelling Proulx in notarized contracts also dates from the last quarter of the 18th century. It was first observed on September 29, 1776, by notary Dufault of Montreal, in the marriage contract of Marianne Proulx, daughter of Alexis Proulx, of Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures. She is the cousin of Antoine whose marriage he celebrates the next day in Terrebonne. Did the priest and the notary get together? Other notaries will gradually follow the example.

An examination of the registers after 1800 reveals an increasing use of the Proulx spelling until it becomes definitively established after 1850. The explanation seems to me to be twofold. First, six Proulx priests were ordained between 1828 and 1860. One of them, Louis Proulx, a native of Baie-du-Febvre and great-cousin of Antoine, is an important figure. He was successively professor at the seminary of St-Hyacinthe, director of the college of Sainte-Anne de La Pocatière, pastor of at least four parishes, including that of the cathedral of Quebec, and finally grand vicar of the diocese of Quebec6. This priest, although baptized under the patronymic of Proux, signed Proulx. From then on, the priests who were contemporaries of Abbés Proulx most probably and progressively adopted the spelling “Proulx” as the norm and imposed it in their parishes.

At the same time, the years 1830-1850 marked the beginning of public school in Lower Canada. The children who were now literate adopted the spelling imposed on them by their schoolmasters and schoolmistresses.

These are, of course, hypotheses. In the absence of further empirical verification, they have the merit of being logical and above all plausible. For the moment, we will be satisfied with them.

Montréal

jean_pierre.proulx@sympatico.ca

Notes

  1. Roland Jacob, Votre nom et son histoire, Montréal, Éditions de l’Homme, 2006 and 2015; Geneanet, http://www.geneanet.org/nom-de-famille/PROUST (accessed April 2, 2015). ↩︎
  2. P. Pégon, « Origine étymologique du nom Prou (Proulx) », Mémoires de la Société généalogique canadienne-française, 21, 2 (1970) 103. ↩︎
  3. J.-B. Allaire, Dictionnaire biographique du clergé canadien-français, 1910, Montréal : Imprimerie de l’École Catholique des Sourds-Muets, p. 451. ↩︎
  4. PRDH-IGD (Programme de recherche en démographie historique), Université de Montréal, 1999-2015, www.genealogie.umontreal.ca/fr/ ↩︎
  5. Archives départementales de Maine et Loire, parish of St-Martin in Méon, July 16, 1748. ↩︎
  6. Honorius Provost, « Proulx, Louis », dans Dictionary of Canadian Biography, [online]. http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/proulx_louis_1804_1871_10F.html. (accessed June 11, 2016). ↩︎