Reider-Underwood Genealogy

Notes for Mary Dubec Harris:
She was Mary Harris in the record of her marriage to Charles Beaujean in Bostonin 1754 when she was aged 32. But in 1757 in Guadeloupe in the baptismal record of her son Pierre Francois Beaujean she is called Marie Dubec. (It is notedin the recor d that she had an Anglican wedding to Charles Beaujean in Boston, but the Catholic priest labeled Pierre Francois as illegitimate!) In the record of son Charles Peter Beaujean's second marriage in Guadeloupe in 1787 she is named as Marie Haris Dub ec, so all these name variations apply to the same woman.

The French Catholic custom in the 18th Century was to always refer to women by their maiden names. Since the priests on Guadeloupe considered her to be a Dubec, that must have been her maiden name. She must have been married toa Mr. Harris in Bost on before her marriage to Charles Beaujean. By English custon, she would have remained Mary Harris after being widowed or divorced by Mr. Harris. Despite her French maiden name, according to her burial record, she was a native of Boston, not Guade loupe. (There is a Debec family on Guadeloupe but no Dubec family.) She was also reported to be an Anglican. Of interest,there were French Huguenots named Dubec in London circa 1700, and people namedDubec in the Boston city directory in the 1820s . It is reasonable to imagine that she was born in Boston with French Huguenot ancestors.

Despite her Boston upbringing, she adapted well to life in the French Caribbean. She was already on Guadeloupe in 1757 and might have lived there continuously until her death in 1786. She was buried at St. Francois parish in Basse-Terre.