When an area was sufficiently populated (fifty or so families), the people asked the bishop and the intendant for authorization to form a parish with a priest to minister to them. The families got together and provided the materials and labour to build a church. The seigneurial mill was generally erected quite close to the parish church, and it was around these structures that the village formed. In addition to going to church every Sunday, the people made several visits to the mill throughout the year in order to grind their grain. After a time, a few houses were built around the church, often by retired farmers who had passed their land on to their sons. The parish of Pointe-Claire dates back to the seventeenth century and was documented in 1831 by this sepia pen and brush drawing by James Duncan (1806-1881). The parish church seen here was erected about 1750, replacing an earlier one built in 1713.
