This dress has seen wear by several generations of one single family. Although its style is that of the early 1780s, it was probably remade from an earlier dress, a common practice with costly fabric. The likely owner was Marie-Josephte Courreaud de la Côte, daughter of a Montreal merchant, who in 1782 married the noble Jean-Baptiste-Philippe-Charles d'Estimauville, Baron de Beaumouchel, born in Louisbourg. Later photographs show the dress on the couple's descendants, attired for costume balls, a popular entertainment of that time.