David Letourneau
David Letourneau was born of David Lerourneau and Jeanne Dupen around 1616 in Charente-Maritime Arrondissement Rochefort Canton Tornay-Charente Saintonge near the border of Poitou and Aunis .
In 1640, he married Sébastienne Guéry, they had 3 children.
He remarried on July 6, 1654; his second wife was Joan Baril, the daughter of Francis and Catherine Baril Ligneron, St-Germain in Aunis. This union produced 2 children, Elizabeth and Philippe in 1655 to 1657.
In 1658, probably on the Taurus, David crossed into Canada only bringing the two sons from his first marriage. How Joan Baril survived after his departure to New France and why he decided to leave are questions to which we have no answers.
In 1661, David acquired a piece of land in Ste-Famille; it extended over 3 acres in width. He gave this land to his son David upon David’s (the younger) marriage to Francoise Chaplain. David and a second son, John, developed another parcel of land several years later.
Joan Baril finally came to join her husband on one of four ships which departed from La Rochelle to Quebec; she was accompanied by her son Philip; daughter Mary remained in France.
David, working as a miller, had amassed a small fortune. He had a reputation for being the best miller in Beaupre. In 1669, David “the head miller of Beaupre”, bought a nice house 24 x 20 feet in the village of Chateau-Richer, priced at 700 pounds.
David died in 1670 at the age of 54; given how young he died, it is assume that he died of a contagious disease or an accident. He left behind a widow and movable property worth 900 pounds, cattle valued at 160 pounds, and cash valued at 260 pounds.
After David’s death, Joan Baril contracted marriage with Julian Bion called the Breton. They went to live in the manor of St. Mary, St. Nicolas along with Philippe and Jacques Létourneau.
In the end, the two boys born of David Letourneau’s marriage to Sebastien Guery only caused family strain. It was David and Francoise Chaplain who were fruitful and begat 15 children which ensured the successful descent of the Letourneau lineage.
Translated from the original Source: The Genealogy Center of French America
Translator: Mark F. Rabideau http://many-roads.com
Marie Rollet, wife of Louis Hebert, QC’s first settler; d. 1649 at QC In 1617, with her husband and three children she came from Paris to QC where she found starvation, sickness, and threats of Indian attack. A year after their arrival, says SAGARD, the first marriage solemnized in QC with the rites of the church took place, that of their daughter Anne and Etienne Jonquet. Anne died in childbirth the following year, but there is no record of the child.
Louis Gaston Hebert was born in 1575 at 129 Rue Honore, Paris, France; the son of Nicolas Hebert and Jacqueline Pajot. His family was quite affluent, with ties to the Royal Court of Catherine de’ Medici; where his father was the official druggist and spice merchant to the Queen. In this capacity, he would have had access to the royal palace; and though a bourgeois; would have been respected as a gentleman of the court. But Louis could not depend on a large inheritance and had to make his own way.
In turn, the natives taught his family the proper use of snowshoes, toboggans and canoes; all necessary to survive in the harsh Canadian environment. Her children, with the benefit of youth, were adapting well, learning the customs of their adopted country and enjoying the spirited games that were a large part of Canadian life. Foot races, lacrosse and tobogganing helped to pass away the long winter days, and in summer they enjoyed gathering berries, fishing in the streams, swimming and canoeing. In France, many of those things could only be enjoyed by the nobility. Though they had erroneously selected an uncultivated clump of high ground near the habitation, the family went to work, clearing an area where they could begin planting their crops. There was no plough available, and the tools her husband was able to purchase were practically useless. Still, the small garden he created, gave him the ridiculous honor of being “the first Canadian farmer”. Of course we know he wasn’t really the first farmer, only perhaps the first French-Canadian farmer, since the natives had been cultivating crops for more than 5,000 years and most of what he would eventually learn about agriculture, came from them. Louis also learned a great deal about the proper use of herbal remedies, which benefited the French traders, who depended on him to cure their ills. This well-bred, highly educated Parisian, may not have been much of a farmer, but he helped to sow the seeds of friendship between the two nations, ensuring a continued loyalty to the French.
