| 8. | BEAULIEU Pierre Hudon Dit was born in 1649 in Notre Dame De Chemille, Maine-Et-Lior, France (son of BEAULIEU Jean Hudon Dit and DURAND Francoise); died on 24 Apr 1710 in Riviere-Quelle, Quebec, Canada. Notes:
Occupation: Baker In Quebec In 1666;farmer @ Riviere Ouelle In 1681
Pierre Hudon (son of Jean Hudon and Francoise Durand) was born in
1648 or 1649 at Notre Dame de Chemille in Anjou, France. (Today the
department of Maine-Loire).
Arrived in Canada 17 Aug 1665 as a soldier in the Compagnie de
Grandfontaine of the Regiment de Carignan.
According to the census of 1666, Pierre Hudon was at Quebec. He was
a baker. He married Marie Gobeil, July 13, 1676 at Quebec. She was
born in 1658 at Poitiers,
France (daughter of Jean Gobeil and Jeanne Guiet). Pierre Hudon then
went to Riviere Ouelle, P. Q. Canada and bought a farm. It is there
that he lived all his life. We note
that at the census of 1681 that he had two guns, 2 head of cattle
and 10 acres of land under cultivation. He died April 25, 1710 at
Riviere Ouelle, P. Q. Canada. His wife
died in 1736.
He was from Notre-Dame de Chemillem eveche d'Angers, in France.
de Notre-Dame de Chemille, ar. Cholet, ev. Angers, Anjou (Maine-et-
Loire); 63 ans Riviere-Ouelle; 18 ans au rec. 66, a Quebec,
boulanger, volontaire; 32 ans au rec. 81, a
Riviere-Ouelle; arrive 17-0801665, soldat de la compagnie de
Grandfontaine au regiment de Carignan (RC).
Pierre Hudon dit Beaulieu
Exactly a century ago in Quebec, the Abbot Henri-Raymond Casgrain
published a history of Riviere-Ouelle.(1) Entitled "Une paroisse
canadienne du XVIIe siecle " this
small volume, from the first chapter, launches the reader on the
track of those whom the genealogist Drouin calls the "heros of the
Riviere-Ouelle." Among the legendary
people who forced the fleet of Admiral Phips to retreat in October
of 1690 was, first and foremost, the curate, Pierre de Francheville.
He was a native Canadian, born at
Trois-Rivieres on 14 July 1649, the son of Marin Terrier de
Repentigny, Sieur de Francheville and of Jeanne Jallaut.(2)
Messengers from Ouebec had warned this young
priest that a large fleet of British and American warships was
coming up the river with the obvious intention of taking Quebec.
Since the Seigneur of la Bouteillerie was
absent, the parishioners begged their pastor to lead them in an
attempt to prevent the landing of enemy troops.(3)
THE "HEROS OF RIVIERE-OUELLE"
Abbot Casgrain wrote the following appraisal of this unique
religious leader:
"Ardent and impetuous of character, soldierly of bearing with looks
that pierced one's soul just as all the missionaries of former times:
such was the curate of
Riviere-Ouelle, who was also a pious and zealous priest."
On this October morning our "pious and zealous priest" would have
gladly exchanged his rough homespun robe for a coat of mail from the
crusades of the middle ages, so
much did he feel like the soul of a warrior. Said he to his
parishioners:(4)
"I would not acknowledge you if you show yourselves cowardly enough
to let here debark the miscreants from Boston without striking a
blow. You know what waits for
you if you let them come near: They will burn your houses, your
church, profane the holy vessels like they have done elsewhere and
carry you away into captivity; you,
your wives and your children. Remember that these men are the
enemies of God as well as ours. Take up your arms, and hold your
selves ready at the first signal!"
He needed say no more to convince this handful of peace loving
colonists: It was no sooner said than done! Each ran home to take the
family gun down off the mantle and
fill their powderhorns and leather sacks of leaden shot. They took
cover behind the brush which lined the river-bank and waited in
silence for the fleet which had already
appeared over the horizon. As planned, the enemy dropped anchor
across from their village and small boats filled with soldiers began
leaving the ships. As soon as the
invader came near to shore, a shower of shot greeted them. Surprised
by this not so cordial reception, and with the dead and wounded
filling the boats, the oarsmen put
about and headed for open water. The news of this feat of arms
spread like wildfire to Quebec and undoubtedly prompted Frontenac,
when face to face with the emissary of
Phips, to make that famous retort which we so well know.
Continuing his account of this event, Abbot Casgrain tells USA that
Monsieur de Francheville had driven back the assault force with but
thirty-nine combatants. The names
of some of them were: Francois and Joseph Deschamps, the sons of the
absent Seigneur; Robert Levesque, Galeran Boucher, Charles Miville,
Michel Bouchard, Pierre
Dancosse, Joseph Renault, Guillaume Lizot, Rene Ouellet, Jean
Pelletier, Jean Lebel, Pierre Emond, Mathurin Dube, Jean Mignot dit
Labrie, Noel Pelletier, Jean Gauvin,
Pierre de Saint-Pierre, Nicolas Durand, Francois Autin, Sebastien
Boivin and Pierre Hudon dit Beaulieu.
HE ARRIVED WHEN ABOUT TWELVE YEARS OLD
The last man named above is the ancestor of all the Hudons and the
majority of the Beaulieu families in America. Even though, at the
time of the battle he was only in his
early forties, he had already worked in Canada for thirty years. In
1661, he was no more than twelve years old when his presence was
noted for the first time, on the Ile
d'Orleans. His signature "Pierre Hudon" appeared then in a document.
(6) Several ships had arrived from Normandy that year and during the
course of the preceding
summer.
On 3 April 1664, the official reports of the Sovereign Council of
New France, reveal that Pierre, then a domestic servant for Sieur
Nicolas Marsolet dit Saint Agnan, had
lodged a complaint against the domestic servant of Abraham Martin
because this person had abused him. The young man petitioned that a
provision of food and medicine be
awarded to him and he won his case after testimony given in his
favor by Sieur de Tilly and master surgeon Jean Madry. To this value
of about twenty silver livres,
Saint-Martin was ordered to pay court costs and make the payment at
once or suffer imprisonment.(7)
Pierre Hudon was listed in the census of 1666 among those living in
Quebec who were unmarried.(8) He was said to be eighteen years old
and working at the trade of
baker. The following year Pierre was among those missing from the
census. Where was he? Had he temporarily returned to France? Had he
gone into the fur trade? No one
knows. Not only was he missing that year but it was necessary to
wait nearly ten more years before hearing from him again.
A NATIVE OF ANJOU
The fact of his renewed presence was noted in his marriage agreement
made at Quebec on 13 July 1676. The hale and handsome groom must have
been about twenty-seven
years old. The registry tells USA that Pierre was already living at
Riviere-Ouelle and that he was the son of Jean Hudon and of Francoise
Durand, both deceased, from the
parish of Notre-Dame de Chemille, diocese of Angers in Anjou. (9) As
for the bride, Marie Gobeil, she lived in the lower town of Quebec,
the daughter of Jean Gobeil and
of Jeanne Guiet, originally from Saint-Didier de Poitiers, and
presently living in the parish of Saint-Pierre on the Ile d'Orleans.
The Gobeils were married in France and
immigrated to Canada with their first children. The marriage was
blessed by Abbot Henri de Bernieres, in the presence of the father of
the bride Robert Vaillancourt,
Monsieur Gachet and Antoine Bernard. The day before the ceremony,
notary Pierre Duquet drew up the marriage contract between the future
husband and wife.
It is necessary to wait until the census of 1681 for more news about
the Hudon family, if we make an exception, of course, for the arrival
of the first three children:
Marie-Gertrude and Pierre were baptized at Riviere-Ouelle, and
Catherine-Marguerite at L'Islet. Therefore in 1681, the Hudons had
not moved; they were still at
Riviere-Ouelle, in the seigneurie of la Bouteillerie.(10) Pierre was
32 years old, Marie was 23, and their children were four, two and one
year old, respectively. Their
property consisted of two guns (perhaps the same ones which were
used nine years later to drive away the Bostonians), two head of
cattle and ten arpents of cleared land
under cultivation. These were rather meager holdings for a colonist
who had been settled on his farm for at least five or six years. To
augment the agricultural produce, they
had to hunt and fish.
FARMING, HUNTING AND FISHING
The Abbot Casgrain tells USA that: (11)
"To the resources which our ancestors drew from agriculture, were
added those of hunt ing and fishing, the abundance of which was for a
long time incredible. They were
the providential manna which prevented the population from dying of
starvation during disastrous times when war continually held the men
under arms and forced them to
let the countryside go without cultivation. The neighboring forests
were stocked with native animals,such as deer, moose, caribou, bear,
lynx, beaver, otter, martin, mink,
fox, hare, squirrel, etc. Each spring and autumn large flocks of
Canadian geese, ducks, wild geese, turkey, teal, wood cock, pheasant,
plover, lark, dove, partridge, etc.,
came to rest on our shores and in the fields.
Proportionately, as the woods were cleared away, hunting was
curtailed: but fishing, although quite diminished, is still today an
important branch of industry and
commerce. Until the beginning of this century, salmon, shad, bass,
sturgeon, eel, herring, rockfish and capelin were caught in a
quantity sufficient to make the fortune of
each inhabitant if a convenient market was available nearby; but the
majority of these fish were all but worthless, lacking modern means
of preservation and distribution...
But one fish otherwise quite interesting and lucrative was the
porpoise. This superb cetacean, which grows to twenty-five feet, and
which is particular to our climate, makes
his appearance among the ice floes. They may be seen swimming in
large schools, sometimes but a stone's throw from shore, appearing
from time to time in order to
breathe just as whales do, and because of the whiteness of their
skin, seem to look like balls of snow floating on the water."
In spite of these abundant wild life resources within his reach,
Pierre Hudon knew that the future of his children would remain in
agriculture. On 26 February 1692, he
accepted a certain stretch of unallocated land from Seigneur
Deschamps. (12) It was bounded by the land of Jean-Galerin Boucher,
by that of the late Jacques Thiboutot and
the River Ouelle. Our ancestor lived for several more years after
this transaction but finally died and was buried in his adopted land
on 25 April 1710, at the age of sixty
years.
MARIE GOBEIL LOOKS AFTER HER FAMILY
As for mother Marie Gobeil, she continued to take care of her family
for more than a quarter century. On 27 August 1720, ten years after
the death of her husband, she had
an inventory taken of his property. (13) On 27 July 1722, she made a
donation to her son Louis. (14) Then on 15 April 1723, she gathered
her heirs together for a final
division of their inheritance. (15) Marie was able to attend the
marriages of almost all of her children, who settled not far from the
paternal hearth: at Riviere Ouelle,
Kamouraska and Saint-Anne-de-la-Pocatiere. On 26 November 1736, she
was laid to rest in this land which she had learned to love as much
as the waters of the rivers and
the streams, as much as the friendly people of her magnificent
parish.
Marie Gobeil belonged to this race of women of whom historian
Raymond Douville has said: "To them belongs the perpetuity owed by
the generations which followed."
(16)
A RATHER SEDENTARY FAMILY
The family of our ancestor Pierre Hudon dit Beaulieu barely moved
from their adopted land, that of Riviere-Ouelle. Some of the children
settled in neighbor ing parishes
such as L'Islet, Kamouraska and Sainte Anne-De-La-Pocataire. The
circle of families was so limited that most of the marriages were
contracted with the Paradis and
Gagnon families, undoubtedly friendly neighbors.
Here is some information on the eleven Hudon children from whom the
greatest number of Beaulieu families in America descend:
1. Marie-Gertrude, baptized at Quebec on 8 July 1677; married at
Riviere-Ouelle on 4 July 1697 (contract by private agreement the day
before) to Pierre Fortin, son of
Julien and of Genevieve Gamache. They lived at L'Islet and had seven
sons and seven daughters.
2. Pierre, baptized at Quebec on 16 May 1679; married at Saint-
Pierre on the Ile d'Orleans on 1 August 1707 to Marie Paradis,
daughter of Pierre and of Jeanne Francoise
Millouer. This family had four sons and three daughters and lived at
Kamouraska, from which parish Pierre was buried on 17 October 1741.
3. Jeanne-Catherine-Marguerite, baptized at L'Islet on 2 July 1681
and buried at Riviere-Ouelle on 25 January 1754. Married in this
place on 6 June 1701, to Guillaume
Paradis, son of Guillaume and of Genevieve Millouer. This family
lived at Riviere-Ouelle where they had three sons and three
daughters.
4. Joseph, baptized at Riviere-Ouelle on 1 June 1685 and buried on
12 December 1711. Married on 28 July 1711 at L'Islet to Genevieve
Gamache, daughter of Nicolas, the
Seigneur of L'Islet, and of Elisabeth-Ursule Cloutier. After a brief
marriage, Genevieve was remarried in 1713 to Jean Gagnon dit Belzile.
5. Jean-Baptiste, baptized at Riviere-Ouelle on 26 April 1687 and
buried in the same place on 4 May 1754. Married in this parish on 9
January 1713 (contract Janneau, 7
January), to Angelique Gagnon, daughter of Jean and of Jeanne
Loignon, they never left Riviere Ouelle where they had five sons and
four daughters.
6. Francois, baptized at Riviere-Ouelle on 8 April 1689 and died
after 1740. First marriage to Genevieve Paradis, daughter of
Guillaume and of Genevieve Millouer; second
marriage at Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocataire on 5 February 1722 (contract
Janneau, 16 January) to Marie-Angelique Emond, widow of Jean Baptiste
Dufaut and daughter of
Pierre Emond and of Agnes Grondin. This family lived at Sainte-Anne
and had three sons and four daughters.
7. Nicolas, baptized at Riviere-Ouelle on 3 June 1691 and buried on
14 September 1756. Married in the same place on 27 November 1713
(contract Chambalon, 16
October) to Madeleine Bouchard, daughter of Etienne and of Marie-
Madeleine Meunier. Nicolas was a Lieutenant in the militia of his
native parish where he and Madeleine
had eleven sons and five daughters.
8. Jean-Bernard, baptized at Riviere-Ouelle on 2 February 1694 and
buried on 19 November 1759. Married on 13 June 1718 in this place
(contract Janneau, 11 June) to
Marie-Charlotte Gagnon, daughter of Jean and of Jeanne Loignon. They
lived at Riviere-Ouelle and had six sons and four daughters.
9. Marie-Francoise, baptized at Riviere Ouelle on 27 March 1696 and
buried on 27 March 1762. Married in the same place on 25 April 1718
(contract Janneau, 23 March) to
Jean Paradis, son of Guillaume and of Genevieve Millouer. They
settled in Kamouraska where they had two sons and four daughters.
10. Louis-Charles, baptized at Riviere-Ouelle on 15 February 1697
and buried on 25 April 1751. Married in this parish on 30 August 1723
( contract Janneau, the day
before) to Genevieve-Angelique Levesque, daughter of Pierre-Joachim
and of Angelique Letartre. They lived at Riviere-Ouelle and had six
sons and ten daughters.
11. Alexis, baptized at Riviere-Ouelle on 30 August 1700 and buried
in the same place on 1 April 1720.
FAMILY NAME VARIATIONS
The principal variation to Hudon is Beaulieu. Additionally however,
there are the following variations on both names: Bolia, Dehudon,
Deshudons, Deudon, Gourdeau,
Heudon, Houdon and Udon.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1) Henri-Raymond Casgrain, priest and historian, was born at Riviere-
Ouelle in 1831 and died in 1904. He was the president of the Royal
Society of Canada in 1889. He is
the author of many works, notably "Histoire de ta Mare de
l'Incarnation", "Histoire de l'Hotel-Dieu de Quebec", "Pelerinage au
Pays d'Evangeline", "Montcalm et Levis",
and many others.
2) Marin Terrier de Repentigny, Sieur de Francheville, was among the
first inhabitants of Trois-Rivieres. An old document notes his
presence there in 1638. At Quebec in
September 1647 he married Jeanne Jallaut, originally from Fontenay-
le-Comte in Poitou. Marin died in that unfortunate sortie led by
Guillaume Duplessis-Kerbodot against
the Iroquois on 19 August 1652. His widow was remarried to Maurice
Poulain, Sieur de la Fontaine. Pierre was the only son to reach
adulthood. Ordained on 19
September 1676, first he was the secretary to Msgr de Laval, then he
gave service to his flock at Beauport, Saint-Jean, Saint-Laurent and
Saint-Pierre on the Ile d'Orleans.
He was the curate at the Riviere-Ouelle from 1689 to 1691, then
successively curate at Longueuil and Cap-Saint-Ignace. The Abbot of
Francheville died Montreal on 7
August 1713.
3) Jean-Baptiste Deschamps de la Bouteillerie, first seigneur of the
Riviere-Ouelle was born in the region of Rouen in 1646 and buried in
the parish church of the
Riviere-Ouelle on 16 December 1703.
4) "Une paroisse canadienne", page 8.
5) Ibid, page 96.
6) BRH (1909), No.15, page 113.
7) "Judgements et deliberations du Conseil Souverain de la Nouvelle-
France", Volume I, page 157.
8) Benjamin Sulte, HCF, Volume IV, page 54.
9) Chemille (Maine et Loire) is a small town located about 35
kilometers to the south of Angers. The church of Notre-Dame dates
from the eleventh century.
10) Op Cit (8), Volume V, page 78.
11) Ibid, pages 129 to 139.
12) Record of Louis Chambalon.
13) Record of Etienne Janneau.
14) Record of Jacques Barbel.
15) Op Cit (13).
16) "Nos premieres meres de famille", Le Bien Public, 1976, page 3.
Pierre married GOBIEL Marie-Angelique on 13 Jul 1676 in Notre Dame Parish, Quebec City, New France, PQ, Canada. Marie-Angelique (daughter of GOBEIL Jean and (Guiet) Jeanne Guyet) was born on 02 Apr 1659 in St-Andre-Niorte, Diocese Poitiers, Poitou, France; died on 25 Nov 1736 in Riviere Quelle, Kamouraska, PQ, Canada. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]
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