Mathurin Gagnon
- Born: 22 Oct 1606, St-Aubin DE Tourouvre , Perche, Orne
- Marriage: Francoise Boudreau dit godeau 30 Sep 1647 in Québec
- Died: 20 Apr 1690, Château-Richer, Quebec, Canada at age 83
 Research Notes:
GAGNON (Gaingnon, Gangnon, and Gaignon), MATHURIN, farmer, business man, m ember of the Communauté des Habitants; b. 1606 at Saint-Aubin de Tourouv re (Perche), son of Pierre Gagnon (Gaignon) and Madeleine-Renée Roge r; d. 1690 at Château-Richer.
The propaganda of Robert Giffard and of Noël Juchereau, who were rec ruiting settlers in Perche, probably had an influence on Mathurin Gagno n, and he decided to establish himself in Canada with his brothers Pier re and Jean. They arrived at Quebec before 1640. They went in for busines s, and worked in partnership. A number of notarial documents of the peri od bear as a signature "Sieurs Mathurin, Jehan, and Pierre Gangnon, brothe rs." Mathurin was the beSt educated of the three: he alone knew how to wri te. Consequently he acted as head of the firm. It was he who went to Fran ce in 1642, to settle their family and business affairs. Around 1651 the G agnon brothers built a store on the square in the Lower Town, near the sto re belonging to the Communauté des Habitants.
However, the Gagnons loved the land. In 1640 they had taken up trac ts of land on the Beaupré shore, at Château-Richer. Between 1635 and 16 60 several natives of Perche settled in this area, where they introduced t he ritual of the devotion to Sainte-Anne, which was observed at that ti me at the famous "Carrefour de Sainte-Anne" in Perche. Mathurin applied hi mself to clearing his land. He was a member of the Communauté des Habitant s; he worked on his farm in the summer and concerned himself with busine ss at Quebec in the winter. He did not settle finally at Château-Richer un til 1650, in which year he received a grant of land six arpents wide and o ne and a half leagues in depth.
Mathurin was married on 30 Sept. 1647. His wife, Françoise Goudea u, was only 13; she gave him 16 children. He was appointed churchward en in 1662, and was an important figure in the parish. According to the va rious census-takings, he was one of the moSt energetic of the farmer s; in 1681 he owned 20 horned beasts and 45 acres of land under cultivatio n. He died on 20 April 1690, aged 84 years. He was buried the next d ay in the parish cemetery. From Mathurin is descended one of the largeSt f amilies in French Canada.
Jean Hamelin
Recensement de 1681. Philéas Gagnon, "Une vieille famille canadienne," BR H, XVII (1911), 268-86, 298-311, 324-31. Lucien Serre, "L'ancêtre Mathur in Gagnon," BRH, XXXIV (1928), 177-83.
© 2000 University of Toronto/Université Laval
Mathurin married Francoise Boudreau dit godeau, daughter of François Godeau and Jeanne, 30 Sep 1647 in Québec. (Francoise Boudreau dit godeau was born in 1633 in St-Nicolas DE La Roche-Guyon, DE Rouen, Normandie, France and died 14 Sep 1696 in Quebec.)
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