{"id":7892,"date":"2018-12-22T21:04:13","date_gmt":"2018-12-23T02:04:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/toupin.org\/?page_id=7892"},"modified":"2019-01-06T14:30:56","modified_gmt":"2019-01-06T19:30:56","slug":"pierre-toupin-mathurine-graton","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/toupin.org\/?page_id=7892","title":{"rendered":"History of Pierre Toupin & Mathurine Graton"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The Arrival of the French Girls at Quebec, 1667 by Charles William Jefferys \/<\/em>
Library and Archives Canada (fonds\/c010688k) PD <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Mathurine Graton<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Born in about 1648 (or 1651) in Aubigny, a town a little southwest of LaRoche-Sur-Yon, in the diocese of Lu\u00e7on, in Poitou, France. She was the daughter of a royal notary of the seigneurie of Aubigny, Pierre Graton, and his wife Marie Boucher.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After\nthe deaths of her parents, Mathurine left for New France at about age 18 (or\n22) in 1670.  Her brother Claude Graton,\nsieur de Villefort, his wife Marguerite Moncion (Mossion) and their children\nalso made the voyage to New France that summer, probably on the same ship.\nClaude Graton and his wife Marguerite are said to be the ancestors of all the\nGratons and Grattons in North America. While in New France, Claude and\nMarguerite had a son, Joseph.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the time of her arrival in New France, Mathurine was considered both a minor and an orphan, her parents being deceased. It was likely she had fallen on hard times financially. Mathurine is considered to be a fille du roi<\/em>. The program of the filles du roi<\/em> (or King\u2019s Daughters) was sponsored by King Louis XIV and instituted by his Minister Colbert and involved some 770 marriageable women (out of a possible 1,000 originally) who survived the hazardous journey across the Atlantic between 1663-1673 to marry a single man in New France and settle and raise a family. Some, but not all, filles du roi<\/em> received a dowry from the King and sometimes this fact was noted in the bride\u2019s marriage contract.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pierre Toupin dit Lapierre<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Born in about 1626 in Rouffiac, in the archdiocese and diocese of Angoul\u00eame, in Angoumois (Charente), France. Pierre was the son of Guillaume Toupin and Jeanne Arnault. The town of Rouffiac no longer exists, its last mention having been made before the French revolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pierre\narrived in New France on June 30, 1665 at age 38 as a soldier in the La\nBrisardi\u00e8re company, which had been detached from the Orl\u00e9ans regiment and made\npart of the Carignan-Sali\u00e8res regiment sent to New France by King Louis XIV.\nPierre and his company, including another of my ancestors Pierre Balan, had\ndeparted La Rochelle, France on February 26, 1664, under the command of\nAlexandre de Prouville, the Marquis de Tracy. The LaBrisardi\u00e8re company and\nthree other companies are said to have driven the Dutch out of the Antilles and\nre-established law and order for the French colonists there.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thereafter\non June 30, 1665, Sieur de Tracy and his 200 troops (including Pierre) arrived\nat the town of Qu\u00e9bec. They joined the Carignan-Sali\u00e8res regiment, whose twenty\ncompanies landed in several ships directly from France earlier that month or\nduring the following months, for a total of some 1200 troops. Apparently Pierre\nToupin wintered in the town with his company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\nwere two separate \u201cToupin\u201d ancestors who settled in New France in the 17th<\/sup>\ncentury: Toussaint Toupin dit Du Sault, who arrived in about 1634 and whose\ndescendants are known as \u201cToupin\u201d or \u201cDussault; and Pierre Toupin dit\nLapierre.  It appears that none of\nPierre\u2019s descendants are known as Lapierre, which was a \u201cdit\u201d name (or nickname)\nby which he was listed on the roll of Carignan soldiers (as was common for\nsoldiers at the time).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following\nhis arrival, the combined Carignan-Sali\u00e8res regiment engaged in military\ncampaigns against the Iroquois (Haudenesaune) confederacy, mostly against the\nMohawk (Kahniakenhaka) who had not already sued for peace as had other Iroquois\nnations during 1665-66. By 1667 this campaign accomplished King Louis XIV\u2019s\ngoal of pacifying the Iroquois, who had been attacking the French settlements,\nand brought some 30 years of peace to the region for the French (and must have\nwrecked havoc on the affected Mohawk communities) This peace, aided by the\nmarriages of the filles du roi <\/em>with single male occupants of the colony,\nallowed the French population in the colony to expand at long last.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not known whether Pierre Toupin directly participated in battle but he was discharged from the military in 1668 and accepted the King\u2019s offer to the soldiers to settle in Canada, as did some 400 of the soldiers and officers from the regiment. In New France, a man of modest means could become a land owner, a nearly unthinkable feat back in France at the time. On December 10, 1668 a concession of land was granted to Pierre by Joseph Giffard, the seigneur in Beauport, as recorded by notary Vachon. This land was in the parish of Beauport, in the village of Saint-Michel, on the north shore of the St.-Lawrence river, just east of the town of Quebec, and it was where Pierre spent the remainder of his life as a farmer.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Map of Beauport and environs, 1709.
<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Closeup of map of Beauport area and land of Pierre Toupin dit Lapierre and son. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

On September\n30, 1670, Mathurine married Pierre Toupin at the Catholic church in Beauport\nwith Father Henri Nouvel, SJ presiding, and with Joseph Giffard and Noel\nLanglois as witnesses. Notary Vachon had drawn up the marriage contract on\nSeptember 3, 1670, which the couple were not able to sign but agreed to.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pierre\nwas age 43 at the time of the marriage, and Mathurine was only between 18 and\n22 years of age. The census in New France in 1681 showed that Pierre, age 55,\nand his wife, age 33 (from which her year of birth was estimated), had the\nfirst four of their eventual seven children of their own, named Th\u00e9r\u00e8se, age\n10, Pierre, age 8, Ren\u00e9, age 5, and Louise, age 2, along with Pierre, listed as\na \u201cdomestique<\/em>,\u201d age 13.  The ages\nand other information found in censuses from that era are often contradicted by\nthe actual church records of baptisms and other events, so a researcher must be\nwary. Pierre Toupin was listed in the census as having two guns, nine cattle,\nand about 30 acres of developed land; thus, the couple had achieved much in\ntheir 11 years together by that date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As\nnoted, Pierre and Mathurine eventually had a total of seven children. Their\nfirst, Th\u00e9r\u00e8se (1671-1760), married in 1689 but apparently had no child. Their\nsecond, Pierre, born in 1673, was a \u201ccoureur des bois<\/em>\u201d and is said to\nhave disappeared after 1710 on a trip to Detroit; he left no known descendant.\nTheir third child Ren\u00e9 (1674-1758), a blacksmith, married Geneni\u00e8ve Langlois in\n1708 and had 12 children and many descendants in later generations in both\nCanada and the United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1698, Louise-Ren\u00e9e (1680-1703), their fourth child, married the Royal Notary Jacques Barbel, who served as secretary to the Intendant Begon of New France, and had three sons (all died young). Ignace (1684-1748), the fifth child, married Marie-Elisabeth Duprac in 1709 and had 11 children and many descendants. The sixth child, Marie-Anne, died at age two months. The seventh child, Jean-Baptiste, born 1688, was the last child of Pierre and Mathurine and is a direct ancestor of their great-great-great-great grandson Felix Toupin who married Josephine Bissonnette in 1893 in New Hampshire. Felix and Josephine are my great-grandparents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jean-Baptiste\nToupin was born in Beauport on November 20, 1688, when his father was 61 years\nold. Jean-Baptiste became an edge-tool maker and blacksmith. He settled in\nChamplain, near Trois-Rivi\u00e8res, at the age of 30. There he married Th\u00e9r\u00e8se\nCaron on April 2, 1719. On February 6, 1743, he became the Seigneur of the\nLapierre (no relation) Seigneurie in Cap de la Madeleine by purchasing the\nrights from Fran\u00e7oise LeSieur. Jean-Baptiste and Th\u00e9r\u00e8se had at least four\nchildren.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In\naddition to raising their own children, in 1674 Pierre and Mathurine took on\nthe added responsibility of guardianship of four of their five Graton nieces\nand nephews following the death of their sister-in-law Marguerite Moncion in\nJune 1674. Claude Graton is thought to have returned to France in either late\n1671 or early 1672, and apparently he never returned to Canada, leaving his\nwife Marguerite and their five children. One child, H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Graton had married\nin 1673; but four were unemancipated, with Ren\u00e9e Graton marrying in 1683 and\nJoseph Graton (born July 1672) marrying in 1697.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ancestor Pierre Toupin died in Beauport at about 75 years of age, and was buried there on January 28, 1703. A commemorative plaque can be seen at the Beauport cemetery today, with the inscription \u201cL\u2019Anc\u00eatre Canadien, Pierre Toupin dit Lapierre, fils de Guillaume et de Jeanne Arnoud, originaire de Rouffiat, \u00e9v\u00e9ch\u00e9 d\u2019Angoul\u00eame, un des pionniers de Beauport, fut inhum\u00e9 ici le 28 janvier 1723 (sic<\/em>).\u201d In fact, he died and was buried in 1703.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Commemorative plaque to Pierre Toupin, Beauport, QC.
Photo by Gis\u00e8le Toupin. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Mathurine remarried to Vincent Brunet, also of Poitou, France, on July 22, 1710. He was born in about 1645. The couple signed a marriage contract on June 22nd<\/sup> before notary Chambalon. They did not have a child. Apparently Mathurine died on February 5, 1728, at the age of 76 or more. Vincent lived until 1736.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Researched & Written by David Toupin, great-grandson of Felix Toupin.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

References<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

La\nvie quotidienne en Nouvelle France<\/em>, by Raymond Douville and Jacques Casanova, 1964; translated\nby Carola Congreve as \u201cDaily Life in Early Canada\u201d; the MacMillan Co., New\nYork, 1967.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dictionnaire\ng\u00e9n\u00e9alogique des familles du Qu\u00e9bec des origins \u00e0 1730<\/em>; by Ren\u00e9 Jett\u00e9, 1983<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dictionnaire\nnational des Canadiens fran\u00e7ais<\/em>, 1760-1935, by Institut Drouin<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dictionnaire\ng\u00e9n\u00e9alogique des familles Canadiennes, 1621-1765, <\/em>by Msgr. Cyprien Tanguay, 1870-1877<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nos\nAnc\u00eatres: Pierre and Jean Toupin<\/em>, c. 20, by Jacques Saintonge, translated by Thomas\nLaforest as \u201cOur French Canadian Ancestors\u201d, the Lisi Press, 1989<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nGood Regiment: The Carignan-Sali\u00e8res Regiment in Canada, 1665-1668<\/em>, by Jack Verney,\nMcGill-Queens University Press, 1991<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nKing\u2019s Daughters<\/em>,\nby Elmer Courteau and Joy Reisinger, 1988<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Les\nfilles du roi: Orph\u00e9lines en France, pionni\u00e8res au Canada,<\/em> Lem\u00e9ac Editions Inc.,\nMontr\u00e9al, 1992<\/p>\n\n\n\n

L\u2019Anc\u00eatre\nClaude Graton, sieur de Villefort, et sa famille,<\/em> by Bertrand Desjardins et Nicole\nMarcil-Gratton, M\u00e9moires de la soci\u00e9t\u00e9 g\u00e9n\u00e9alogiques canadienne-fran\u00e7aise, vol\n44, no. 3, pp173-181<\/p>\n\n\n\n

King\u2019s\nDaughters and Founding Mothers: the Filles du Roi, 1663-1673<\/em>, by Peter J. Gagn\u00e9, Quintin\nPublications, 2001.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mathurine Graton Born in about 1648 (or 1651) in Aubigny, a town a little southwest of LaRoche-Sur-Yon, in the diocese of Lu\u00e7on, in Poitou, France. She was the daughter of a royal notary of the seigneurie of Aubigny, Pierre Graton, and his wife Marie Boucher. After the deaths of her …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template-full-width.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-7892","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","column","twocol"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/toupin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7892"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/toupin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/toupin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toupin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/toupin.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7892"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/toupin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8848,"href":"https:\/\/toupin.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/7892\/revisions\/8848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/toupin.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}