♂Claude Gautrot

Claude Gautrot (about 1659 – 24 March 1733) was an Acadian of the rivière des Gaspareaux, in the district of Les Mines^W, whose son Joseph had the commandant at Les Mines, a part-seigneur of Acadia, as godfather in 1708. He was the sixth great-grandfather of Floyd Amatus Delahorne (1922–2014) by two separate lines of descent, through two of their children.

Early life

Claude was born about 1659 at Port-Royal, in Acadia. In 1671 he was twelve, unmarried, and still in his parents’ household at Port-Royal.

Family

They probably married at Port-Royal about 1684. In 1686 they were living at Port-Royal with a daughter Marie six months old; Claude was 27 and Marie 20, and their household is listed just after his parents, Francois Gautrot and Edmee Lejeune. By 1701 the family was on the rivière des Gaspareaux, in the district of Les Mines, living beside his brother Charles, with his wife, one boy and seven girls, on eight arpents of land. They were still at Les Mines in 1703, and by 1707 the household held his wife, one boy under fourteen, three girls aged twelve or over and two younger girls, on five arpents.

He and his wife, Marie Terriot, are known from the Grand-Pré parish register, as printed in the published abstracts of the Diocese of Baton Rouge church registers, where they are named as the parents at two baptisms and six marriages. Their daughter Anne Gautrot was born about 1689. Their son Joseph was born on 6 June 1708 and baptized the next day; his godfather signed as Delatour, whom the priest described as an officer of a company of the naval detachment^W, seigneur in part of Acadia and commandant at Les Mines, and his godmother was Jeanne Terriot. The godfather was thus the officer in charge of the district rather than a fellow settler; the same register shows him standing godfather to other Minas children that year. A daughter, Catherine Josèphe, was born on 1 December 1709 and baptized on 8 December, with Pierre Landry and Marie Joseph Dupuis as sponsors. At the marriages of their daughters Margueritte to Jean Baptiste Landry on 16 November 1711, in a double wedding with René Landry and Marie Dugas, and Isabelle to René Babin on 26 November 1714, the couple were described as habitants of the rivière des Gaspareaux. Their son Jean married Anne LeBlanc, a daughter of Jacques Leblanc and Catherine Landry, on 16 January 1719. On 8 October 1725 their son Charles married Marie Josèphe LeBlanc, entered as Marie Leblanc and given the same parents as Anne. That entry names the groom’s parents as Claude Gotrot and Marie Terriot, but a note in the printed abstract says the entry itself reads “Charle son of Charle son of Claude”. A Margueritte Gotrot, again named as their daughter, married Pierre Breau on 25 June 1726; the abstract does not say whether she was the bride of 1711. At the marriage of their daughter Catherine Josèphe to Charles Richard on 18 August 1734, Claude and Marie were both described as deceased, and a Charle Gautraut and a Jean Gautrot signed as brothers of the bride, which most likely makes this Charles the groom of 1725. A compiled genealogy of the Hébert family gives the couple another daughter, Jeanne, who married Jacques Hébert at Port-Royal about 1703. Apart from Claude’s burial entry, the register gives no ages, parents or places of origin for Claude and Marie, and the date of Marie’s death is not known.

Death

Claude died on 24 March 1733 at Grand-Pré and was buried the next day, 25 March, in the cemetery of St Charles aux Mines. His son Jean Gautrot was among the witnesses. The parish register copy gives his age as about 66, and a printed abstract gives it as about 76.

Lines of descent

Floyd Amatus Delahorne (1922–2014) descends from this couple by two separate lines. Through their son Charles Gautrot the line runs eight generations up; through their daughter Anne Gautrot (born about 1689) it runs ten generations up. Both lines reach Floyd through his mother, Ida Serrette (1903–1990), and they meet again in the marriage of her parents, Pierre Anatole Serrett (1853–1926) and Amelia Pennison Daigle (1869–1906), since both of them descend from this couple.

Notes

Birth

The censuses of Acadia give Claude’s age as twelve at Port-Royal in 1671, and the Minas census of 1693 gives him as thirty-two. The birth year of about 1659 is worked back from those ages; Arsenault’s compiled genealogy and Béliveau’s both give 1659.

Marriage

Arsenault’s compiled genealogy of the Acadians (volume 3, page 1170) and Béliveau (page 36) give the marriage as about 1684 at Port-Royal. No marriage entry survives, because the Port-Royal register begins only in 1702. The 1686 Port-Royal census already shows the couple married, with a daughter six months old.

The census years

The Port-Royal census of 1686 and the Les Mines censuses of 1701, 1703 and 1707 (manuscript nominal censuses of Acadia, G1 volume 466) give the household details in the body. The 1701 entry places the family under the rivière des Gaspareaux beside Claude’s brother Charles.

Death and burial

The burial is in the Saint-Charles-des-Mines (Grand-Pré) parish register, in a copy made about 1895 and printed in the Diocese of Baton Rouge church records, Volume 1A. The same entry records his death on 24 March 1733, a day before the burial. The copy gives his age as about 66; the printed abstract in Volume 1A gives about 76. The entry names his son Jean Gautrot, Jean Lebert and Pierre Doucet as witnesses, and Charles Gautreaut signs. The burial is of this Claude; a younger Claude Gautrot of the Gaspareaux, born about 1692, is a different man.