♂Jean Billard

Jean Billard (died before 4 September 1661) was a shoemaker from Chaumont-en-Vexin, in the Vexin north-west of Paris, whose daughter Perrine, orphaned and still a minor, was married in Paris in 1661 with her aunt acting for her. He was the ninth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through his daughter Perrine Billard (1635–1705).

He and his wife, Hélène Guillet, are known only from the marriage contract of their daughter, signed in Paris on 4 September 1661, as reported by two compiled works: the Fichier Origine, a register of French emigrants to Canada, and an article by Rémi Tougas. The contract names him as a cordonnier, a shoemaker, and calls the couple natives of Chaumont-en-Vexin. It also calls Perrine an orphan of both father and mother, so Jean Billard had died by September 1661; because she was a minor, her aunt Marguerite Billard, living in the rue de Jouy in Paris, acted for her. Perrine went on to settle at Montréal in New France with her husband, Nicolas Brazeau, and their children about 1681.

Notes

No baptism, marriage or burial for Jean Billard has been found. The family belonged to the parish of Saint-Jean-Baptiste at Chaumont-en-Vexin, whose surviving registers break off in June 1609 and resume only in October 1653, so the years of his marriage and of his daughter’s birth are lost.

Dating of the contract

Macouin and Fournier’s 2024 book on the pioneer families in the Paris archives prints the contract’s date as 09.04.1661. Their book writes dates day first, which would make it 9 April 1661. Fichier Origine and Tougas both give 4 September 1661, the date used on this page.

The mother’s name

The same book’s abstract of the contract names the bride’s mother as Hélène Vuillot, though its heading for that entry gives Hélène Guillet. Fichier Origine and Tougas both give Guillet, the name used in the body.