♂Louis Guertin

Louis Guertin (baptized 28 June 1625 – 8 December 1687), known as Le Sabotier, was a clog-maker from Anjou^W who was hired in France in 1653 to go to New France, married at Montréal in 1659 and died at Pointe-aux-Trembles. He was the ninth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through his son Louis Guertin (born 1668).

Origins

He was baptized on 28 June 1625 in the parish of Saint-Martin at Daumeray, near Angers, according to the Fichier Origine, a compiled register of emigrants from France to New France that takes its dates from the French parish registers. The index of his marriage record gives his origin as the parish of Daumeray, four leagues from Angers, and names his parents as Louis Gueretin, then dead, and Georgette Leduc. The Fichier Origine also records a sister, Renée, baptized at Daumeray in 1629 and buried there in 1646.

Other sources place his birth later or earlier. Tanguay’s dictionary gives 1635, and the index of his burial gives his age as 72, which would put his birth about 1615; the baptism of 1625 is the date used here.

Trade and arrival

He was a sabotier, a maker of wooden clogs (sabots^W), and both the Fichier Origine and Tanguay’s dictionary carry the name Le Sabotier alongside his surname. On 24 April 1653, at La Flèche, he was hired as an engagé^W, a man bound by contract to a term of service in the colony, by a contract drawn before the notary Lafousse. The Fichier Origine dates his arrival in Canada to the same year. On 10 December 1656 he was granted thirty arpents of land at Montréal.

Marriage and family

Louis Guertin and Élisabeth Le Camus were married at Montréal, in the parish of Notre-Dame, on 26 October 1659. The index of the marriage record gives her origin as Paris and names her parents as a merchant written only as Lecamus, with no forename, and Jeanne Charas. Tanguay’s dictionary dates the marriage 26 January 1659, which is wrong; the register has 26 October. It also names her parents as Pierre Le Camus, a physician, and Jeanne Charles, where the register index has a merchant and Jeanne Charas.

A militia roll of 1663 describes him as a settler aged thirty, a sabotier, married and a father, from Anjou, who could not sign his name. Tanguay’s dictionary and the index of the parish registers both give eleven children of the marriage, all baptized at Notre-Dame in Montréal between 1661 and 1680; the dictionary gives the first, Marie-Élisabeth, as born on 6 February 1661. At the baptism of their son Louis at Montréal on 3 January 1668, the register describes the father as an habitant^W, a settler working his own land. Élisabeth Le Camus was buried at Montréal on 20 July 1680, according to Tanguay’s dictionary; the index of the parish registers gives her age at burial as 35.

Death

He died at Pointe-aux-Trembles, on the island of Montréal, on 8 December 1687, according to the Fichier Origine; the index of the parish registers records his burial there that year. The Fichier Origine also notes a commemorative plaque placed in 1999 in the marriage hall at Daumeray.