♂Simon Chapacou

Simon Chapacou (about 1626 – 3 June 1690) was a settler of New France from Saintes, in Saintonge^W in western France, whom two notarial acts in the colony described as a mute man, unable to make any legal act for himself. He was the tenth great-grandfather of Nancy Jane Blanchard (1929–2006), through his daughter Marie Chapacou.

A compilation of French emigrants to Canada gives his birth as about 1626 and his origin as Saintes. His parents are not known: the compilation’s entry for him leaves both their names blank. He married Marie-Vincente Pacaud in 1651 in the parish of Saint-Pierre at Néré, in Saintonge. The compilation lists four children baptised at Néré, three sons and then a daughter, Marie, baptised on 29 December 1658, and records that Simon came to New France in 1663 “with his wife and two children”. A genealogical dictionary of Québec families lists further children born in the colony from 1665 onward, among them a son Laurent, baptised at Québec on 9 February 1665 and buried four days later.

The compilation quotes the two notarial acts, which call him “un homme muet, incapable de stipuler et faire aucun acte de justice”: a mute man, incapable of entering into a contract or any act at law. The acts themselves have not been read, and the records found do not say whether he had been mute from birth. His daughter Marie married René Maillot, a habitant of Grondines; the dictionary dates the marriage to 1680, but no record of it has been found. Simon Chapacou died at Longueuil, near Montréal, on 3 June 1690 and was buried in the church there.