René Beaudoin

From Baker Genealogy note (RootsWeb, accessed 2010-09-12):

Rene Beaudoin was healthy, wealthy and wise. He was one of those unusual

people who could make money and retain the respect of his community. His

source of money was farming, land speculation, fur trading, and marriage.

During over 90 years of life he had three wives and raised at least twenty

children.

Rene Beaudoin and forty other citizens of Trois-Rivieres received land March

17, 1665. Their land was in Champlain, across the river from Trois-Rivieres.

In the census of 1667 he is shown living with his brother and sister-in-law

in Trois-Rivieres.

He spent the rest of his long life in Champlain. He bought and sold land

often, so he may not have lived on the same land the entire time.

1675 was a good year for marriageable bachelors, 125 King's Daughters

arrived. Among them was an unusual family group, three sisters and their

father. Ibedon Raclos came with daughters Francoise, Marie Madeleine and

Marie 18, 17, and 15.

The youngest, Marie, was the first to marry. She captured the heart of Rene

Beaudoin. They signed their contract to wed October 12, 1671. She brought a

dowery of 1000 livres from her father and 100 livres from the King. Both

amounts are larger than usual. Dad and King were equally generous with all

three daughters. The King usually gave 50 livres for girls marrying enlisted

men and 100 livres for girls marrying officers.

His goal accomplished, Ibedon Raclos sailed on the last ship going to France

that year. It left late in November or early in December of 1671. He left

his daughters in secure settings. Marie was married to a man destined for

wealth, Marie Madeleine married to a man destined to fame, and Francoise

found her happiness with a good farmer.

Marie gave Renee seven children and died after 25 years of marriage. Rene

then married the glamorous young Marie Anne Besnier, in 1697. She gave him

seven more children and died in childbirth delivering a stillborn child in

1710. The next fall Rene married a widow with ten children, six or seven

were still living with her. So Rene Beaudoin raised and educated twenty

children.

Rene had the entrepreneurial spirit. He signed many documents buying,

selling and leasing land. Occasionally land transactions generated law

suits. Some land purchases are of particular interest. In 1678 he purchased

land from "Hero" Francois Hertel. It was a large tract, eight arpents wide

and two leagues deep. It was on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence in the

seigneurie of Cournoyer.

The explorer Robert Cavelier de LaSalle built Fort Saint Louis on a high

bluff overlooking the Illinois River in what is now LaSalle County,

Illinois. The site is in Starved Rock State Park. Ft. Saint Louis was

strategically located for the military and for fur trade with the Miami

Indians. In 1682 Beaudion bought land from LaSalle near the fort, it measure

6 arpents wide and 33.5 arpents deep.

Fur trading was seductive. The lifestyle was comfortable and there was

potential for making good money. Many of our ancestors enjoyed this

vocation, and some lost money. If they had a poor season, they still had to

pay their suppliers when they returned. While in the country upstream they

ate fish they caught and game they trapped or shot, including muskrats. Life

with the Indians was less restrictive than living in the European

communities. Fur traders often maintained an Indian wife and Metis children,

besides the families they had downstream.

Business was a family affair for Indians. So it was easier to trade with

Metis relatives. Those of us with Indian blood are members of the Chicken

Clan. Clans crossed tribal barriers. You stayed with your clan, and traded

with them as you moved from tribe to tribe. Rene had enough business to

warrant a barge in Montreal in 1689.

The Governor of Montreal was an unscrupulous Nobleman, Francois Marie

Perrot. He owned a strategically located island at the mouth of the Ottawa

River. He could control a great deal of illegal trading. Frontenac, the

Governor of all Quebec, wanted to stop Perrot's operation. To that end

Frontenac called a meeting of 50 men he suspected of being in the fur trade

illegally, les coureurs du bois. Rene Beaudoin attended this meeting in

August 1687. He readily admitted trading illegally for the prior four years.

In 1676 he was bold enough to contract with a man to go to Ottawa country as

his employee.

In 1683 he entered a partnership for fur trading with Damien Quatresous and

Robert Rivard. They and a Montreal merchant bought a conge, that is a

license to trade furs. When Rene was away from home his wife acted on his

behalf in business.

In 1714, Rene fulfilled his duty to Champlain parish by serving as church

warden. When he reached 70 years of age he made out a will, but it was not

needed for another 20 years. Although his second wife was much younger than

he, Rene lived to see their children to adulthood and marriage. He even

witnessed the marriage of some of his grandchildren by his second marriage.

He was buried March 28, 1735.

Jane Goodrich's source: "One Hundred French Canadian Family Histories", by

Phillip J. Moore

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courcival: "René Baudouin (v. 1645-1735), pionnier du Québec au xviie siècle avec son frère Jean et sa sœur Madeleine, il est l'ancêtre d'une partie des familles Beaudoin actuelles10 du Québec. Fils de Jacques Baudouin et Madeleine Pichon, il est né à Courcival vers 164511 et a émigré en Nouvelle-France (Québec) en 165812, à l’époque où René de Baigneux était seigneur de Courcival. À l'automne de 1671, René Baudouin épousa Marie Raclot13, et s'établit à Champlain, dans le gouvernement des Trois-Rivières. Il s'adonne à la traite des fourrures durant plusieurs années. Il décède à l'âge de 90 ans et fut inhumé à Champlain le 28 mars 1735. Il compte de nombreux descendants aujourd'hui (2009) au Québec, surtout dans la région de la Mauricie. Au Québec, le patronyme est orthographié Beaudoin depuis le milieu du XVIIIe siècle."

GEDCOM Source

@R-1195646461@ Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967 Ancestry.com Ancestry.com Operations Inc 1,1091::0

GEDCOM Source

Institut Généalogique Drouin; Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Drouin Collection; Author: Gabriel Drouin, comp. 1,1091::30489319

GEDCOM Source

@R-1195646461@ Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967 Ancestry.com Ancestry.com Operations Inc 1,1091::0

GEDCOM Source

Institut Généalogique Drouin; Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Drouin Collection; Author: Gabriel Drouin, comp. 1,1091::30489319

GEDCOM Source

@R-1195646461@ Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967 Ancestry.com Ancestry.com Operations Inc 1,1091::0

GEDCOM Source

Institut Généalogique Drouin; Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Drouin Collection; Author: Gabriel Drouin, comp. 1,1091::14703196

GEDCOM Source

@R-1195646461@ Quebec, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1967 Ancestry.com Ancestry.com Operations Inc 1,1091::0

GEDCOM Source

Institut Généalogique Drouin; Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Drouin Collection; Author: Gabriel Drouin, comp. 1,1091::30489319

Note: S (married 1671) and Marie-Anne BESNIER (married 1697). He had 15 children, some still under his roof.
Note: He was a fur trader and the widower of two previous wives