Guillaume Fournier

  General Notes:

IMMIGRATION: About 1650-1651


Guillaume Fournier was a Norman, born in the parish of Coulmer in the ancient province of Normandy. He was the son of Gilles Fournier and Noelle Gagnon. Today, Coulmer is a small community of 200 near Touques in the department of Ornes, county of Gracé in Argentan. Canvas is manufactured there.

Guillaume Fournier arrived in Canada and immediately married on November 20 1651, Françoise Hébert, daughter of Guillaume Hébert and grand daughter of Louis Hébert, the famous first Canadian settler. By this marriage, Guillaume Fournier entered in the noble family of Guillaume Couillard, uncle and tutor to Françoise Hébert, orphaned at an early age with her older brother Joseph.

In 1672, Intendant Jean Talon granted to Guillaume Fornier, as fief and seigneurie, thirty arpents on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence; this fief was named "Fief St-Joseph" or "Fief Fournier". Later, his wife became co-seigneur of the parish of Saint-Charles de Bellechasse which was originally granted to Louis Hébert. Guillaume Fournier was one of the founding settlers of the parish of Saint-Thomas de Montmagny. The first baptism entered in the registers was that of a daughter of Guillaume Fournier.

A second chapel was erected at Pointe-à-la-Caille (old name for Montmagny) on a piece of land of three arpents frontage which was part of his lands. In consideration of this donation to the church, Guillaume Fournier and his descendants have rights to one pew in that church.

Before the gift of land to build the second church and even before the first church was build, it is in Guillaume Fournier's house that the services were held when the missionnaries toured. Old documents give us a description of this house: built of squared logs, it was 22 feet in length and 18 feet in width; it had a single floor with an attic, two windows on the north side and one on the south, the entrance was on the north side.

Guillaume Fournier was very active and we find many traces in the notary minutes of that time. Let us note one which is for a sale of 14 arpents of land to Intendant Jean Talon for the sum of 6,850 livres (about 7000 dollars) (minutes of notary Romain Becquet, August 12, 1670).

In 1681, during the last census of the French regime, Guillaume Fornier is mentioned on the list of inhabitants of the seigneurie of Bellechasse. Here is the original description:
"Guillaume Fournier 60 (ans); Françoise Hébert, his wife, 46; children: Joseph 20, Jean 16, Simon 14, Pierre 12, François 11, Louis 9, Madeleine 6, Charles 4; 3 guns; 12 horned animals; 10 arpents in value"

Six other children were born forming a family of 14.

Guillaume Fournier died at Montmagny in 1699 and was buried in the church on November 25 of that year. Of Guillaume Fournier's children, eleven founded families, six sons and five daughters. The boys settled around the paternal home near St-Thomas. Their descendants spread themselves along the south shore of the Saint Lawrence from Montmagny to the lower river to them migrate across Canada and the United States.

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Guillaume married Françoise Hébert, daughter of Guillaume Hébert and Hélène Desportes, on 20 Nov 1651 in Québec City, Québec, Québec, Canada.^{1 2 3} (Françoise Hébert was baptized on 3 Nov 1636 in Québec City, Québec, Québec, Canada ⁴ and was buried on 16 Mar 1716 in Montmagny, Québec, Canada ³.)