Miscellaneous Notes on Nicolas Perrot

Descendants of Nicolas Perrot may be interested in the book, The Indian Tribes of the Upper Mississippi Valley & Region of the Great Lakes, by Emma Helen Blair. The book contains an English translation of his memoirs, which include descriptions of Indian customs at the time of their first contact with Europeans. Also included are his accounts of his contacts and adventures with various Indian tribes.

Nicolas Perrot married Marie-Madeline Raclot (Source: Robert Perreault (Danville, PQ J0A 1A0), Mariages Perreault 1647 - 1900 de la Province de Quebec, Canada, (1976 Premiere edition).) November 11, 1671 in Champlain, Quebec, Canada (Source: French Canadian & Acadian Genealogical Review, Vol. VII, Nos. 3-4, 1979 (Mona Loranger), page 224, contract: Larue, notary.), daughter of Boh Raclot and Marie Viennot.

Son of Perrault François, lieutenant of justice, and of Sérot Bride.

Perrault Nicolas or Perrot was born about 1643, originaire of the baronnie of Darcey, dAutun diocèse, in Burgundy (Côte-dOr ). Nicolas crosses the seas at the latest in 1660, it has then only 17 years. It works for the Jésuites that linstruisent and do for him to learn the dialectes of quils tribes visit. It becomes therefore coureur of the wood of 1672 jusquen 1683. It explores and sillonne the vast American continent while passing by Winnibago, Potowatami, Sauk Fox, situated towns in the neighborhood of the bay of Puants, it some takes advantage to do the treaty of furs. While descending the river of Outaouais, Perrot and four French companions, it meets Cavelier of LaSalle, that hunts in company of some French and dIroquois dune dozen. May 5 1671, Perrault Nicolas signs the verbal process in quality official dinterprète, for the hold possession regions lOuest, to the name of the king France, in the presence of fourteen representative of different peoples.

Nicolas is considered as an interpreter and a speaker of first order, more instructs and gifted with superior, brave and crafty talents to the possible one. It has a beautiful writing and possesses lart to put to bed on paper its always remarkable observations. November 11 1671, it is to Champlain to marry Raclos Madeleine, been born in 1654, Godebon girl or Raclos Ildebon and of Viennot Bride, of Paris. Raclos Marries-Madeleine arrived in a quota of some 125 " girls of the king ", of which a quarantaine of Parisian ones, and its two surs. The Raclos fellow accompanies its girls, a unique case, in l’histoire of the " girls of the king ".

Eleven children are born to the couple, despite all the lancêtre trips, between 1672 jusquà 1683, as coureur of wood. The one that secures us to Perrault, Nicolas cest, been born towards 1674. Perrault Nicolas, said Turbal, militia captain, marries October 2 1710, Bourbeau Marguerite -Thérèse, been born about 1685. Their girl Marries-Françoise,been born in 1711, marries in 1733, Deshaie Joseph, said Tourigny. To the census of 1661, lancêtre. Perrault Nicolas is 37 years old and his Raclos Madeleine woman is 25 years old. The household possesses two rifles, five beasts to horns and eighteen arpents in value.

In 1684, the governor persuades daller Perrot to convince the nations of lOuest to beat itself against Iroquois. Nicolas undertakes an accompanied, perilous trip dhommes dune vingtaine, it returns jusquà for himself the bay of Puants, it delivers there the boss girl dun Jumps held with the Foxes and obtains from this boss the promise that his nentrera nation not at war with the one that guilty returned sest of this abduction. August 13 1717, the l’Ouest hero dies as simple settler, and his body is enterré the next day in léglise of Bécancour, sépulture lacte says âgé for it denviron 74 years. After the death of his husband, Raclos Madeleine becomes dépressive. She has strong lesprit troublé and returned as in childhood. She will remain with his Françoise girl, marries Dufaux François carpenter. She lives again four other years to the class of which ones this one is thrust in most complete insanity.

[source: Mona Loranger, "Perrot/Perreault Notes/1647-1900" http://genforum.genealogy.com – note is in "as found" condition, unedited]

Commandant of the Far West

Perrot, Nicolas (b. 1644, France--d. Aug. 13, 1717, Lower Canada), French fur trader, North American colonial official, and explorer. Perrot immigrated to New France (Canada) as a youth, and his services there under the Jesuits and Sulpicians enabled him to learn Indian languages and native cultures. He entered the fur trade about 1663, working in the Great Lakes region, and in 1668 he was among the first French traders who dealt with the Algonkin tribes around Green Bay. Governor Frontenac sent Perrot in 1670 as interpreter on an expedition that claimed the Upper Mississippi area for France in June 1671. He returned to New France that autumn, married, and settled on an estate at Becancour. For the next 12 years, he evidently worked his lands but also engaged in some fur trading, as he was awarded a license for that purpose in 1674. In 1683 Governor Lefebvre de La Barre authorized Perrot to undertake a Great Lakes trading expedition, and the next year, the governor directed him to obtain the support of western tribes in his campaign against the Iroquois. In 1685 Perrot was made commandant of the Green Bay region, and, with his commission, he journeyed to the junction of the Wisconsin and Mississippi rivers, where he built Ft. St. Nicolas. In 1686 he constructed Ft. St. Antoine on Lake Pepin and initiated trade with the Sioux and other local tribes. The following year, Perrot was ordered to assist another campaign against the Iroquois. He ousted British fur-tradering expeditions from the Great Lakes region, and, on May 8, 1689, he officially renewed France's claim to the Upper Mississippi. Perrot continued to work among the western tribes until 1696, when all trading licenses were revoked. He then returned to Lower Canada. Perrot subsequently worked as an interpreter and served in the militia, although he devoted his final years to writing his memoirs, published in 1864. In 1668 Perot made the first French contact with both the Mascouten (also Wea and Kickapoo) at their Fox Portage village.

1691
Several French traders were killed as a result, and the Mascouten robbed Perot of his trade goods and threatened to burn him at the stake. The Kickapoo intervened to save Perot's life, and although he remained at Green Bay until his trading license was revoked in 1696, he went back to Quebec and never returned to Wisconsin.

[source: Joseph Girard, "withnotes" http://awt.ancestry.com]

PERROT, Nicolas, French explorer; b. France, 1644; d. Canada, Aug. 13, 1717. Perrot emigrated to New France as a boy, and in his work with Jesuit missionaries learned certain Indian tongues. Entering the fur trade about 1663, he came to know Indians and their ways in the country of the upper Mississippi River, and four years later he was a member of one of the first French trading parties to Indians around Green Bay. In 1670, he went to the upper Mississippi region as interpreter for an expedition sent to take the area for France. In 1684, he and Daniel Greysolon, Sieur Duluth, won the alliance of the western Indians in French operations against the Iroquois. The following year Perrot was appointed by the governor of New France as commandant of the area around Green Bay. Here, in 1686, Perrot opened trade with the Sioux and other tribes. On May 8, 1689, he made formal claim for France to the upper Mississippi country. When trading licenses were withdrawn (1696), Perrot returned to Lower Canada, where he worked from time to time as an indian intrepreter. Most of his writings were lost, but Memoire sure les moeurs, coutumes et religion des sauvages de l'Amerique septentrionale was published in a special edition in 1864.

[source: Encyclopedia Americana, 1966]