To help rebuild the tiny town of Quebec, Champlain employed the services of Robert Giffard, a ship’s surgeon and one of the first colonists, to help recruit new migrants. Being from the Perche region of France in lower (southern) Normandy, Giffard knew the residents there were well suited for cutting trees and enduring harsh winters. He went from town to town in Perche expounding the opportunities in New France. Many were captivated by the adventure and opportunity of a new life in the New World. The “Percheron Immigration,” as it would become known, had begun.
In March 1634, Giffard, his wife and children and about thirty colonists in four ships left Dieppe for New France. These settlers included Tourouvre master mason Jean Guyon1 and his wife Mathurine Robin, and Robert Drouin,2 a tile maker and bricklayer and a native of Pin-la-Garenne. After the perilous ocean voyage,3 they reached Quebec in June.
The following year Giffard recruited even more settlers from Perche. Among these immigrants were three of Barnabe Gagnon’s grandsons, Mathurin, Jean4 (Jehan), and Pierre.
It is likely Robert Drouin, the Guyons, and the Gagnon brothers met Champlain himself. Certainly they attended his funeral in December of 1635.
Quebec now had 132 settlers. Immigrants from the Perche region would continue to arrive for the next 30 years. Among those would be the Gagnon brothers’ mother, Renee Roger, their older sister Marguerite and her husband Eloi Tavernier, Mathurin’s daughter Marthe, and a cousin, Robert Gagnon. Virtually all Gagnons in North America are descended from these Gagnon immigrants.
The three Gagnon brothers opened a shop in Quebec City on the Rue Saint-Pierre in the lower town. Their business partner was Joseph Masse Gravel who later married Marguerite Tavernier, daughter of their older sister, Marguerite Gagnon.
Gagnon brothers in their Quebec shop5
Mathurin Gagnon, the eldest of the three brothers, was the only one who could read and write thus contributing greatly to their business success. His status is reflected in his membership in the La Compagnie des Habitants, a company of colonialists that held the fur trading monopoly in the early years of Quebec.
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Notes:
1See Chart G13.
2See Charts G2, G10.
3Estimates place the death rate at 10% for those crossing the Atlantic in the 17th century, seafarers often dying from disease.
4See Charts G2, G10. Other sources give later dates for the arrival.
5Plaque at the UNESCO World Heritage site in Quebec.
Gagnon Family History 