Jean Godefroy de Lintot
Willows at Vetheuil, by Claude Monet
Originating from Normandy, JEAN GODEFROY de LINTOT... arrived in New France in 1626 with his brother, Thomas Godefroy de Normanville. It is told that Thomas had an uncommon ability to learn the native languages and was a brilliant and impressive interpreter. He spoke Iroquois, Huron and Algonquin fluently.
Jean Godefroy was first known as a fur trader living in the woods with the Indians and as an interpreter under the government of Champlain. During the British occupation of the Kirkes, the Godefroy brothers stayed with the Hurons for three years from 1629 to 1632. Jean Godefroy subsequently established himself in Trois Rivières in 1634.
In December of 1637, he received a tract of land in Trois Rivières, a seigneury, where he would oversee the land clearing for cultivation and encourage settlers. Jean Godefroy was part of a family alliance of provincial noblemen from the Caën area of Normandy who arrived in the summer of 1636. The families of Godefroy, LeGardeur, LeNeuf du Hérisson brought with them Marie LeNeuf du Hérisson who would become the bride of Jean Godefroy de Lintot in December of that year. These families were merchants and entrepreneurs intent on establishing a successful fur trading enterprise with the Indians. To that end, Jean Godefroy was an interpreter.
From 1646 on, he was a member of the Communauté des Habitants which was founded, in part, by his brother-in-law Michel LeNeuf, along with assorted members of his extended family... also known as le pacte de familles.
Jean Godefroy and Marie LeNeuf had nine sons and two daughters. Their first child, Michel born in October 1637 is considered to be the first white child born in Trois-Rivières. The second son, Louis born in 1639, was a procurer for the King of France. Third son, Jacques de Vieuxpont, born in 1641, was a renown interpreter and fur merchant. In 1661, he left on a fur-trading mission with another Frenchman and some thirty Indians. On the way, they were attacked by of band of about eighty Iroquois who they resisted for more than two days. In the end, he fell to the Iroquois gunfire. Only one of his companions, an Indian, survived the attack. The Iroquois lost about a third of their party.
Daughter, Jeanne born in 1644 joined the Ursulines in Quebec. The second daughter, Marie-Reine (Renée) born in 1652 and married to Pierre Boulanger in 1677 is my direct ancestor.
On Intendant Jean Talon's first census in 1666, Jean Godefroy de Lintot was listed as 58 years old and living in the Trois-Rivières area as an habitant and seigneur from Normandy. Living in the same household were his wife, Marie du Hérisson, aged 55, a midwife. Also living with him were his youngest 6 children. Elder sons lived nearby, one of them Louis Godefroy de Normanville, a seigneur in his own right.
Jean Godefroy's brother, Thomas, had been killed by the Iroquois in 1652, in 1661, Jean Godefroy's 20-year old son, Jacques, was also killed by the Iroquois. The price of fur trading in North America was indeed high.
Jean Godefroy died in 1681 in Trois-Rivières, his wife died in 1688.
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Jean GODEFROY and Marie du HÉRISSON, m. 12-15-1636 in Québec
Marie-Renée GODEFROY and Pierre BOULANGER, m. 5-16-1677 in Québec
Joseph Pierre-Ignace BOULANGER and Élisabeth MOUET, m. 1-7-1728 in Trois Rivières, PQ
Madeleine BOULANGER and Théodore PANNETON, m. 11-14-1757 in Trois Rivières, PQ
Jean-Baptiste PANNETON and Angélique NORMAND, m. 8-16-1791 in Louisville, PQ
Madeleine PANNETON and Pierre CAMIRAND, m. 2-6-1815 in Trois Rivières, PQ
Charles CAMIRAND and Marie-Zélie POTHIER, m. 2-9-1847 in Trois Rivières, PQ
Ernest CAMIRAND and Mathilde FOURNIER, m. 11-24-1885 in Attleboro, MA
Wilfred CAMERON and Délia DARGIE, m. 10-11-1910 in Attleboro, MA
Rhea CAMERON and Edward LIZOTTE, m. 6-20-1936 in Attleboro, MA
