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Association of descendants
of Paul Vachon
(Vachon and Pomerleau families)

"The first generation in Canada."*
Our ancestor, Paul Vachon, arrived in New France around 1650. It was not possible to confirm the year or the name of the ship on which Paul crossed the Atlantic. He settled in Beauport, in the seigneury granted in 1634 to Robert Giffard. The first record of him in the country is his marriage certificate, recorded in the registers of the parish of Notre-Dame in Quebec, dated October 22, 1653. The marriage was not celebrated in Quebec, but in Beauport, in the house of Jean Juchereau, sieur de la Ferté and son-in-law of the lord of Beauport. The nuptial blessing was given by Father Berthelémy Vimont, former general superior of the Jesuits and former parish priest of Notre-Dame de Québec, then on a mission in Beauport. Paul Vachon married Marguerite Langlois, daughter of Noël Langlois and Françoise Grenier. The Langlois family had arrived in the country since 1634. Paul Vachon had come to Canada as a mason. His masonry work had kept him in Quebec as an act indicates that he contributed, along with Mathurin Roy, to the masonry of the sick chapel of the Hôtel-Dieu de Québec. That same year, on September 25, 1654, he entered into a masonry contract with Martin Grouvel before the notary Audouart. He then undertook to build "a gable and double chimney with basement of a house and all kinds of masonry materials both high and low at a rate of eight francs per yard". For the first time in our archives, Paul Vachon signed at the bottom of a notarized document. But he soon laid down the mason's trowel and took up the notary's pen.

In 1656, the Jesuit Fathers appointed our ancestor, Paul Vachon, as a notary for the Seigneury of Notre-Dame des Anges. In the early days of the colony, agreements were made verbally. A little later, they were formalized in writing. Under the French regime, we had two groups of notaries: seigneurial notaries, appointed by the owner of a seigneury, and royal notaries, appointed by the king or his representative in the country. Their functions were the same.

In 1659, Paul Vachon also became the notary of the Seigniory of Beauport where he resided. On November 10, Monseigneur de Laval granted notarial letters to Paul Vachon for his seigneuries of Côte-de-Beaupré and Île-d'Orléans. In November 1667, Madame the widow d'Ailleboust appointed him notary of the Seigniory of Argentiny. Thus, for nearly forty years, he exercised the function of seigneurial notary. The inventory of Paul Vachon's records was drawn up in 1732 by the Attorney General Verrier, at the archives of the province of Quebec. There are approximately 1,500 acts recorded. Many people still consult them today. "His deeds (Paul Vachon) brought him into contact with almost all the inhabitants of these places and made him one of the most important personalities of his time in these regions." (Michel Langlois, Our Beauport Ancestors)

Although our ancestor was first a mason and above all a notary, he did not neglect his farms. He lived on the land of Beauport, the cultivation of which he supervised, and he appointed a farmer to look after his land on Ile-d'Orléans, which had been bequeathed to him by Bishop Laval in 1660. Despite exhaustive searches, the exact location of his farm in Beauport has not yet been identified. The same is true for his house located in the Bourg du Fargi. In 2000, during the celebrations of the 350th anniversary of Paul's arrival in New France, a commemorative plaque was dedicated to him. The Association of Paul Vachon's descendants (Vachon and Pomerleau families) proposes to erect this plaque on the site of his first farm when the location of the site is confirmed.

*Written by Léandre Vachon, 30-11-1999