BOUCHARD, ÉTIENNE, surgeon; b. c. 1622 in the parish of Saint-Paul, Paris, son of Pierre Bouchard and Nicole Charland; d. 1676 in Montreal.

On 10 May 1653 Bouchard, who ordinarily lived in the town and duchy of Épernon, entered into an agreement with Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve and Jérôme Le Royer de La Dauversière to act as a surgeon for the settlement of Montreal for a period of five years. He arrived in Canada 22 Sept. 1653, at the same time as two other surgeons, Louis Chartier and Pierre Piron. Having received authorization to break his 1653 contract, Bouchard made an agreement with a group of settlers of Ville-Marie on 3 March 1655, whereby he undertook to give treatment to them and to their families in exchange for 100 sous paid annually in two instalments by each settler.

His practice must have been extensive. He first had in his service Jean Auger, dit Le Baron, who left him 16 Aug. 1656. On 2 Feb. 1660 he engaged François Caron as surgeon’s aid, and, on 15 November of the same year, Nicolas Colson as journeyman-surgeon. Colson left him at a date unknown, but certainly not after 26 July 1664, when he was in the employ of Jean Madry. On 5 August of the following year Bouchard replaced him with Gilles Devennes. Bouchard’s last professional act was performed with Jean Martinet* de Fonblanche, as an officer of the surgeons’ guild.

Bouchard had married Marguerite Boessel at Quebec on 6 Aug. 1657; they had seven children, of whom at least three survived their father. When he died at his colleague Martinet’s home, 19 July 1676, he was a sick man, abandoned by his wife and separated from his children. He had been a doctor at the Hôtel-Dieu.

Gabriel Nadeau

AJM, Greffe de Bénigne Basset, 5 août 1665 et passim; Greffe de Lambert Closse, 3 mars 1665; Greffe de Jean de Saint-Père, 16 août 1656. AJQ, Greffe de Guillaume Audouart, 23 juillet 1657. Lionel Audet-Lapointe, “Étienne Bouchard, chirurgien à Ville-Marie en 1653,” SGCF Mémoires, XIII (1962), 241–43. Godbout, “Nos ancêtres,” APQ Rapport, 1959–60, 292f. É.-Z. Massicotte, “Les chirurgiens, médecins, etc., de Montréal sous le régime français,” APQ Rapport, 1922–23, 132f., 146f. Maria Mondoux, “Les ‘Hommes’ de Montréal,” RHAF, II (1948–49), 71.

Revisions based on:
Bibliothèque et Arch. Nationales du Québec, Centre d’arch. de Québec, CE301-S1, 6 août 1657.