DANDONNEAU, dit Lajeunesse, PIERRE, settler; baptized 25 Oct. 1624 at La Rochelle (France), son of Jacques Dandonneau and Isabelle Fain; d. 1702 at Champlain.

Pierre Dandonneau was one of the most earnest and tenacious settlers in the early years of the colony. He does not even seem to have engaged in fur-trading. He arrived in Canada around 1647, was sent to the little town of Trois-Rivières, and worked first for Jean Godefroy* de Lintot as an indentured employee. A land grant was made to him on 21 April 1652, and he quickly became one of the chief settlers of the locality. When, on 16 Jan. 1653, he signed his marriage contract with Françoise Jobin, a “king’s daughter” (fille du roi) living at the Sieur de Lintot’s house, personages as influential as the governor of the town, Jacques Leneuf* de La Poterie, and Pierre Boucher, the commandant of the fort, were present. Dandonneau acquired land grants on the islands situated at the mouth of the St Maurice River.

In 1664 he left Trois-Rivières and moved with his family to Champlain, where he was one of the first to receive land grants. He bought from the Sieur Besnard, dit Saint-André, a piece of land, two acres of which were already cleared, then on 17 March 1665 the local seigneur, Pézard* de La Tousche, made him a land grant in his own right. Dandonneau remained permanently on the Champlain seigneury, contributed a great deal to its development, and died there in 1702. By his marriage with Françoise Jobin he had ten daughters and three sons; one of the latter, Louis, Sieur Du Sablé, was seigneur of Île Dupas, and married his daughter Marie-Anne to the discoverer Pierre Gaultier* de La Vérendrye.

Raymond Douville

Archives du séminaire de Trois-Rivières, Collection Henri Désilets et Montarville Boucher de La Bruère. P.-G. Roy, Inv. concessions, V, 190. Cloutier, Histoire de la paroisse de Champlain. Archange Godbout, Les pionniers de la région trifluvienne (Trois-Rivières, 1934). Sulte, Mélanges historiques (Malchelosse), XVIII, XX.