DAVID, CLAUDE, voyageur, settler; b. 1621 in France; d. 30 Nov. 1687 at Cap-de-la-Madeleine.

Although one author has coupled the title of doctor with his name, there is no evidence that he practised medicine in Canada. On 2 June 1647 Governor Charles Huault de Montmagny granted him permission to clear the Île aux Cochons (Île du Milieu, today Île Maillet) situated at the junction of the St. Maurice River and the St. Lawrence. In 1649, at Trois-Rivières, he married Suzanne de Noyon, born in 1633, daughter of Édouard de Noyon and Catherine Chevalier. Claude David had seven children, all of whom were baptized at Trois-Rivières. An act granting land and dated 20 Oct. 1654 speaks of “Île de Claude David,” next to the fief of Île Saint-Christophe. In an act of 7 April 1660 he figures as the owner of a grant at Trois-Rivières, adjoining that of Mathieu and Charles Amiot.

Claude David took part in a trading expedition, led by Chouart Des Groseilliers, which left Montreal in 1660 for Lake Superior; the voyage, which was to take a year, lasted three. In a letter dated 2 June 1661 and sent from the mission of Notre-Dame-du-Bon-Secours, which he calls “Chassahamigan” (Baie Sainte-Catherine or Keweenaw Bay, Michigan), the Jesuit René Ménard mentions his companion Claude David, “who repairs the fire-arms.”

On the occasion of a dispute with the Jesuits of Trois-Rivières, which was brought before the Conseil Souverain on 30 Jan. 1664, Claude David and two of his fellow-settlers represented the inhabitants of the locality.

On 20 Jan. 1679 he granted a loan to Michel Pelletier de La Prade, seigneur of Gentilly. David died at Cap-de-la-Madeleine, near Trois-Rivières, and was buried there on 2 Dec. 1687.

Antonio Drolet

ASQ, Documents Faribault, 161; Fonds Verreau, VIII, liasse 1, f.3, p.4; f.7. JR (Thwaites), XLVI, 142, 301f.; LXXI, 86. Jug. et délib., I, 112. P.-G. Roy, Inv. concessions, I, 247; II, 29, 71. L. P. Kellogg, The French régime in Wisconsin and the Northwest (Madison, Wis., 1925), 115. P.-G. Roy, “Mathieu Amyot Villeneuve,” BRH, XXV (1919), 323; Noms géographiques de la province de Québec (Lévis, 1906).

Revisions based on:
Bibliothèque et Arch. Nationales du Québec, Centre d’arch. de la Mauricie et du Centre-du-Québec (Trois-Rivières, Québec), CE401-S6, 2 déc. 1687.