DROUIN, ROBERT, pioneer on the Beaupré shore; baptized 6 Aug. 1607 at Pin-la-Garenne, Perche, son of Robert Drouin and Marie Dubois; d. 1 June 1685 and was buried at Château-Richer the next day.

The date of Drouin’s arrival in Canada is not known, but it is certain that he was here by 1636. In 1641 he already had a farm near the Rivière aux Chiens on the Beaupré shore, although he did not receive the concession for it until 17 April 1646. By his marriage with Anne Cloutier, which was celebrated on 12 July 1637 in the parish of Notre-Dame de Québec, he had three daughters; by his second marriage, with Marie Chapelier, which was celebrated on 29 Nov. 1649 in the same place, he had eight more children.

It is almost impossible to trace any French-Canadian genealogy without encountering Robert Drouin among the earliest ancestors. That would seem to us to be his greatest claim to fame. It is also to be noted that his marriage contract with Anne Cloutier (which preceded by nearly a year the religious ceremony), concluded on 27 July 1636 in Robert Giffard’s house and drawn up in the absence of a notary by Jean Guyon Du Buisson, senior, is the oldest marriage contract preserved in the original in Canada.

Honorius Provost

ASQ, Documents Faribault, 2; Seigneuries. JR (Thwaites). Jug. et delib.

Revisions based on:
Arch. Départementales de l’Orne (Alençon, France), “État civil (1552–1902),” Pin-la-Garenne, 6 août 1607: archives.orne.fr/consultez/consultez2.html (consulted 19 Jan. 2012). Bibliothèque et Arch. Nationales du Québec, Centre d’arch. de Québec, CE301-S1, 12 juill. 1637, 29 nov. 1649; CE301-S6, 2 juin 1685.