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LAUSON, GILLES, Montreal settler, forefather of all the Lauzons of Canada and the United States; b. in the parish of Saint-Julien in the town of Caen (France) in 1631, the son of Pierre Lauson and Anne Boivin; d. at Montreal in 1687.

Lauson exercised the coppersmith’s trade, having qualified as a master craftsman before he landed in Canada in 1653 with the great contingent brought from France by Chomedey de Maisonneuve. Having decided to settle at Ville-Marie (Montreal), Lauson bought 50 rods of land and a house from Urbain Tessier, dit Lavigne, in March 1655. On 20 August of the same year there were added to this property, as grants from Maisonneuve, 30 acres “below the Coteau Saint-Louis” and one acre “within the town.” Being henceforth in a position to support a wife and family, Lauson married Marie Archambault, aged 12, daughter of Jacques Archambault and Françoise Toureault, on 27 Nov. 1656, at Ville-Marie. As a good citizen Lauson enlisted in the militia of the Sainte-Famille and held the position of churchwarden of the parish of Montreal from 5 Jan. 1670 to 11 Jan. 1672.

Marie Archambault died on 8 Aug. 1685, leaving 13 children; Lauson was buried on 21 Sept. 1687.

André Vachon

R.-J. Auger, La grande recrue de 1653 (Montréal, 1955), 79f. L. Lauzon, Un pionnier de Ville-Marie, Gilles Lauzon et sa postérité (Québec, 1926).

Revisions based on:
Bibliothèque et Arch. Nationales du Québec, Centre d’arch. de Montréal, CE601-S51, 27 nov. 1656, 21 sept. 1687.