LEDUC JOURNAL vol. 7 #4 (Autumn 1995)
by Jocelyne Leduc Gauvin (#148)
(c) Association des Familles Leduc Inc, duplicaton unauthorized without permission.

Among the four Leduc settlers who came from France in the XVII century, René is probably the least known. Most of his descendants no doubt are not aware that he is one of their ancestors.

René Leduc, Angevin

René Leduc is a native of Brézé near Saumur in the former province of Anjou. The castle of Brézé, a stronghold of the XVIth century, was seriously damaged during the Fronde rebellion which took place a few years before René Leduc emigrated to New France. On the other hand, it appears that a famous wine which is grown there was found savoured by King Louis XIV while he was visiting the castle in 1661.

René Leduc is the son of Vincent Leduc and Urbaine Renoult. It is not known at what time exactly he arrived in New France, but on the 18th of October, in Québec, he weds Anne Gentreau (or Gendreau), daughter of Nicolas Gentreau and Perrine Buette. The marriage contract is dated the previous July 25 at the office of the notary named Gloria.

Anne Gentreau, "Daughter of the king" (Fille du roi)

A native of Sables-d'Olone in Vendée, Anne Gentreau arrives in Canada in 1663. At the time of her wedding, she is 23 years old. According to Yves Landry, Anne Gentreau is "Fille du roi"; she is among those groups of French-women, mostly orphans, who came to marry French settlers and start family in New France on the XVII century.

An active life

René Leduc and his wife settle on the shore at Lauzon. As the years pass, they buy, sell or exchange several concessions of land on that same shore, as well as on the quai of the Cul-de-Sac in the Québec Lower-Town, which lands and sites would eventually go to their children.

In addition, in 1702, a contract drawn up at the noraty Chambalon's has to do with hiring René in the capacity of "traveler" for the Compagnie de la Colonie (the Settler's Company).

Numerous offsprings but few male heirs

René Leduc and Marie Gentreau have ten children of which only three have families.

Two daughters, Françoise and Madeleine, enter to novitiate on the same day; they take their vows together on May 13, 1701, in the religious order of the Nuns of the Hôtel-Dieu in Québec.

Previously, in 1689, another daughter, Marie-Anne leduc, had wed Ignace Liénard called Boisjoli. The couple settles at Neuville, and Marie-Anne was to give birth to twelve children.

For Anne and René Leduc 1704 is most likely a very busy year since the weddings of two other children took place at that time. On the 16th of May, 1704 their daughter Geneviève weds Pierre Métayer called St-Onge, a master tailor native of the town of Saintes in the province of Saintonge (hence, it goes without saying, his nickname). The couple settles in Québec and five children are born. A small indiscretion: before his wedding Pierre Métayer had fathered a natural son with another woman: Pierre, born September 8, 1704.

Only one René's sons marries: Guillaume Leduc

In 1704, still, on the 18th of November, in Québec, Anne and René Leduc marry off their son Guillaume, who weds Elisabeth Drouin from Ile d'Orléans; the bride is the daughter of Nicolas Drouin and Marie Loignon.

Before his marriage, Guillaume is a "traveler" like his father. Two contracts attest to his obligations in that respect, one of which dates 1690 regarding a trip to Acadie. That contract also involves his brother-in-law, Ignace Liénard.

Various successive contracts describe Guillaume as farmer, merchant. trader or middle-class. As an indication that he was prosperous, he has a two-storey stone house built on Cul-de-Sac street at the Place Royale in Québec, in 1725. The house still exist and one can admire it when visiting Québec.

In spite of wealth, infantile mortality abounds

Guillaume Leduc and his spouse Elisabeth have sixteen children. Unfortunatly, at least twelve of them die before the age of two. On child only, Marie-Catherine, starts a family. In 1728, she weds Pierre Marcoux, son of Jean-Baptiste Marcoux and Madeleine Magnan.

Why René Leduc so little known?

Let's go back to the issues of René Leduc's and Anne Gentreau's descendants: the fact is that, regarding that particular family, the Leduc patronymic disappears at the third gegeration. That is why most of their descendants are not aware that RenéLeduc the settler is among their ancestors. Rather, those descendants bear family names such as Liénard, Métayer, Marcoux, Parent, etc., but the ancestor René can be traces through maternal lineages.

Just as an example my father, Jacques Leduc, gets his family name from the ancestor Jean Leduc, a native of Igé in Perche. On the other hand, my maternal grand-mother, Agnès Parent Côté, through her mother, Agnès Leduc, is descended from the ancestor Pierre Leduc of Rouen; and through her father Bernard Parent, Agnès is a descendant of Ignace Liénard Boisjoli and Marie-Anne Leduc, daughter of René Leduc from Anjou.

Jetté, René: Dictionnaire généalogiques des familles du Québec des origines à 1730, Montréal 1983.

Parchemin: Résumé d'actes des notaires Becquet, Duquet, Gloria, Rageot, Becquet, Chambalon, Duquet, Rivet dit Cavelier.

De Blacas, Yseult: Brézé, la douceur angevine, magazine Point de vue, Paris, France 1993

Landry, Yves: Orphelines en France, pionnières au Canada: Les filles du roi au XVIIe sciècle, Leméac 1992.