Arrival in Nouvelle France
Guyon and family emigrated to North America as part of the Percheron Immigration, a small group of families and some single men from the region of Perche, in the province of Normandy, brought over to Nouvelle France in 1634 to colonize new areas.
Jean de Lauzon, the Governor of New France, awarded a concession of land to Robert Giffard de Moncel, physician to the colony. Giffard, now Seigneurie of Beauport, recruited Guyon and other tradesmen to the new colony with the offer of 1,000 arpents (341.9 ha) of land with hunting and fishing rights in exchange for three years of service.
Guyon traveled aboard a convoy of four ships under the command of Charles Duplessis-Bochart and arrived in Nouvelle France in 1634. Guyon was awarded land in newly-established Beauport, one of the oldest European-founded communities in Canada (and now a borough of Quebec City). Under the seigneurial system, he received a rear fief (arrière fief) near rivière du Buisson (river of bushes). He attached its name to his own, Guyon du Buisson.
Guyon lived there until he died in 1663. He built a small mill and helped build the parish church of Québec city and the governor's residence.
For nine years, he and Zacharie Cloutier disputed Giffard's seigneural rights to receive foi et hommage (fealty and homage). Refusing to accept him as their superior, they did not stake their lands or pay him annual taxes. On July 19, 1646, the governor of the colony took action to force Cloutier and Guyon to comply with their contractual obligations. Such cases of censitaire refractoriness filled the time of the courts for the duration of the seigneurial system, both during the French regime and under the English.
His eldest son, also named Jean Guyon, married Élisabeth Couillard, granddaughter of Louis Hébert, the first French colonist established with his family in Nouvelle France. Their wedding was accompanied by the "two violins...which had not been seen yet in Canada".
After his death, his heirs engaged in a protracted legal dispute over his lands.
Read more about this topic: Jean Guyon
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