Early Life
Most sources state that Zacharie Cloutier was born in December of 1590 in the parish of Saint-Jean-Baptiste Mortagne-au-Perche, France. Cloutier was one of the nine children of Denis Cloutier and his first wife Renée Brière. The notary Mathurin Roussel of Mortagne called Cloutier the "family peacemaker," describing how Cloutier helped his father and brother solve a dispute involving inheritance. In the parish of his birth, Cloutier wedded Xainte Dupont of Feings (also known as Sainte) in July 1616. She had been born in 1596 to Paul-Michel and Perrine Dupont, and was the widow of Michel Lermusier.
In 1619 Henri II de Montmorency purchased the New France colony from his brother-in-law Henry II of Bourbon. Included amongst the laborers hired to assist Samuel de Champlain in “inhabiting, clearing, cultivating and planting” New France were the names of Zacharie and his father Denis. This group was not a group of settlers, but a group of laborers, who would return to France once their work had been completed. Several years later, however, Cloutier returned to Canada to help establish a new settlement at Beauport.
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