Individual Details
Romain De Trépagny
(1627 - 20 Mar 1702)
From Thomas Laforest, Our French-Canadian Ancestors, Vol. V, pp. 235 ff.:
Were the pioneers of New France timid people searching for a tranquil hideaway which they were unable to find in a homeland prey to endless conflict? Did they face perils of the sea in the hope of finding peace in the great Canadian wilderness, troubled from time to time by hostile natives, but generally very calm? Perhaps this was true for some, who sought to raise their families in peace and be left alone in the refuge they had freely chosen. But it was not so for many others!
Romain de Trépagny belonged to that class of headstrong and obstinate fighters who were eternal claimants of their rights. History does not tell us if he was a born troublemaker or simply a poor loser. However, the records do tell us that his many resorts to justice, from the local judges to the Sovereign Council, demonstrate a litigious nature. He did not hesitate to make appeals in order to obtain, if not a complete victory, at least a more equitable distribution of coveted peoperties, or to seek dismissal of a suit against which he must defend himself. Was his way of seeing things a result of blind stubborness? It would not seem so, because several times he was able to settle out of court before a situation became embittered. For example, in 1676 a case opposing Msgr de Laval [Bishop of Québec] concerning a land lease at Cap-Tourments, he accepted the mediation of Father Jean Dudouyt and met his obligations.We know a few things about the European antecedents of Romain de Trépagny. Father Archange Godbout, at the time of his research in the parish archives of Normandy, discovered the baptismal records, in Muchedent, of four children of Charles d'Estrépagny and Marie Marette (Mailler or Mailler). They were Marguerite (1Aug 1622), Charles (5 November 1625), Romain, the future Canadian (19 April 1627), whose godfather was Messire Romain Lestoc, the Curate of the parish, and whose godmother was Marie Crotté, and finally Marie (11 January 1629).
HE MARRIES A GRANDDAUGHTER OF ZACHARIE
Romain de Trépagny arrived in Canada no earlier that 1655. On 27 February 1656, fortified by the encouragement of old Zacharie Cloutier, he declared himself ready to take a wife. It was in Zacharie's house at Beauport where all the notables of the area gathered to witness the signing of the marriage contract prepared by notary François Badeau. Robert Drouin, master brickmaker, liveing on the Beaupré coast, spoke for his daughter, the twelve year old Geneviève, baptized at Québec on 19 October 1643. She was from the first marriage of Robert to Anne Cloutier, Zacharie's daughter. Romain "Destrépagny," laborer, living at Beauport, said to be the son of "Charles Destrépagny and of Marye Maillet his father and mother, both dead, of the parish of Musdant in the land of Caux." Romain promised to marry "as early as could be done;" he and Geneviève agreed to joint ownership of property following the coutume de Paris. The future bride was endowed with the sum of 300 livres tournois, with a legacy of 50 livres. Witnesses present were Zacharie Cloutier and Xainte Dupont, Geneviève's grandparents; Charles de Lauson, Sieur de Charney; Jean Juchereau de la Ferté; the sons of the Cloutiers, Zacharie, Jean, and Charles; Jean Mignot, Sieur de Chatillon, and his wife Louise Cloutier; Charles Le François; and Paul de Rainville. On 24 April 1656, five days after his 29th birthday, Romain and his fiancée presented themselves at the manor house of Robert Giffard, Seigneur of Beauport, in order to receive the nuptial benediction from the hands of Father Paul Ragueneau. The Sieurs Giffard and de Charney witnessed the ceremony.
HE SETTLES AT CHÂTEAU-Richard
On 26 January 1659 Jean de Lauson undertook to bring settlers to the fief of Lotinville, the future parish of L'Ange-Gardien. The first three land-grantees were Charles Le François, Louis de la Marre, and Roman de Trépagny. The first deed granted Romain a width of three arpents on the river, with a depth of forty; a second deed increased this depth to 126 arpents, on the following first of June. De Trépagny kept this land for only a few days; he sold it on 27 June to Vincent Verdon for 150 livres. Then he prepared to move in the direction of Château-Richer. The reason for his move is apparent when we note that on 18 March 1662 he acquired a domain of four arpents on the river by a league and a half in depth from Geoffroy Guillet and François Fortin. His neighbors were Michel Lhomme and Pierre Voyer.
A BIG BUSINESSMAN
Besides farming, Romain de Trépagny ran a lumber yard. On 17 March 1665 Bernard Chesnaye de la Garenne, a new seigneur in the fief of Lotinville, bought two hundred pine boards from our ancestor, to be delivered the following 15 May. These planks were sawn from seven logs which came from a tract of land that Romain then owned on the Île d'Orléans. Chesnaye paid 90 livres for this order.
In addition, throughout his lifetime the ancestor of the Trepaniers was involved in business, as confirmed by the numerous transactions recorded by several notaries. . . . He bought, sold, rented, and exchanged land. He was continually on the go, always super-active. On the one hand he could be conciliatory, but on the other, he could be hard and demanding where he thought himself right. It did not matter to him with whom he did business, the Bishop or his own mother-in-law
THE SMALL FARM AT CAP-TOURMENTE
Romain de Trépagny and Monseigneur [Bishop] de Laval did business together for the first time in July 1667. The Bishop rented our businessman what was formerly called "the small farm" at Cap-Tourmente. Actually it was a considerable spread of land. The accounting of 1732 listed it as having a large stone house, a small chapel, two barns, a stable, a pigsty, a yard, a garden, 200 arpents of arable land and 50 arpents in grass. The rent for this land was very hight and Romain worked to the limit of his capacity to make it pay. In November of 1670 difficulties arose between the Bishop and his farmer. Father Jean Dudouyt was asked to resolve the problem and both parties accepted his good offices. Trépagny did get his rent reduced by a few livres, but nothing more. In spite of it all, he completed his five-year lease, being replaced by Pierre Gasnier on 8 February 1673. In spite of the obstacles, Romain met his obligations
THE ETERNAL LITIGANT
On 8 June 1678 he made his first appearance before the Sovereign Council. He appealed a sentence rendered by the Provost of Québec on the preceding 26 April favoring Mathurin Moreau. Romain did not succeed in convincing the tribunal of the validity of his claim; his appeal was denied and he had to, quite unwillingly of course, furnish his opponent 200 livres worth of wheat, plus pay the court costs of eleven livres.
On Monday, 9 July 1685, the merchants Pierre Delalande and Nicolas Marion brought Romain into court for unpaid debts. On 29 April 1686 our ancestor, Thomas Lefèbvre, Thomas Frerot, Nicolas Marion, and Guillaume Guillot faced each other in an argument as to who should do the seeding that year. Once again Romain was the loser. He had to seed half of three-quarters of the land which belonged to the late Bertrand Chesnaye.
On 18 March 1687 de Trépagny appealed a sentence rendered on 19 January 1685 by the Provost of Québec following an appeal of another sentence rendered by the judge at Beaupré on 10 January 1684 arising from a case against merchant Nicolas Marion, cooper Thomas Lefèbvre, and trustee Thomas Frerot, representing the estate vacated by Bertrand Chesnaye. It was a complicated affair which led to a long judgment, at the end of which the court agreed with the appellant. This time Romain was not called upon "to empty his hands." On the following 21 April the tribunal added a few additional clauses to the same judgment in order to benefit Thomas Lefèbvre, who had complain of not having been treated fairly
Finally on 8 February a long lawsuit was entered in the Sovereign Council relating to an inheritance disputed by Romain de Trépagny and his wife Geneviève Druoin, versus her step-mother and his mother-in-law, Marie Chapellier, the second wife of Robert Drouin. Our stubborn pioneer tried again on 11 July 1695 and appealed a sentence rendered by the Provist on the preceding 8 March. The appeal was rejected, except that it allowed the appellant to have recourse in court against those whom he believed to have misappropriated certain things from the inheritance. Romain went back to court on 8 August under the pretext that the expenses of a case heard by the Provost, on 16 January 1694, relating to the same business, were too high, and he won his point. He won another round on 13 February 1696, when he and his wife learned that they could reclaim the land due them from the inheritance of the late Robert Drouin, an inheritance which had been contested by Marie Chapellier. Finally, on the following 4 December, the same judgment was modified by restoring to Étienne Drouin, the half-brother of Geneviève, grain and straw which belonged to him.
HIS LAST TRANSACTION
On 5 July 1697 our ancestor carried out his last transaction. Étienne Drouin received a quit claim from his brother-in-law on behalf of Father François Buisson, administrator for the Seminary of Québec. A few year later, on 30 June 1699, notary Chambalon drew up the last will and testament of Romain de Trépagny and on 20 March 1702 he passed into eternity. The curate Gauthier entered the following cryptic note in the register of the parish of Château-Richer: "On the 20th day of March (1702), having satisfied the precepts (of the Church), Romain Trépagny died at the age of 75 years, and he was buried by me the following day."
On 25 November of the same year Geneviève Drouin had notary Étienne Jacob drawl up the inventory of her estate. She had the wisdom and the time to divide it among her heirs before she herself entered the hereafter, which she did in her turn eight and a half years after her husband. She was buried also at Château-Richer, on 4 October 1710, a few days before her 67th birthday.
DESCENDANTS THROUGH TWO SONS AND FOUR DAUGHTERS
Six of the twelve children of Romain de Trépagny and Geneviève Drouin, two sons and four daughters, had offspring. Charles, the eldest son, had a large family, but the majority of his children died at an early age; a single son married and from this union one daughter was born, who died at the age of four or five. All of the Trépagnys, if we believe Tanguay, descend from both Romain and his second son François. . . .
NAME VARIATIONS
We have chosen the most current orthography of the name of this ancestor, whose descendants have uniformly become "Trépanier." This was also the way Father Paul Ragueneau wrote the name. Notary Badeau wrote "Destrépagny" in the marriage contraqct. The written records of the Sovereign Council said "Trépagny." It was also on that way on the death certificate. Other variations have been recorded as: Crépanier, D'Estrépagny, De Trépagny, de Trespaigny, de Trespagny, Trépagne, Trépagnez, Trépagnier, Trépagny, Trépaigny, Trépagnie, Trépanier, Trespagny, and Trespaigny.
Were the pioneers of New France timid people searching for a tranquil hideaway which they were unable to find in a homeland prey to endless conflict? Did they face perils of the sea in the hope of finding peace in the great Canadian wilderness, troubled from time to time by hostile natives, but generally very calm? Perhaps this was true for some, who sought to raise their families in peace and be left alone in the refuge they had freely chosen. But it was not so for many others!
Romain de Trépagny belonged to that class of headstrong and obstinate fighters who were eternal claimants of their rights. History does not tell us if he was a born troublemaker or simply a poor loser. However, the records do tell us that his many resorts to justice, from the local judges to the Sovereign Council, demonstrate a litigious nature. He did not hesitate to make appeals in order to obtain, if not a complete victory, at least a more equitable distribution of coveted peoperties, or to seek dismissal of a suit against which he must defend himself. Was his way of seeing things a result of blind stubborness? It would not seem so, because several times he was able to settle out of court before a situation became embittered. For example, in 1676 a case opposing Msgr de Laval [Bishop of Québec] concerning a land lease at Cap-Tourments, he accepted the mediation of Father Jean Dudouyt and met his obligations.We know a few things about the European antecedents of Romain de Trépagny. Father Archange Godbout, at the time of his research in the parish archives of Normandy, discovered the baptismal records, in Muchedent, of four children of Charles d'Estrépagny and Marie Marette (Mailler or Mailler). They were Marguerite (1Aug 1622), Charles (5 November 1625), Romain, the future Canadian (19 April 1627), whose godfather was Messire Romain Lestoc, the Curate of the parish, and whose godmother was Marie Crotté, and finally Marie (11 January 1629).
HE MARRIES A GRANDDAUGHTER OF ZACHARIE
Romain de Trépagny arrived in Canada no earlier that 1655. On 27 February 1656, fortified by the encouragement of old Zacharie Cloutier, he declared himself ready to take a wife. It was in Zacharie's house at Beauport where all the notables of the area gathered to witness the signing of the marriage contract prepared by notary François Badeau. Robert Drouin, master brickmaker, liveing on the Beaupré coast, spoke for his daughter, the twelve year old Geneviève, baptized at Québec on 19 October 1643. She was from the first marriage of Robert to Anne Cloutier, Zacharie's daughter. Romain "Destrépagny," laborer, living at Beauport, said to be the son of "Charles Destrépagny and of Marye Maillet his father and mother, both dead, of the parish of Musdant in the land of Caux." Romain promised to marry "as early as could be done;" he and Geneviève agreed to joint ownership of property following the coutume de Paris. The future bride was endowed with the sum of 300 livres tournois, with a legacy of 50 livres. Witnesses present were Zacharie Cloutier and Xainte Dupont, Geneviève's grandparents; Charles de Lauson, Sieur de Charney; Jean Juchereau de la Ferté; the sons of the Cloutiers, Zacharie, Jean, and Charles; Jean Mignot, Sieur de Chatillon, and his wife Louise Cloutier; Charles Le François; and Paul de Rainville. On 24 April 1656, five days after his 29th birthday, Romain and his fiancée presented themselves at the manor house of Robert Giffard, Seigneur of Beauport, in order to receive the nuptial benediction from the hands of Father Paul Ragueneau. The Sieurs Giffard and de Charney witnessed the ceremony.
HE SETTLES AT CHÂTEAU-Richard
On 26 January 1659 Jean de Lauson undertook to bring settlers to the fief of Lotinville, the future parish of L'Ange-Gardien. The first three land-grantees were Charles Le François, Louis de la Marre, and Roman de Trépagny. The first deed granted Romain a width of three arpents on the river, with a depth of forty; a second deed increased this depth to 126 arpents, on the following first of June. De Trépagny kept this land for only a few days; he sold it on 27 June to Vincent Verdon for 150 livres. Then he prepared to move in the direction of Château-Richer. The reason for his move is apparent when we note that on 18 March 1662 he acquired a domain of four arpents on the river by a league and a half in depth from Geoffroy Guillet and François Fortin. His neighbors were Michel Lhomme and Pierre Voyer.
A BIG BUSINESSMAN
Besides farming, Romain de Trépagny ran a lumber yard. On 17 March 1665 Bernard Chesnaye de la Garenne, a new seigneur in the fief of Lotinville, bought two hundred pine boards from our ancestor, to be delivered the following 15 May. These planks were sawn from seven logs which came from a tract of land that Romain then owned on the Île d'Orléans. Chesnaye paid 90 livres for this order.
In addition, throughout his lifetime the ancestor of the Trepaniers was involved in business, as confirmed by the numerous transactions recorded by several notaries. . . . He bought, sold, rented, and exchanged land. He was continually on the go, always super-active. On the one hand he could be conciliatory, but on the other, he could be hard and demanding where he thought himself right. It did not matter to him with whom he did business, the Bishop or his own mother-in-law
THE SMALL FARM AT CAP-TOURMENTE
Romain de Trépagny and Monseigneur [Bishop] de Laval did business together for the first time in July 1667. The Bishop rented our businessman what was formerly called "the small farm" at Cap-Tourmente. Actually it was a considerable spread of land. The accounting of 1732 listed it as having a large stone house, a small chapel, two barns, a stable, a pigsty, a yard, a garden, 200 arpents of arable land and 50 arpents in grass. The rent for this land was very hight and Romain worked to the limit of his capacity to make it pay. In November of 1670 difficulties arose between the Bishop and his farmer. Father Jean Dudouyt was asked to resolve the problem and both parties accepted his good offices. Trépagny did get his rent reduced by a few livres, but nothing more. In spite of it all, he completed his five-year lease, being replaced by Pierre Gasnier on 8 February 1673. In spite of the obstacles, Romain met his obligations
THE ETERNAL LITIGANT
On 8 June 1678 he made his first appearance before the Sovereign Council. He appealed a sentence rendered by the Provost of Québec on the preceding 26 April favoring Mathurin Moreau. Romain did not succeed in convincing the tribunal of the validity of his claim; his appeal was denied and he had to, quite unwillingly of course, furnish his opponent 200 livres worth of wheat, plus pay the court costs of eleven livres.
On Monday, 9 July 1685, the merchants Pierre Delalande and Nicolas Marion brought Romain into court for unpaid debts. On 29 April 1686 our ancestor, Thomas Lefèbvre, Thomas Frerot, Nicolas Marion, and Guillaume Guillot faced each other in an argument as to who should do the seeding that year. Once again Romain was the loser. He had to seed half of three-quarters of the land which belonged to the late Bertrand Chesnaye.
On 18 March 1687 de Trépagny appealed a sentence rendered on 19 January 1685 by the Provost of Québec following an appeal of another sentence rendered by the judge at Beaupré on 10 January 1684 arising from a case against merchant Nicolas Marion, cooper Thomas Lefèbvre, and trustee Thomas Frerot, representing the estate vacated by Bertrand Chesnaye. It was a complicated affair which led to a long judgment, at the end of which the court agreed with the appellant. This time Romain was not called upon "to empty his hands." On the following 21 April the tribunal added a few additional clauses to the same judgment in order to benefit Thomas Lefèbvre, who had complain of not having been treated fairly
Finally on 8 February a long lawsuit was entered in the Sovereign Council relating to an inheritance disputed by Romain de Trépagny and his wife Geneviève Druoin, versus her step-mother and his mother-in-law, Marie Chapellier, the second wife of Robert Drouin. Our stubborn pioneer tried again on 11 July 1695 and appealed a sentence rendered by the Provist on the preceding 8 March. The appeal was rejected, except that it allowed the appellant to have recourse in court against those whom he believed to have misappropriated certain things from the inheritance. Romain went back to court on 8 August under the pretext that the expenses of a case heard by the Provost, on 16 January 1694, relating to the same business, were too high, and he won his point. He won another round on 13 February 1696, when he and his wife learned that they could reclaim the land due them from the inheritance of the late Robert Drouin, an inheritance which had been contested by Marie Chapellier. Finally, on the following 4 December, the same judgment was modified by restoring to Étienne Drouin, the half-brother of Geneviève, grain and straw which belonged to him.
HIS LAST TRANSACTION
On 5 July 1697 our ancestor carried out his last transaction. Étienne Drouin received a quit claim from his brother-in-law on behalf of Father François Buisson, administrator for the Seminary of Québec. A few year later, on 30 June 1699, notary Chambalon drew up the last will and testament of Romain de Trépagny and on 20 March 1702 he passed into eternity. The curate Gauthier entered the following cryptic note in the register of the parish of Château-Richer: "On the 20th day of March (1702), having satisfied the precepts (of the Church), Romain Trépagny died at the age of 75 years, and he was buried by me the following day."
On 25 November of the same year Geneviève Drouin had notary Étienne Jacob drawl up the inventory of her estate. She had the wisdom and the time to divide it among her heirs before she herself entered the hereafter, which she did in her turn eight and a half years after her husband. She was buried also at Château-Richer, on 4 October 1710, a few days before her 67th birthday.
DESCENDANTS THROUGH TWO SONS AND FOUR DAUGHTERS
Six of the twelve children of Romain de Trépagny and Geneviève Drouin, two sons and four daughters, had offspring. Charles, the eldest son, had a large family, but the majority of his children died at an early age; a single son married and from this union one daughter was born, who died at the age of four or five. All of the Trépagnys, if we believe Tanguay, descend from both Romain and his second son François. . . .
NAME VARIATIONS
We have chosen the most current orthography of the name of this ancestor, whose descendants have uniformly become "Trépanier." This was also the way Father Paul Ragueneau wrote the name. Notary Badeau wrote "Destrépagny" in the marriage contraqct. The written records of the Sovereign Council said "Trépagny." It was also on that way on the death certificate. Other variations have been recorded as: Crépanier, D'Estrépagny, De Trépagny, de Trespaigny, de Trespagny, Trépagne, Trépagnez, Trépagnier, Trépagny, Trépaigny, Trépagnie, Trépanier, Trespagny, and Trespaigny.
Events
| Birth | 1627 | Muchedar, Dieppe, Normandie, France |  | ||
| Marriage | 24 Apr 1656 | Québec, Québec, Canada - Geneviève Drouin | | ||
| Death | 20 Mar 1702 | Château-Richer, Québec, Canada | | ||
| Reference No | A1342 M318 | |
Families
| Spouse | Geneviève Drouin (1643 - 1710) |
| Child | Charles Trépagny (1659 - 1702) |
| Child | Madeleine Trépanier (1661 - 1733) |
| Child | François Trépagny (1664 - 1738) |
| Child | Louis Trépagny (1666 - 1687) |
| Child | Anne Trépagny (1668 - 1711) |
| Child | Marguerite Trépagny (1669 - 1669) |
| Child | Claude Trépagny (1671 - 1724) |
| Child | Barbe Trépagny (1672 - 1711) |
| Child | Jean Trépagny (1674 - 1699) |
| Child | Gabrielle Trépagny (1676 - 1676) |
| Father | Living |
| Mother | Living |
Endnotes
1. Diane Lebrun , "Ancestors of Marie St-Hilaire," pp. 1-205; Unpublished family tree, 2025-02-09, Al Perreault, Calgary, AB, Canada.
2. Diane Lebrun , "Ancestors of Marie St-Hilaire," pp. 1-205; Unpublished family tree, 2025-02-09, Al Perreault, Calgary, AB, Canada.
3. Cyprien Tanguay, Genealogical Dictionary of Canadian Families (Tanguay Collection), 1608-1890 (Montreal, Quebec, Canada: Senécal, n.d.), . (Montreal, Quebec, Canada: Senécal, n.d.), .
4. Diane Lebrun , "Ancestors of Marie St-Hilaire," pp. 1-205; Unpublished family tree, 2025-02-09, Al Perreault, Calgary, AB, Canada.
5. Diane Lebrun , "Ancestors of Marie St-Hilaire," pp. 1-205; Unpublished family tree, 2025-02-09, Al Perreault, Calgary, AB, Canada.