Individual Details

Simon Joseph Fournier

(27 Apr 1667 - Bef 8 Dec 1749)

Events

Birth	27 Apr 1667	Québec, Québec, Canada
Christen	28 Apr 1667	Notre-Dame-de-Québec, Québec, Québec, Canada, Nouvelle-France
Marriage	12 Nov 1691	St-Pierre, Ile-d'Orléans, Québec, Canada - Anne-Catherine Rousseau
Death	Bef 8 Dec 1749	Québec, Canada, Nouvelle-France
Life sketch		Simon Fournier was born on 27 April 1667 in Québec, within the District of Québec, Canada, New France. He was the son of Guillaume Fournier (1623–1699) and Françoise Hébert (1638–1716), members of a well-established colonial family in the region. He was baptized the following day, 28 April 1667, in the Parish of Notre-Dame at Québec, the principal ecclesiastical institution of the colony. The baptism was entered in the registers of the parish cathedral, which served both the colonial capital and surrounding settlements. Québec at the time of his birth was the administrative and ecclesiastical center of New France. The colony had transitioned to direct royal rule only a few years earlier, in 1663, under King Louis XIV, who established a structured colonial government and initiated organized immigration, including the introduction of the seigneurial landholding system. The Fournier and Hébert families were among the early agricultural settlers who contributed to the stability and expansion of the French presence along the Saint Lawrence River during the latter half of the seventeenth century. On 9 October 1691, Simon Fournier entered into a marriage contract at Québec, District of Québec, Canada, New France. The contract was executed before a notary in accordance with the Custom of Paris, the civil code governing the colony, and outlined property and inheritance arrangements between the parties. His marriage took place shortly thereafter, on 12 November 1691, in the Parish of Saint-Pierre on L’Île-d’Orléans, within the District of Québec, Canada, New France. His wife, Anne-Catherine Rousseau (1668–1749), was the daughter of Thomas Rousseau (1631–1716) and Marie Madeleine Olivier (1637–1690), families also established on Île d’Orléans. The Parish of Saint-Pierre, where the marriage was celebrated, was one of the oldest rural parishes in New France, founded in the mid-seventeenth century to serve settlers who farmed the fertile lands of Île d’Orléans. The parish’s registers form part of the earliest continuous documentation of colonial family life in the French colony. By the 1690s, the island’s seigneurial concessions had become central to the agricultural production that supplied the colonial capital. Simon and Anne-Catherine Fournier had eleven recorded children, including a son, Simon Fournier (1702–1732). Their family’s presence on Île d’Orléans and later at Saint-Thomas-de-la-Pointe-à-la-Caille (modern Montmagny) reflects the gradual spread of settlement down the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. These generations of colonial families established parishes that would later become the foundations of the region’s rural municipalities. During Fournier’s lifetime, New France experienced both growth and challenges. The population expanded significantly, from fewer than 10,000 inhabitants at his birth to nearly 60,000 by the mid-eighteenth century. The colony’s economy remained largely agrarian, supplemented by fur trading and limited local industries. Politically, the colony endured several conflicts tied to European rivalries, including the ongoing wars between France and England that extended into North America as King William’s War (1689–1697), Queen Anne’s War (1702–1713), and King George’s War (1744–1748). Despite these disruptions, parochial life remained the organizational core of society, with marriages, baptisms, and burials carefully recorded by the clergy under the Diocese of Québec. By the mid-eighteenth century, settlement had expanded considerably beyond the original seigneurial zones near Québec and L’Île-d’Orléans. Simon Fournier’s later years were spent at Saint-Thomas-de-la-Pointe-à-la-Caille, located within the District of Québec, Canada, New France. This parish developed in the early 1700s along the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River and became one of the principal centers of colonization in the Montmagny region. He died in 1750 at Saint-Thomas-de-la-Pointe-à-la-Caille, within the District of Québec, Canada, New France. His death occurred during the final years of French colonial administration, a decade before the beginning of the Seven Years’ War that would bring an end to French rule in North America. By that time, Fournier and his descendants were part of the well-established rural class that defined the colony’s demographic and economic structure. The life of Simon Fournier, spanning from 1667 to 1750, encapsulates the experience of the second generation of native-born colonists in New France. His birth, marriage, and death—each recorded in the parish registers of Québec and Île d’Orléans—reflect the continuity of family, faith, and settlement that underpinned the development of French colonial society in North America. Through his descendants, the Fournier name persisted in the region for generations following the French regime.

Families

Spouse

Anne-Catherine Rousseau (1668 - 1749)

Father	Guillaume Fournier (1619 - 1699)
Mother	Françoise Hébert (1638 - 1716)
Sibling	Marie Fournier (1655 - 1717)
Sibling	Agathe Adèle Fournier (1657 - 1743)
Sibling	Joseph Fournier (1661 - 1741)
Sibling	Jean Fournier (1665 - 1744)
Sibling	Pierre Fournier (1669 - 1750)
Sibling	Françoise Fournier (1671 - 1734)
Sibling	Louis Fournier (1674 - 1721)
Sibling	Madeleine Fournier (1675 - 1741)
Sibling	Charles Fournier (1677 - 1739)
Sibling	Jacquette Fournier (1679 - 1736)

Endnotes