Guillaume Rognon dit Laroche

Biography

A receipt from December 1713 preserves Guillaume Rognon's place in a family transaction with unusual clarity. He and Simon Houde acknowledged receiving eighty livres together on account of money owed from Louis Houde's estate. Unable to sign, they asked the notary to write and sign for them. The record captures Guillaume acting on a financial obligation attached to his marriage.

Guillaume had been born at Neuville, on the St. Lawrence’s north bank upstream from Québec city in present-day Québec, Canada, on November 2, 1676, the son of Michel Rognon dit Laroche and Marguerite Lamain. His baptism was recorded for the same day, with Guillaume Dubaut and Marie Lefebvre as sponsors.

His first wife was Marie-Angélique Houde. Their marriage contract, dated April 7, 1698 in her father's estate papers, provided the background to a 200-livre marriage portion still outstanding in 1712.

Marie-Angélique's burial in April 1727 ended their marriage. Guillaume subsequently married Marie-Madeleine Girard, the widow of Daniel Denevers, at Lotbinière on January 8, 1731.

He lived into his seventies, dying at Sainte-Croix, on the river’s south bank, on March 15, 1750 and being buried the following day. His surviving records connect a Neuville childhood with marriage, property obligations, and later family life on the south shore.