Barbe Guyon

Biography

Barbe Guyon’s migration followed her parents’ departure by nearly twenty years. Baptized at Mortagne in the Perche, a historic region west of Paris in France, on April 19, 1617, she was a daughter of Jean Guyon and Mathurine Robin. Her marriage contract with Pierre Paradis was drawn up on February 11, 1632. When her parents left for New France in 1634, Barbe and Pierre remained in France, where their family continued to grow.

They crossed with five children in the early 1650s and first settled at Du Buisson, the Guyon property within the seigneury of Beauport, a landed estate in what is now Québec city. Barbe’s family thus rejoined an established circle of relatives. The children’s records preserve the transition: Jacques, Guillaume, Pierre and Jean were baptized in France, while younger children, including Madeleine and Louise, were baptized in Québec.

By 1667 the household was recorded on the Côte Notre-Dame-des-Anges. Pierre died in January 1675. An index of Paul Vachon’s notarial acts lists an inventory of the couple’s property on April 3 that year, marking the administration of their property after his death.

Barbe lived for another quarter-century. A census-based compilation places her on Île d’Orléans, the St. Lawrence River island just downstream from Québec city, in 1681. She died at Saint-Pierre on November 27, 1700 and was buried on November 29. Her life encompassed a long marriage begun in the Perche, migration with an already substantial family, and many years of widowhood in New France.

The burial listing places Barbe Guyon at Cimetière Saint-Pierre, Saint-Pierre-de-l'Île-d'Orléans, Capitale-Nationale Region, Québec, Canada.