BOURDON, JACQUES, process-server, clerk of court, and notary; baptized 5 June 1645 in the church of Saint-Godard at Rouen, son of Jean Bourdon and Marguerite Legris; buried 7 Aug. 1724 at Boucherville.

In our opinion, J.-Edmond Roy has wrongly identified Jacques Bourdon with the “J. Bourdon” who was a clerk in the court registry of the Conseil Souverain in 1664. It was rather at Montreal, in the autumn of 1666, that Bourdon began his career, as a process-server. But by 9 Oct. 1667 he had been dismissed from his office by Judge Charles-Joseph d’Ailleboust* Des Muceaux. Although he owned a few acres of land at Longueuil, he settled at Boucherville, where on 8 Feb. 1672 he married Marie Ménard and on 19 March 1673 bought from his father-in-law a piece of land measuring 2 arpents by 25. In 1681 he had only two acres under cultivation, and his live-stock consisted of one cow. It is true that since 1677 he had been acting as process-server, clerk of court, and notary of the Boucherville seigneury, but Pierre Boucher was soon to remove him from office on 15 June 1683. Bourdon none the less continued to call himself a notary, by what authority is not very clear: mention has been made of a commission granted by Intendant Bégon*, which is probable. He exercised his profession until 1720, contending with the seigneurial notary for a clientele that was small in any event, with the result that in 1739 Louis-Claude Danré* de Blanzy found only 158 minutes in his registry. This was very little on which to bring up a family of 14 children. Fortunately, on 26 Aug. 1702, he had received another commission as process-server. His wife survived him by two years and was buried 2 July 1726 at Boucherville.

André Vachon