DAMOURS (d’Amours) DE CHAUFFOURS, LOUIS, Acadian seigneur, fur-trader, and soldier; b. 16 May 1655 and baptized 30 May at Quebec, eldest surviving son of Mathieu Damours* de Chauffours and Marie Marsolet; m. first 1 Oct. 1686 Marguerite Guyon at Quebec; m. secondly 17 Jan. 1708 Anne Comeau at Port-Royal (Annapolis Royal, N.S.); d. there 9 May 1708 and was buried the same day.

On 20 Sept. 1684 Louis Damours received a seigneurial grant in Acadia on the Richibucto River where he had built a fortified trading post and residence two years earlier. On 1 Oct. 1686 he married at Quebec Marguerite Guyon, daughter of Simon Guyon; her sister Louise* married his brother Mathieu Damours* de Freneuse in the same year. He and Marguerite had three children. On 7 October 1686, he obtained grants near forts Jemseg and Nashwaak (Naxouat) on the Saint John River, previously issued to Pierre de Joybert* de Soulanges. He moved there with his family, presumably to be near two of his brothers, René Damours de Clignancour and Mathieu Damours de Freneuse, who had already settled on the Saint John.

Later, having established a store, he pursued the fur trade with the area’s Indigenous people and farmed his land. Damours was also co-owner of lumber mills and grain mills that he had established on his properties. He and his brothers were severely criticized by Governor Joseph Robinau* de Villebon, who claimed that they were disreputable, overly fond of liquor, and had failed to improve their grants of land. Much the same charges were levelled by Villebon at other settlers and officials and it seems clear that there was an unfortunate atmosphere of intrigue, bickering, and trouble making, which may have been sparked in part by Villebon’s own illegal involvement in the fur trade. In any case his treatment of the Damours brothers earned him the censure of the minister of Marine, Pontchartrain.

In 1695 Louis Damours purchased John Gyles*, a captive of the Malecite (Wolastoqiyik) people, whose published account of his experiences contains considerable information about the Saint John area of that period. In August 1696, Damours participated in the attack made by a French and Indigenous force led by Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville and Jean-Vincent d’Abbadie de Saint-Castin on Fort William Henry at Pemaquid in New England. Damours commanded his own vessel in this expedition, and after the capture of Pemaquid he took the garrison to Boston. That October a New England force led by John Hathorne made a raid along the Saint John. Although Damours was in France at the time, his buildings, crops, and livestock – constituting probably the largest farm of that time in the area – were spared thanks to a note from Gyles to the commander requesting him to do so. Gyles was later manumitted by Damours for this act of loyalty.

Owing to damage caused to his property by a high freshet in 1701 and the decision of Governor Jacques-François de Brouillan [Monbeton] to abandon defences on the Saint John, Damours determined to move to Port-Royal. Brouillan appealed to the court for aid for Damours, as the latter was in serious financial straits. It was also about this time that his wife died. With France and England at war in Acadia once more, Damours joined the French forces and was taken prisoner in 1703. He spent slightly more than two years as a captive in Boston, returning to Port-Royal in 1706, where he died two years later. He was aptly termed by Brouillan “the mainstay of the inhabitants and the savages” during his years as a seigneur on the Saint John River.

George MacBeath