DROUIN, ROBERT, pioneer on the Beaupré shore; b. 6 Aug. 1607 at Saint-Barthélemi du Pin-la-Garenne, Perche, son of Robert Drouin and Marie Dubois; buried 1 June 1685 at Château-Richer.

The date of Drouin’s arrival in Canada is not known, but it is certain that he was here by 1636. In 1641 he already had a farm near the Rivière aux Chiens on the Beaupré shore, although he did not receive the concession for it until 17 April 1646. By his marriage with Anne Cloutier, which was celebrated 12 July 1637, he had three daughters; by his second marriage, with Marie Chapelier on 29 Nov. 1649, he had eight more children.

It is almost impossible to trace any French-Canadian genealogy without encountering Robert Drouin among the earliest ancestors. That would seem to us to be his greatest claim to fame. It is also to be noted that his marriage contract with Anne Cloutier (which preceded by nearly a year the religious ceremony), concluded 27 July 1636 in Robert Giffard’s house and drawn up in the absence of a notary by Jean Guyon Du Buisson, senior, is the oldest marriage contract preserved in the original in Canada.

Honorius Provost