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IN THE CRADLE OF LIFE IN TROIS-RIVIERES
Without the Pepins, the first few decades of life in Trois-Rivi&res would have been quite different. Three noted historians and genealogists, Tanguay, Suite and Bel-lemare, all claim that Guillaume Pepin dit Tranchemon-tagne was present at the founding of the town in 1634. However, this assertion is not based on known documents.
What is certain however, is that a man named Jean Pepin, about whom we know almost nothing, lived in the budding trifluvien community in 1643. On 15 June of that year, his name was entered in the civil records as a Godfather. On 7 May 1658, we find his signature in a contract by notary Severin Ameau, and on 11 July 1660, his name was again mentioned in the official report of the local Provost.
SURNAMED LAFOND OR DELAFOND
As for the so-called "brothers", Guillaume and Etienne Pepin, both with the surname Delafond or Lafond, they must have arrived in the country about the same time as Jean.(l) Etienne was in Quebec in 1642, and he took a wife there in 1645. On 28 September of this last year,(2) Guillaume, as well as Francois Marguerie, Jean Veron de Grandmesnil and Guillaume Isabel, all citizens of Trois-Rivieres, obtained permission from the governor to develop the land situated near the Fort.
One, Jean Lafond, Sieur de Lafontaine, who could well be the same Jean Pepin mentioned previously, also lived in Trois-Rivieres before going to settle in Boucher-ville, from where he was buried on 2 June 1711 at the age of 81 years. The census of 1666 also mentions Pierre Delafond, a 26 year old servant in the home of Marie Boucher, in Petit-Cap-de-la-Madeleine. On 24 June 1667, Pierre was at the signing of the marriage contract between Jean Trotier and Genevieve Lafond, daughter of Etienne, his cousin.(3) On 23 March 1673, this Pierre, having returned to France, and living as a laborer in
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Aytre nearby LaRochelle, sold, through Pierre Boucher, a homestead situated near that of Jean Delafond, in Boucherville.(4) On 5 April 1675, this same property was resold, through Pierre Boucher, to Denis Veronneau, for 70 livres payable in three years.(5)
Therefore, the family ties of the Delafonds, whether they bear the original name of Pepin or not, seem a sure thing. Even though the families of Etienne and Guillaume appear intimately connected, let us leave aside the activities of the first and only describe, for the moment, those of the second.
Father Archange Godbout states that we know neither the place of birth nor the names of Guillaume?s parents.(6) If we admit the hypothesis that he is the "brother" of Etienne, and this has not yet been proven beyond a reasonable doubt., he would then be the son of Pierre Pepin and Fran^oise Prieur from Saint-Laurent de la Barriere in Saintonge.
GUILLAUME MARRIES AN ADOLESCENT
Guillaume must have married in the tririverine region about the end of 1645. There are some papers in the archives of Quebec which concern a contract of commitment to Pierre Lagardeur by Jean Meschin, a laborer, worker and sailor, living at LaRochelle.(7) This colonist drowned at Cap-a-l?Arbre on 6 November 1646 with eight other Frenchmen while going to Trois-Rivieres by boat. It is possible that Jean Meschin was the father of Jeanne, a young girl who must have been fourteen or fifteen at the time of her marriage to Guillaume Pepin.
On 14 April 1646, Jacques was carried to the baptismal font of the chapel at Trois-Rivieres; he was the eldest son of Guillaume and Jeanne. The Godfather was none other that Governor Jacques Leneuf de la Poterie. The Godmother was Marie Leneuf, Jacques sister and wife of Jean Godefroy.
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