Etienne Pepin dit Lafond
was born in 1615 in Saint-Laurent-de-la-Barriere in the Charente-Maritime region of France. He was the son of Pierre and of Francoise Prieur. The first mention of this ancestor in New France is on November 7th, 1642 when the personal effects of the deceased Jean Nicolas, who had drowned in the Saint Lawrence River, were put on sale. At the auction was an Etienne Lafond, a servant in the house of the Ursulines of Quebec. He managed to buy some cloths.
Etienne was thirty years old on January 30th 1645 when he married 15 year old Marie Boucher, the daughter of Gaspard Boucher and Nicole Lemere and the sister of Pierre Boucher, the future governor of Trois Rivieres. On June 1st 1649, the Jesuits granted him one of the first land concessions at Cap de la Madeleine. Among the fourteen pioneers of the Cap who received lands one also finds the names of Pierre and Mathurin Guillet, Claude Houssard, their father-in-law and Pierre Boucher, Etienne's brother-in-law. He owned land in Trois Rivieres on rue Notre-Dame. On the lot he built a house with a courtyard, a barn and a garden.The land holdings of Etienne de Lafond were quite extensive. There are several notarized acts that concern his buying and selling of land concessions. Many were in the Trois Rivieres and Cap de la Madeleine areas. There are also several contracts that concern the construction of houses and boats. Etienne was an master carpenter by trade.The Lafond family is mentioned in the censuses of 1666, 1667 and 1681. Etienne de Lafond is not mentioned. He had passed away unexpectedly in Trois Rivieres on September 15, 1665. The census of 1666 mentions the family living in Trois Rivieres with 2 domestics: Jacques, 19 years old and Pierre Deshaies, also 19. The latter would marry in 1677, Marguerite Guillet, one of the daughters of Pierre Guillet dit Lajeunesse and Jeanne Saint Pere. The next two censuses would find the widow Marie Boucher in Cap de la Madeleine. In the 1681 one, it mentions Pierre Dehaies still working there. Marie is 51 years old. Living with her are her sons: Pierre, 26; Etienne, 20 and Augustin, 20.Marie Boucher outlived her husband by forty years. She was quite the business woman; there are a number of contracts written by Jean Cusson that deal with her transactions. She passed away in Batiscan on November 30th 1706.Etienne Pepin dit Lafond and Marie Boucher had four boys and four girls.
1. Jean dit Mongrian (1646-1716). He married Catherine Senecal in 1670. He was a pioneer of Batiscan. Here he had the position of administrator and seigneurial judge. He also had land right beside the church lands on the western side.
2. Marie (1684 -?). She is not mention in the census of 1666( check this out in 1730 book? Doesn't make sense)
3. Genevieve (1652 - ?). She married Jean-Baptiste Trottier on June 24th 1667 in Batiscan. Jean-Baptiste was a miller and wheelwright. Their child Marie married Louis Guillet dit St Mars, the son of Pierre Guillet in 1684. Our second generation ancestral grandparents!
4.