Clutchey Family Website

This is not brief but what History is? It will explain the ways of the world from the 1500's forward. Feel free to use parts or all if you have a project. I tried to be thorough but not boring.

Here we go . . .

In the 1500's the French were busy with wars. It wasn't until 1523 they sent Giovanni de Terrazzo to find a route to Asia via a passage to the Pacific Ocean. He traveled North and realised the way to Asia was blocked by the North American continent. He went home with nothing. (This was before the Grandparents of Zacharie Cloutier I's time)

Time passes and news from the English Court and Spanish Court came to the French King, Francis I. Francis understood that the English and Spanish (which were his rivals) were exploring what is now Canada and establishing colonies. He didn't want to lose out on claiming new territories so he quickly sent Jacques Cartier to "discover lands where it is said there must be great quantities of gold and other riches".

Jacques Cartier's first two trips to Acadian were about finding a route to the East, exploring beyond Newfoundland, exchanging furs with the natives and trying to stay alive during the winter (his second trip). Returning from his third trip he brought to the King what he thought was gold and diamonds. Unfortunately, it was only fool's gold and quartz crystals. But Jacques Cartier did impress upon the King the amount of fish available. Among other discoveries this was important because Roman Catholics were not allowed to eat red meat on Fridays and feast days.

Fur was important in Europe and the beaver was nearing extinction there. So French traders decided to stay in New France (Canada) during the winter to trap. This also aided France's claim to the land. Which was important because other nations such as England and Holland, were beginning to build colonies in the New World.

France's King Louis XIV (aka The Sun King) wanted France to have a claim on the land but didn't want to pay the cost of building settlements. (Remember his father, King Louis XIII, started this colonization). He instead offered rich fur merchants a deal. Take French settlers to New France and the King would grant each merchant a monopoly. The merchants would pay all the costs to take the settlers over but he was also granted the exclusives rights to the fur trade in a given area. The merchant was also expected to secure land for the French and participate in missionary work.

Pierre de Guia, Sieur de Monts and his map maker Samuel de Champlain were among the first traders to receive a monopoly. In 1604 they attempted to build a settlement in Acadia on the island of Ste. Croix in the Bay of Fundy - bad choice. The winter nearly killed them. So they moved to the mainland calling the new site Port Royal which became the capital of Acadia. Today it's known as Nova Scotia.

In 1607 the King had had enough of waiting for his riches and cancelled de Mont's fur trading monopoly. So Pierre de Guia, Sieur de Monts, Samuel de Champlain and some of the settlers at Port Royal packed up and returned to France.

Champlain returned in 1608 to build a settlement along the St. Lawrence to be closer to the centre of the fur trade. Due to a lot of hard work and mosquitoes the French settlers contrived an assassination attempt on Samuel de Champlain on July 3rd, 1608. The plan was to kill Champlain and turn the fort over to Spanish traders who were down the river. When Champlain heard of the mutiny, he killed the ringleader (Duval) by hanging him. The other mutineers were sent back to France in chains.

Now we are getting into Nicholas Cloutier, Born Circa 1544 - Died Circa 1626 (Zacharie Cloutier's grandfather) era. He and his son Denis Cloutier were living in France at this time.

In 1609 Samuel de Champlain's friends, the Aboriginals, were fighting the Iroquois and wanted his help. Which he gave and they won but that made the French enemies with the Iroquois for the next 100 years.

In 1615 more fighting broke out while Champlain was visiting the Huron's. The Huron's thought with the help of Champlain's guns called "arquebuses" they would win. They didn't win and Champlain was wounded in the leg by and arrow. The Huron allies refused to take Champlain back to Quebec thinking they wouldn't be protected by his guns. So Champlain was forced to spend the whole winter among the Huron's. During this time he continued exploring and learning about the land and the Hurons.

In 1627 Cardinal Richelieu granted a charter to The Company of One Hundred Associates . Which gave them the fur trade monopoly for all of New France from 1627 to 1663. They were granted full title to land extending from Florida to the Arctic Circle. However, the Company was obliged to bring over 200 - 300 settlers in 1628 and 4000 more during the next 15 years. Unfortunately, on the first attempt to bring four ships and 400 settlers they were captured in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Colonizing this way meant ships were an easy target for other countries to capture. Instead the Company of One Hundred Associates devised a scheme of Land Grants to person who had money (retired military officers, fur traders, businessmen or tradesmen - occasionally religious orders including communities of nuns). Which started the beginning of what became known in New France as the Seigneur System.

The Seigneurs (aka landowners) carried out instructions of the King and government. They handled the problem of bringing settlers out from France, parceled out the plots of land to the settlers known as habitants (usually keeping the biggest plots for themselves), hired workers to build the Seigniorial Manor, government buildings and churches.

The land plots varied in size from 16 to 160km2. The St. Lawrence River was the means of communication and transportation at the time. So the lots lined up with the river. They were long and narrow strips of land. The lots granted to the habitants were not all the same size. This was because farms were not divided equally among married children. The widow inherited one half, the eldest son one quarter and other children equal shares of what was left.

The Company of One Hundred Associates awarded Robert Giffard the Seigneurie of Beauport.

The Cloutiers show up here.

Robert Giffard was looking for good farmers and skilled tradesmen to build his Seigneurie. Although Robert Giffard was a surgeon and an apothecary he also served with Champlain on two of his voyages of discovery to North America. Once awarded the Seigneurie he was also responsible to Louis XIV to claim land for France, fill it with Catholic settlers, build churches and public buildings that would be essential for France's newly acquired realm.

One of these tradesmen was Zacharie Cloutier I.

Phew ! You made it.