ZACHARIE CLOUTIER
(1590-1677)
and
SAINTE (OR XAINTE)
DUPONT (1596-1680)
Here
is another
----------------
Zacharie Cloutier on
PATRIARCH ZACHARIE CLOUTIER, ANCESTOR
OF ALL FRENCH CANADIANS
Zacharie Cloutier, Percheron, from Mortagne, is an
ancestor of almost all the French Canadians, either in male or female lines.
There is not a genealogy which does not make mention of it one or more time.
During the winter 1633 -1634, a doctor from Mortagne,
Robert Giffard, becomes lord of
At
the end of March 1634, 42 people including Zacharie Cloutier, his wife Xainte and his
five children, embarked in
As of
Zacharie Cloutier and
his wife celebrated their diamond and golden wedding anniversaries. Indeed Cloutier died in 1677 and his wife in 1680. They had many
children, grandchildren and grand grandchildren.
Zacharie Cloutier had
an extremely original mark which served as his signature. It was an axe, symbol
of his trade.
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Zacharie Cloutier
The
genealogist Drouin exaggerates a tiny bit when it
affirms without stumbling that Zacharie Cloutier is the ancestor of all the French Canadians. He
exaggerates but so little! A fact is certain: if Zacharie
is not yet this universal stock, he is becoming it. And beware to the
ocular myopathy (1)!
Origins percheronnes
Mrs Pierre Montagne
revealed to us little time ago the French origins of the Cloutier.
A good friend of
The first register of Saint-Jean de Mortagne
who was preserved date of 1600. As of the following year start to
appear and the burial baptismal certificates of the children of Denis Cloutier and Renée Brière:
Jacques, baptized on
Where
is Zacharie Cloutier
located in this family? If he does not appear in the registers of Saint-Jean,
it is because he was born before 1600 and it be thus of several other child of
Denis and of Renée, be Michel married to Jeanne Commanche,
Renée married to Claude Noé, Nicolas married to Catherine
Roussel, Louis married to Madeleine Truchet, and fianlly Catherine
married with François Noé.
Peacemaker of the family
Zacharie Cloutier was
born around 1590. On
"Furent présents Zacharie Cloustier, carpentier, demeurant
à Mortagne, paroisse Saint-Jean, d'une part, et
Jacques Cloustier, son frère, cordier, demeurant au
dit lieu et paroisse d'autre part, et encore le dit Zacharie Cloustier se faisant et portant fort de Denis Cloustier, son père, promettant qu'il aura ses présentes
plus agréables et les lui faire ratifier... et héritiers de défunts Renée
Brière, leur mère, femme en premières noces du dit Denis, et à Jeanne Gaultier, sa femme en second mariage", etc.
Let's try to decipher this old French
message...
Were
present Zacharie Cloustier,
carpenter, resident in Mortagne, parish of
Saint-Jean, and Jacques Cloustier, his brother,
rope-maker, living in the same parish. Zacharie Cloustier speaking for
Denis Cloustier, his father, promise that it ...
ratify... and heir of late Renée Brière, their
mother, woman in first wedding of Denis, and with Jeanne Gaultier,
his wife in second marriage ", etc.
Zacharie Cloutier, 1590-1677
Xainte
Dupont, 1596-1680
In
On
The contracts of service of Guyon and Cloutier swarm with precise details on the conditions of
their future life in this new country. These acts had been
written by the notary Roussel,
However,
all is clear. Giffard is committed towards Cloutier and Guyon to ensure each
one has a home for their family as of the expiry date of their contract with
him. He also gives them the right to negotiate with the Indians of Québec, and
give them one thousand arpents of wooded land and
meadows at the edge of the
According
to Raoul Clouthier, author
of a bulky genealogical essay on his ancestor (6), Zacharie
Cloutier had initially thought of leaving for
New-France with his elder son of 17 years old, but he changed his mind and
decided to take along with him all of his family, even if, according to terms
of the contract with Giffard, the entire family was
to arrive only two years later.
The first marriage contract written in
Canada
Once
in New-France, Zacharie does not waste his time. He
immediately starts to organize the establishment of his children. On
Zacharie
(1617-1708) Jean
(1620-1690) Saincte
(1622-1632) Anne
(1626-1648) Charles
(1629-1709) Louise
(1632-1699)
The fief of the river du Buisson (of the Bush)
An
act written by Jean de Lespinasse,
The
three sons of Zacharie Cloutier
had land at Château-Richer. This house was built by a grandson of Zacharie, and it is here that the pioneer would die.
----------------------
Zacharie Cloutier from http://www.naples.net/~clutchey/zach.htm
Zacharie I was the progenitor of all Cloutiers his vital statistics can be found in the summary.
When he was born in about 1590 in Mortagne au Perche,
For
The
name "Cloutier", itself, supports the
contention that Zacharie was a skilled person. It
appears the name is a contraction af
the french word "clou"
meaning nail and "metier" to make; thus a Cloutier being a maker of nails. It appears then, that when
it was decreed by the King that everyone should have a surname, many used their
occupations as an identifier surname, e.g., Carpentier
(carpenter), Boulanger (baker). The name Cloutier reflected the occupation of the family as being a
'maker of nails', in this instance not for the construction of homes but rather
nails for the hooves of horses for the King's Cavalry. That Zacharie
was indeed a skilled tradesman is supported by the documents and by the line
story found in the museum in Tourouvre honoring the
immigrants from the Perche district who pioneered
For
more details contact Roger Cloutier at his email: cloutierdesilets@videotron.ca
and his website: http://www.cadvision.com/cloutie1/Cloutier/index.htm
and
http://www.cadvision.com/cloutie1/Cloutier/RogerCloutierEng.htm.
Roger belongs to the 12th generation of the Québec Cloutiers
descending as all North American Cloutiers from Zacharie Cloutier and Sainte
Dupont. He has gathered a file of many families including some 15,000 Cloutier couples. He is happy to share this information
with all Cloutier descendants.
--------------------
The noble name of Cloutier from http://www.cadvision.com/cloutie1/Cloutier/name_cloutier.htm
You wanted to know about the origin of this family
name? Here are the details...
The
nail has been known since earliest history, we find it in the writings of Homer
and of Xenophon in the form of a pin made of hardwood
used to join two pieces of wood.
According
to a religious custom, commonly used by the Tuscans, the ancient Romans designated
the number of years since the founding of
Source:
This text, a writing of Mr. Casimir Hébert, specialist in the origin of names, was composed in
Montréal on
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
A family name drawn from a vanished trade
The
noble name of Cloutier is a family name drawn from a
trade that has disappeared with the advances in manufacturing. In earlier
times, nails were forged. Today they are produced by the millions in powerful
metallurgic factories. The trade of nail-smith started to decline towards 1810.
Before that date, the nail-smith was a specialised
blacksmith.
In
that period, in the city of
The Nail-smiths of
Nail smithing flourished in every country; in
The
nail-smiths of
Nail smithing was comprised of two branches: makers of forged
nails and makers of nails from iron wire commonly referred to as "
More than 300 types of nails
There
were more than 300 types of nails. Those who forged them were divided into specialities making a single type of nail so that they
could acquire expertise and speed. All that the nail-smith required was a small
forge so that he could heat the iron; a small anvil, called a clouère, a hammer, a chisel to cut the nails to their
proper length, and another tool or mold to form the heads, called a cloutière or clouvière. Nails
were made at an astonishing speed. James Leighton of
Origin of the word cloutier
Nails,
Clavus in Latin, are drawn from cala,
or wooden sticks, because the first nails were primitive pins made of wood. The
word cala is related to the Greek word Helos, a nail. The nail was known from earliest history, we
find it in Homer and in Xenophon in the form of a pin
made of hardwood used to join two pieces of wood. The shoes of the Roman
soldiers were decorated with iron nails (clavati) and
each soldier received a clavarium allowance for the
nails in his shoes.
From
the earliest times, there was a need for nail-smiths. Carpenters made wooden
pins, but they also had to buy forged nails. 100 years ago, French nails were
made of soft iron wire with a hammered point and the head punched on a tool
called a clouvière.
The
meaning of the name Cloutier is so
self-evident that Lorédan Jordan Larcher
does not cite it, nor does Chapuy, which does not
mean that the name did not exist in
Is it possible that there is another
origin for the name Cloutier?
The
word clouet, in old French, means small enclosure,
from the Latin verb claudo meaning to fence in or to
enclose; someone has claimed that the name Cloutier
comes from the word clouetier, meaning he who works
in a small enclosure. This makes a lot of good sense, because the worker who
made nails was essentially a special type of blacksmith, and because his forge
developed a lot of heat, he found it necessary to place his forge, his bellows,
and his tools outdoors, in the enclosure next to his house.
The
idea of an enclosure is contained in the root of the word "Clavus", nail, baton, oar, tiller;
"clavus" is related to "clava", derived from "cala",
piece of wood, log. The "clava" was the arm
with which new recruits in the Roman army trained, it was also the symbol of
Hercules, the club, and consequently also the symbol of force. The proverb
"take Hercules’ club away from him" means challenging the impossible.
The nail "clavus" was the symbol of
solidity and subsequently the symbol of Necessita,
the goddess of necessity. Another French proverb says "fixer un bienfait avec un clou de poutre" meaning "hold onto a good thing".
The nail is therefore a symbol of strength, of solidity, of durability and is
why the name Cloutier is probably drawn from the
noble nail that may also be made of gold, of silver, as well of exotic wood.
According
to a religious custom, commonly used by the Tuscans, the ancient Romans
designated the number of years since the founding of
In
old English, the word clud means a rock. The rock is
like a nail in the ground; the rock like the nail is synonymous with firmness,
with solidity.
The name Cloutier
is most of all the name of an occupation.
The
name Cloutier is most of all the name of an
occupation; it means a maker of nails, seller of nails, and also those who
decorated with nails. The fashion established in the 13th century was to nail
harnesses, leather covers, the tops of furniture, shin pads, the tops of boots,
the soles of shoes and even certain clothes; fancy blankets for the horses of
the messengers of the king, gentlemen and ambassadors wore clothes covered with
nails made of gold and silver; wine carafes were protected by an artistically
nailed case. Towards 1375, we find in
To
those who may think that this origin is quite modest, I reply that the CLOUTIERs can invoke as patron saint,
The
name Cloutier might be the modern equivalent of the
name Clotaire, the name of three kings of the
Merovingian dynasty in
It is
therefor erroneous to say that the noble name of Cloutier is one that does not require explanation. It is
amazing how a common name can brush with nobility.
The
ancestor who first bore the name Cloutier may have
inherited it because he made small wooden pins for shoemakers, pins for joiners
and carpenters, ornamental nails for decorating crowns, shields, swords,
clothing, armour, and finally forged nails as a
member of the corporation of nail-smiths. Family names started being used in
The nobility: Cloutier
Among
the names of the nobility, the "Le Cloutier"
of Normandie had the motto "D’azur
à deux lions
affrontés d’argent, au chef
d’or, chargé d’un léopard
de sable" on their coat of arms.
In
To
all CLOUTIERs, I propose the motto "Clavi vis maxima", mighty is
the strength of a nail. "Clavo vis additur", a nail when
driven reinforces. "
As a
family virtue suggested by their name, CLOUTIERs
practice tenacity in the pursuit of good, of virtue, of ideals, of faithfulness
to duty, they know how to steer a steady course.
Note:
This text appeared in French, in La Clouterie, the newsletter of l’Association
des Cloutier d’Amérique, in
February and June 1989.
Memorial Plaque in Mortagne-au-Perche, France
Genealogy
of the Cloutier family, adapted from http://www.cadvision.com/cloutie1/Cloutier/Cloutier_family.htm
Name: Zacharie
Cloutier
Birth: December 1590 in
Death:
Founder of Château-Richer.
Father: Denis Cloutier b: ABT. 1570 in
Mother: Renée Briere
Marriage
1 Sainte/Xainte Dupont b: 1596 in
Married:
Children
1. Anne Cloutier b: 26 JAN 1625/26 in France
2. Jean Cloutier b: ABT. 1620 in St.
Jean, Mortagne, Perche, France
3. Louise Cloutier b: 1631 in Château-Richer, Montmorency, Québec
4. Charles Cloutier b: 1624
5. Zacharie Cloutier b:
Death Record of Zacharie Cloutier (1677)
This
document records the death of Zacharie Cloutier on
Death Record of Sainete
Dupont (1680)
This
document records the death of Sainete Dupont on
|
Important dates |
Descriptions |
|
1565 |
Birth of Denis Cloutier,
Zacharie's father. |
|
1590 |
Birth of Zacharie
Cloutier. |
|
1592 |
Birth of Michel Cloutier,
Zacharie's brother. |
|
1617 |
Birth of Zacharie
Jr. Died in 1708. |
|
1620 |
Birth of Jean. Died in 1690. |
|
1622 |
Birth of Saincte,
born and died in St-Jean de Mortagne. |
|
1626 |
Birth of Anne. She will die in 1648. |
|
1629 |
Birth of Charles. He dies in 1709. |
|
1632 |
Birth of Louise. She dies in 1699. |
|
1634 |
Robert Giffard
gets the seigniory of |
|
|
Zacharie signs his contracts to work in |
|
|
Zacharie arrives in Québec with his wife and his 5
children. |
|
|
Death of Denis Cloutier,
Zacharie's father |
|
|
Anne gets married with Robert Drouin at the age of 10. |
|
|
Louise gets married with François Marguerie. |
|
|
Jean Cloutier
gets married with Marie Martin. |
|
|
Zacharie Jr. contracts marriage with Madeleine Emard, in |
|
|
Second marriage of Louise Cloutier, with Jean Mignault dit Chatillon. |
|
|
Marriage of Charles with Louise Morin. |
|
|
Zacharie Cloutier dies
at the age of 87. |
|
|
Death of Xainte
Dupont. |
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