Cliquez ici pour la version française

René Ouellet & Anne Rivet

Ancestral couple of all Ouellet and Ouellette descendants in New France

René Ouellet (or Houallet), son of François Houallet and Isabelle (or Elisabeth) Barré, was baptized on 26 Jan 1644 in the parish church of Notre-Dame in Vierzon, Berry, France [present-day Vierzon, Cher, France]. His father was an "Honorable homme, receveur pour le roi à Tillières" (an honorable man, receiver for the king at Tillières).

René arrived in New France by 1663. By 1664, he was living in the village of Ste-Famille on Île-d'Orléans, on the penultimate piece of land in Ste-Famille, between those of Pierre Mailloux and Guillaume Bauché (near the current historic Drouin house). He would later sell these three arpents of land to Robert Coutard.

Anne Rivet, daughter of Pierre Rivet and Marie Sorgeaut, was born circa 1635 in Couterne, Orne, France [present-day Rives-d'Audaine, Orne, France]. She married Grégoire His on 8 Jul 1659 in Couterne. Grégoire was a sieur de la Croix, "archer de Gabelle, né à Sées" (archer for Gabelle, born in Sées). They had two twin daughters, Jacqueline and Françoise, born in 1662.

Grégoire His died sometime between 1662 and 1665. Anne and Grégoire's daughters likely died during this time as well.

A Fille du roi sails to New France

Widowed, Anne sailed to Québec [City] aboard the St-Jean-Baptiste with her sister Catherine, arriving on 2 Oct 1665. Anne and Catherine were filles du roi.  

René Ouellet and Anne Rivet were married on 8 Mar 1666 at Notre-Dame in Québec. René was 22; Anne was about 31. For her dowry, Anne had brought goods with her valued at about 300 livres. She was not able to sign her marriage contract, but her husband could. After the wedding, the couple settled in Ste-Famille on Île-d'Orléans. They had three sons: Abraham Joseph, Mathurin and Grégoire.

On 13 Oct 1674, René Ouellet "inhabitant of the seigneury of Beaupré" rented a farm of 4 arpents to Pierre Soumande in St-Pierre de l'Île-d’Orléans, between the properties of Thomas Rondeau and Mathieu Côté.  

Anne Rivet died at the age of about 40 on 5 Apr 1675 in Château-Richer. She was buried in the parish cemetery two days later. [Château-Richer is across the river from Île-d'Orléans].

Murderer? Or Falsely Accused?

A year after his wife's death, René was embroiled in scandal. On 13 Apr 1676, Martin Guérard was found dead on the ice facing l'Île-d'Orléans. René was accused of murder. Guérard had left on March 17th for the Saut-à-la-puce mill in Château-Richer when he was reported missing. Sébastienne Loignon, wife of Louis Lepage, claimed that René Ouellet and Marie Boette, wife of Guérard, wanted to marry. The authorities suspected Marie and René of planning to kill Guérard and leaving his body on the ice. The case was dismissed for lack of evidence. René left (or fled!) the island for the seigneury of Grande Anse (also known as La Pocatière) around 1677-1678.

René married Thérèse Mignault on 6 Feb 1679 in Grande-Anse (recorded in the parish register of Notre-Dame in Québec). She was the widow of Nicolas Lebel, with whom she had four children. She was also the heir to four acres of land in Ste-Anne de la Grande-Anse (La Pocatière), on which the couple settled initially. René and Thérèse had eight children together: Marie Thérèse, Joseph, Françoise, Sébastien, Marie Anne, Angélique Marguerite, François and Marie.

In March of 1680, the Seigneur of Rivière-Ouelle conceded to René a lot of 8 arpents frontage by 42 deep close to the river of the same name.

René and Thérèse were recorded in the 1681 census of New France living with their five children. Both were 32 years old. René owned 1 firearm, 7 heads of cattle and 6 arpents of cultivated land.

Local Hero in Rivière-Ouelle

In 1690, René and his four eldest sons joined the inhabitants of Rivière-Ouelle and prevented the English commander Phipps and his troops from landing on their shores. René and about 40 other men were called local heroes. On August 10, 1997, a commemorative plaque was placed on a stone at the entrance to Rivière-Ouelle cemetery, as part of the 325th anniversary celebrations. It reads "In October 1690, at the mouth of the Ouelle River father Pierre de Francheville leading forty of his parishioners, repulsed a detachment of the English fleet under Admiral Phipps".

In 1721, while living in St-Roch-des-Aulnaies with his eldest son Abraham Joseph, René wrote his last will and testament in which he ceded an arpent of land to the parish of Ste-Anne-de-la-Pocatière.

René Ouellet died at the age of 77 on 15 Jan 1722 in Ste-Anne-de-la-Pocatière. Due to paralysis, he was unable to receive the holy communion before his death. René was buried in the parish cemetery the following day.

To see other commemorative plaques erected in René's honour, visit the Association des Ouellet-te d'Amérique (the Association of the Ouellet-te of North America) at http://ouellet-te.com/eng/index.html.

Interested in having a similar biography written about your own ancestors? Contact us today!

Enjoying our articles and resources? Consider showing your support by making a donation. Every contribution, no matter how small, helps us pay for website hosting and allows us to create more content relating to French-Canadian genealogy and history. Thank you!

Sources:

• Fédération québécoise des sociétés de généalogie, Fichier Origine online database (http://www.fichierorigine.com), entry for OUELLET / HOUALLET, René (person #410036), updated on 6 May 2020.

• Fédération québécoise des sociétés de généalogie, Fichier Origine online database (http://www.fichierorigine.com), entry for RIVET, Anne (person #018000), updated on 23 Jul 2018.

• Claude Dupras, "Les Ouellet" (http://claude.dupras.com/les-genealogies/les-familles-canadiennes-et-quebecoises/les-ouellet).

• Marriage record for Grégoire His and Anne Rivet, 8 Jul 1659, Couterne, image shared on the Facebook group Patrimoine Québec (https://www.facebook.com/patrimoinequebec/photos/).

• "Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968", digital images, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca), marriage record for Rene Hoelet and Anne Rivet, 8 Mar 1666, Québec (Notre-Dame); citing original data: Institut Généalogique Drouin; Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Drouin Collection; Author: Gabriel Drouin, comp.

• Peter Gagné, Kings Daughters & Founding Mothers: the Filles du Roi, 1663-1673, Volume Two (Orange Park, Florida : Quintin Publications, 2001), 493.

• René Jetté and the PRDH, Dictionnaire généalogique des familles du Québec des origines à 1730 (Montréal, Gaëtan Morin Éditeur, 1983), page 859, entry for René Ouellet.

• "Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968", digital images, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca), burial record for Anne Rivet, 7 Apr 1675, Château-Richer; citing original data: Institut Généalogique Drouin; Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Drouin Collection; Author: Gabriel Drouin, comp.

• "Enquête faite par Claude Aubert, juge prévôt des seigneuries de Beaupré et Saint-Laurent sur la mort de Martin Guérard, habitant de l'île d'Orléans, trouvé noyé sur la grève du fleuve", digital images, BAnQ numérique (https://advitam.banq.qc.ca/notice/387033), 18 Apr 1676-7 May 1676, ID 387033.

• "Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968", digital images, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca), marriage record for Rene Houlet and Therese Migneaux, 6 Feb 1679, Québec (Notre-Dame); citing original data: Institut Généalogique Drouin; Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Drouin Collection; Author: Gabriel Drouin, comp.

• "Recensement du Canada fait par l'intendant Du Chesneau", Library and Archives Canada (https://collectionscanada.gc.ca/), entry for René Ouellet, 14 Nov 1681, Québec, Finding aid no. MSS0446, MIKAN no. 2318858; citing original data: Centre des archives d'outre-mer (France) vol. 460.

• "Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968", digital images, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca), burial record for Rene Ouellet, 16 Jan 1722, Ste-Anne-de-la-Pocatière; citing original data: Institut Généalogique Drouin; Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Drouin Collection; Author: Gabriel Drouin, comp.