Jean Cauchon (Cochon) Normandy is the French province that contributed the most to the establishment of New France. In the very beginning of the seventeenth century, it sent missionaries, such as Jean de Brebeuf, Barthelemy Vimont and Antoine and Charles Daniel. Normandy also sent some of gallant founders and pioneers: Jean Bourdon, Guillaume and Emery de Caen, Jean and Thomas Godefroy, Jacques Hertel, Charles and Pierre Legardeur, Jacques and Michel Le Neuf, Nicolas Marsolet, Jean Nicolet, Noel Langlois and others. The surgeon and interpreter, Adrien Duchesne, came from Dieppe. A whole family, that of Jean Cauchon, also arrived from the same seaport. In spite of its very ancient origin, since it existed during the times of the Gauls and the Romans, Dieppe remained a small city, whose size and population compare to those closest to us, Rimouski, Valleyfield or Cap-de-la-Madeleine. Dieppe, the capital of the Arrondissement of la Seine-Maritime, overlooking the English Channel, on the mouth of the Arques River, is situated in a wide notch of tall, chalky cliffs in the region of Caux. The old town is confined between the basins and an ancient chateau built on the steep slope. Dieppe is a city particularly dear to the families of more than two thousand Canadian soldiers, whose bodies were buried in French soil following the unfortunate raid of August 19, 1942 against the Germans. PARISHIONER FROM SAINT-JACQUES The church of Saint-Jacques, which the Cauchon family attended during the 1630's, was built very slowly between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries, then, it was repaired and restored many times afterward. The monument is in the Renaissance style, in which, the entranceway is comprised of three chapels on each side of the main aisle and five radiating chapels and one apsidal chapel, of remarkable ornamentation, is on the town square where, occupying a place of honor, is the statue of Admiral Abraham Duquesne (1610-1688), victor over the Spainish on the Iles de Lerins (1635), during the time when Jean Cauchon and his family had probably embarked for America. We know from the genealogist, Archange Godbout that, Our Ancestor could also have lived in the neighboring parish of Saint-Remy since his son, Guillaume, from his first to Marguerite Cointerel, was baptized there, in January 1624. On the other hand, Pierre and Nicolas, two other sons from his first marriage, were baptized, at Saint-Jacques, in 1631 and 1633, respectively. We also know that, Marguerite did not survive the birth of Nicolas, having been laid to rest, on the next day, January 10, 1633. On the following April 2, Jean became engaged to Jeanne Abraham and married her two days later, at the church of Saint-Jacques. Francoise was baptized there, at the end of the same year and Jacques, at the beginning of 1635. Then, there was the odyssey to Canada. Did Jean accompany Governor Huault de Montmagny aboard the ship commanded by Captain Courpon, which left Dieppe, on April 8, 1636 and arrived, at Quebec, on June 11? Whenever it happened, according to Benjamin Sulte, Jean Cauchon arrived at the latest in 1638. That year, he was mentioned in Canadian records for the first time. CAUCHON-COCHON ORIGIN A sinister person, the torturer, Pierre Cauchon, the Bishop of Beauvais, made his last name known to the whole world. It was he, who presided at the ecclesiastical tribunal, which sentenced Joan of Arc, who was burned alive at Rouen, on May 30, 1431. Albert Dauzat wrote that, the family name was widely spread in earlier days in France. In 1389, Andre Coichon raised pigs, at Dijon. But as the term also meant slovenliness and coarseness, numerous families changed the name to Aubry, Cardeur, Creton, Cochois, etc.. Pierre Blanche adds that, this name was originally from La Rochelle but, it was also found at Niort, Saunur and Paris. Our compatriot, Andre Beauchesne, notes that, some distinguished people have borne this name. They were illustrious in medicine, the courts, administration, politics and the church. Abel Cauchon owned the Seigneurie of Auverdiere, near Tours. His son, Rene, is the ancestor of the Canadian Cauchons dit Laverdure. The Cauchons de Lapparent are of the nobility and display their coat of arms as described as follows: "Azur with a silver chevron, accompanied by three boar's heads". The first words of this description indicate that, an ancestor fought against the Moors. The author also mentioned that, the branches of Puy, Vivier, La Tour, Epannes and Chambonneau lived in Poitou. THE LAND AT BEAUPRE It is possible that, Ancestor Jean Cauchon first came to New France without being accompanied by his family. No birth was recorded between 1635 and 1640, the year that, the eldest daughter, Marguerite, married Jean, one of the three Gagnon brothers, who was counted among the first Percherons to arrive after the departure of the Kirke brothers, in 1632. The marriage of Jean Gagnon and Marguerite Cauchon was recorded in the registries of Quebec, on July 29, 1640 but, the act states that, the missionary Nicolas Adam traveled for this purpose to Beaupre and that he "married them in the presence of Pierre Gardeur, Sieur de Repentigny, Noel Juchereau Mr des Chastelets and Mr Jean Bourdon". This detail leads to the conclusion that, although a deed of concession had not been officially granted, the Beaupre Coast was then inhabited by a few families, including that of Jean Cauchon. The Ancestor perhaps already occupied the land that Noel Juchereau had first awarded to Jacques Boissel and which Cauchon resold to Jacques Delaunay, on September 22, 1643. This act specified that, "honorable man Jehan Cochon living presently in the said New France and Jehanne Abraham his wife ... voluntarily sold ... to Jacques de Launay also living in the said country presently and accepting ... the land of a concession made to Jacques Boissel living in the said New France at Beauport by Noel Juchereau Sr des Chastelets in the name of the Messieurs of the Company of the said Beaupre to the said Jehan Cochon ceding for the said Jacques Boissel the said lands comprised of five arpents of frontage on the great river St Laurent between la Riviere au Chien and the Ruisseau that he has in common with Robert Drouin also a resident and an arpent beyond the said Riviere au Chien also with frontage on the said Great River St Laurent and bordered by lands not yet ceded stretching inland in depth, etc.." The transaction was concluded for the sum of 200 livres for the land, plus an identical amount for the grain, the house and the furnishings. The buyer promised to have the 400 livres paid at La Rochelle by Father Quentin, of the Company of Jesus, "at their first request and willingly". The contract was signed at Fort Saint-Louis in Quebec, in the presence of witnesses Louis Dornais and Michel Cote. Cauchon signed the document with the witnesses and Piraube, Governor Montmagny's secretary, but, the buyer and Jeanne Abraham declared that, they were unable to do so. For reasons unknown to us, Delaunay was not able to keep this land and returned it to the Company of Beaupre. Olivier Tardif/Letardif, the latter's administrator, included it in the land with twelve arpents of frontage that he ceded to Etienne Racine, on March 27, 1650. The Riviere aux Chiens, which marked the boundaries of the future parishes of Sainte-Anne and Chateau-Richer was found at the same time to divide the vast land of Racine. CHATEAU-RICHER The earliest document mentioning Chateau-Richer seems to Bourdon's map dated 1641. According to Raymond Gariepy. In the beginning, this name referred to a simple promontory included in the three arpents of the domain on which would later be built the church, the rectory and the seigneur's manor house. From high on the slope, one could see the whole Beaupre Coast as far as Cap Tourmente. On July 3, 1640, Pierre Gagnon obtained a piece of land there with six and a half arpents of frontage. This act mentioned that, Jean Cauchon junior was his immediate neighbor then. The latter only obtained his deed of concession, on July 6, 1652. His land measured six arpents of frontage by 126 in depth. On May 13, 1657, Jean Cauchon dit "le jeune" , resident of the coast and Seigneurie of Beaupre, ceded two arpents of it to Nicolas Lebel for the annual payment of 42 sols and one capon in rent, this being the equivalent for that portion, of Cauchon's rent, to the Company of Beaupre. On this same July 6, 1652, Jean Cauchon senior also obtained from Jean de Lauson, a deed of concession for a piece of land with the same area as that of his son, in the immediate heighborhood of the seigneurial domain, the future Fort Saint-Michel and the site of the church, whose construction began in 1658, in the middle of the present village of Chateau-Richer. It seems to us that, Our Ancestor received a rather advanced education, in France, in an era in which illiterates were legion. He signed with a very fine signature, with flourishes, with or without his first name. His fellow parishioners often had recourse to his services. In 1652, he became fiscal administrator at Chateau-Richer and appears to have fulfilled this task during Olivier Tardif's entire commision as magistrate of Beaupre, until 1662. The judge, at that time, had the power to appoint notaries and to preside over both civil and criminal cases. As for the fiscal prosecutor, his role was to defend the rights of the habitants but also to see that, the latter paid their rents to the local seigneur.