Jacques Goulet


Jacques Goulet was a pioneer settler to Canada who was part of the Percheron immigration movement recruited to colonize the shores of the Saint Laurence River at Québec in New France, a miller and the ancestor of all of the Goulets in North America.

Early life

Thomas Goulet, the father of Jacques Goulet, lived in France in ancient Perche province's Normandel hamlet in about 1593. The baptismal records of Saint-Maurice-lès-Charencey, a community two miles east of Normandel, document the birth of René Goulet on May 30, 1613 to Charles Goullet and his wife Susanne. It is likely that Charles Goullet is the brother of Thomas Goulet.
Thomas married Antoinette Feillard on April 28, 1613 in Normandel's Saint-Firmin church.
A notarized deed dated April 6, 1615 shows Thomas Goulet purchasing a gray horse for 25 livres from Robert Giguère, a merchant from Tourouvre and a cousin of Robert Giguère who also immigrated to New France. The eldest of three children, Jacques Goulet was born in Normandel on April 17, 1615; his sisters Louise and Yvonne, being born in 1619 and 1622, respectively.
Jacques Goulet worked as a miller for Noël Juchereau on his farm, Les Chatelets in L'Hôme-Chamondot, France in 1645. His father Thomas, also worked as a miller in L'Hôme-Chamondot in 1632, possibly at the same mill.
Goulet married Marguerite Mulier, the daughter of Jean Mulier and Catherine Chauvin, on November 21, 1645 at St. Pierre Church in La Poterie-au-Perche, France.

Immigration to New France

, a Company of One Hundred Associates investor, recruited Jacques Goulet to migrate to New France as Noël Juchereau's miller via a three-year-termed work contract at the end of which term Jacques Goulet was likely to be granted a land concession. Jacques Goulet was in his last year of a three-year contract to Noël Juchereau died in 1648.
In the spring of 1646, Goulet and his wife Marguerite sailed from La Rochelle for New France. In September or October, they arrived at Québec with 73 other immigrants on one of a fleet of four ships: the 300-ton Cardinal, the 150 ton Saint-Sauveur, the 50-ton Petit Saint-Christophe and the 250-ton Notre-Dame. In 1646, there were only around 1,000 colonists in Canada.

Life in Canada

Shortly after arriving at Québec, Goulet's wife Marguerite gave birth to their first child, Geneviève, on October 28, 1646. Geneviève died about six weeks later. She was buried on December 14, 1646.
Goulet was employed by Noël Juchereau, until Juchereau died in 1648, soon after a visit to France.
In December 1651, Goulet acquired land with one arpent of frontage on côte St. Michel near Sillery, Quebec City. He later sold the property along with another property with one-and-a-half arpents of land to Simon Legendre for 200 livres on December 26, 1655.
In Château-Richer, Goulet owned land consisting of six arpents of frontage.
He sold this property to partners Jacques Dodier and Pierre Pointel on November 30, 1656.
On March 4, 1657, Dodier gave the property back to Goulet who then sold it to Lauzon de la Citière for 860 livres, a significant sum.
On May 30, 1658, Olivier Le Tardiff, seigneur and judge for côte de Beaupré, a concession of land at L’Ange-Gardien. The land consisted of three arpents of frontage on the North shore of the St. Lawrence River near L'Ange-Gardien, near the stream Ruisseau des Originaux.
As of the :File:1667 Census of New France for Jacques Goulet.jpg|1667 census, Goulet was farming 15 arpents of land and had five head of cattle. By the :File:1681 Census of New France for Jacques Goulet.jpg|1681 census, he had doubled his arable land. He also owned a gun and one of the New France's 78 horses.
From 1673 to 1676, Goulet worked as a miller at the mills of the seigneurie de Beaupré, Château-Richer's wind mill and the water mill of Sault à la Puce. He was also a miller at the water mill at Petit Pré until at least 1682.

Children

Jacques and Marguerite had 11 children, of whom five died or were not recorded in subsequent census records because they did not marry.
Jacques Goulet died November 26, 1688 and was interred in the church cemetery at L'Ange-Gardien two days later.
In 1694, Goulet's estate was inventoried. It consisted of one plow, more than 700 sheaves of wheat, two horses, 10 head of cattle, three pigs, 10 chickens, a stone house, a barn, a stable, 33 arpents of cleared land and various other items.
A plaque affixed to La Poterie's St. Pierre church reads:
Translation:

Name variations

In Canada and the United States, other name variations have evolved including Goulette, Goulait, Goulais, Desgoulets, Gooely, Gooley, Goula, Goulat, Goulah, Goulin and Gooler. A miniscule proportion of Goulets had the Mathurin dit name or nickname.

Flute

Goulet once owned a flute that had been passed down from generation to generation. A brief history of the flute was written about in an article in :File:Jacques Goulet's Flute.jpg|The Winnipeg Evening Tribune - June 7, 1934. The last person to have possession of the flute was Robert Leon Goulet. It is not known what happened to the flute after Robert died. In June 2015, descendants of Jacques Goulet's, including the great grandson of Robert Leon Goulet, attempted to locate the flute, but was unsuccessful. In an attempt to locate the flute, the descendants of Goulet have created FindTheFlute.com.

Notable descendants