Life in New France
Cloutier was one of the first Frenchmen recruited by Robert Giffard de Moncel to expand the colony of New France by settling the Beauport area near Quebec City. Cloutier arrived in 1634 (at the age of 44) and either arrived with or was soon followed by his family. This was an important addition to the colony's population which numbered about 100 prior to his arrival. Cloutier worked with fellow emigre Jean Guyon du Buisson to construct Giffard's manor house (the oldest house in Canada) and other colonial buildings.
Cloutier and Guyon resisted for several years paying the fealty and homage owed to Giffard under the Seigneurial system of New France until the Governor of New France explicitly ordered them to do so. This was one of the first disputes against transplanting Old World hierarchy to the New World that would carry through the centuries even past the time of the British conquest.
In 1652 Cloutier received a grant of land from Governor Jean de Lauzon in Château-Richer. The land on which Cloutier lived in Beauport was known as La Clouterie (or La Cloutièrerie). In 1670 Nicolas Dupont de Neuville purchased this land from Cloutier. This action resulted in disagreements between Cloutier himself and his neighbor Jean Guyon and with Giffard, his seigneur. It was not until that time that the Cloutier family relocated to Château-Richer.
Zacharie Cloutier died 17 September 1677 at the age of about 87. His wife died shortly after. The couple is buried together in Château-Richer.
Read more about this topic: Zacharie Cloutier
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