Robert Giguère

Robert Giguère dit Despins (March 9, 1616 – August 1709) was an early pioneer in New France, one of the founders of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, Quebec and the progenitor of virtually all the Giguères in North America.

Unfortunately what is known for sure about Robert Giguère's life in France is very scant. His parents were Jehan (Le Jeune) Giguère (born abt. 1580) and Michelle Jornel. Jehan's brother, Jehan "The elder" married Michelle's sister, Marie. Jehan and Michelle had nine children of which Robert was the sixth. He was baptized in the little church in Tourouvre, in the parish of Saint Aubin on March 9, 1616. Presumably he was born either on that day or just a few days earlier.

It is certain that Robert Giguère was in New France in 1651. However, according to George-Emile Giguère and others, in 1644, he was missing from French census records. Indeed, he could have arrived as early as 1642.

The name "Le Perche" derives from the Latin "Silva pertica" which originally denoted an immense forest on the borders of the Gaulish cities of the Essuins (capital: Sées), the Eburovices (capital: Évreux), the Cenomans (capital: Le Mans) and the Carnutes (capital: Chartres). Located about 100 miles (160 km) southwest of Paris, in Lower Normandy, the Perche has always been a Region. It was created sometime between 1079 and 1100, when Geoffroy IV, one of the region's most powerful landowners, extended his rule over both the county of Corbon (the present area around Mortagne) and the seigneury of Nogent-le-Rotrou, which made him the master of much of the old forest of le Perche. He assumed the title of "Count of le Perche ". His son Rotrou III, who added the seigniory of Bellême to these territories in 1113, brought le Perche to the size of a province, though it remained much smaller than the natural tract of the same name.

When Guillaume, the sixth Count of le Perche, died without an heir in 1226, the county reverted to the Crown. Le Perche would from then on be given out as an estate to the children or brothers of the King of France.

When the departments were being created by the Constituent Assembly in 1792, Le Perche was carved up among four of them: Orne and Eure-et-Loir for the most part, and to a lesser extent, Sarthe and Loir-et-Cher.

As it was in the time of Robert Giguère, the Perche has remained a beautiful pastoral area consisting mainly of gently rolling farmland, but unlike much of France, it is blessed with some beautiful forests. It also benefits from a number of rivers and streams.

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