Louis HOUDE dit DESROCHERS
Biography

HOULE - alteration of HOUDE, from the Germanic name 'hildo', derived from 'hild' which means 'fight' or from the name 'Audo' which comes from 'aud' which means 'wealth'. Louis Houde, son of Noël Houde and Anne Lefebvre, was born around 1617 in Manou, a French village in the department of Eure-et-Loir, on the border between Thymerais and Perche. He enlisted as a mason around 1647 in the service of the family of Lord Noël Juchereau, Sieur des ChâteletsLouis Houde could have arrived in Quebec on August 6, 1647 aboard the ship La Marguerite, which had left La Rochelle two months earlier. But it was in Tadoussac, the first inland port and last stop before Quebec, that its presence was revealed for the first time. He signs as a witness the report explaining the disappearance on the boat of a man named Charles Gorre who, drunk, threw himself into the sea. It seems that Louis Houde exercises his profession in the city of Quebec because he is quoted on August 27 1653 in Sillery. Eight years after his arrival in New France, on January 12, 1655, he married Madeleine Boucher aged only 13 - she was born on August 4, 1641 in Quebec, daughter of Marin Boucher and Perrine Mallet, originally from Saint-Langis - the Mortagne. Fourteen children were born from their union, nine boys and five girls, two of whom died in infancy. Like his compatriots, Louis Houde settled with his young wife on the Côte de Beaupré, in Château-Richer more precisely. Twelve years later, he was able to settle in Sainte-Famille, on Île-d'Orléans. One last time, in 1682, the family moved to the seigneury of Lotbinière, in the future parish of Sainte-Croix, on an area of ​​nine arpents frontage on the river acquired from the Ursulines of Quebec. The sons share the lots around the parental land and, depending on the location of each, are born the surnames of Desrochers, Desruisseaux, Bellefeuille, etc. In addition to being a well-informed businessman, Louis Houde was not lacking in generosity since it was he who donated the land needed to build the first church of Sainte-Croix. It was there that Louis Houde died after March 23, 1710, the date of writing his will, and before November 17, 1712, the date on which his heirs proceeded to the division of his property. His eldest son Jean, born around 1658, married Anne Rouleau in 1678, daughter of Gabriel, the Tourouvrain pioneer. Louis Houde is the ancestor of all the Houdes and Houles of French America, of the Clair-Leclairs and of part of the Leclercs of Quebec. According to the Statistical Institute of Quebec, the surnames Houle and Houde respectively occupied ranks 80 and 221 of the most common surnames in Quebec in 2005.

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