The image of René was taken from a copper engraving which
is part of the collection
of the municipal library of
Angers, France
The first Gauthier of this line is René Gaultier. He was the registrar of the jurisdiction of Anjou and of the presidial seat of Angers. He married Jehanne GUESPIN around 1554. Two sons were born to the couple, Jacques and René. A second marriage, in 1558, to Perrine FROGER, produced two other sons, François and Pierre.All four married but only Pierre`s descendants perpetuated the patronym. Born in 1576 in Angers, France, Pierre GAULTIER de La Vérenderie was the first to bear the title. It was a title granted to him by his mother Perrine Froger. In 1601, Pierre was the registrar of the jurisdiction and tax receiver of Angers.
His son Adam-Pierre de La Vérenderie, born on 9 November 1604, in Angers, France. He married Bertrande GOURDEAULT and had at least five children, one of whom, René came to new France with the Carignan regiment in 1665.
René married Marie BOUCHER on 26 September 1667 in Trois-Rivières thus uniting his destiny with one of the foremost families of New France.
Ten children were born to this marriage, one of which is the famous discoverer Pierre Gaultier de La Vérenderie.
According to Antoine Champagne in his "Les La Vérendrye et le poste de l`ouest" (University of Laval Press-1968) Pierre Gaultier married Marie-Anne DANDONNEAU on 29 October 1712 in Québec.
He took part in campaigns in Flanders & the raid on Deerfield, Mass.
In 1709, he was severely wounded at the Battle of Malplaquet and shortly afterwards returned to Canada.
He was a fur trader at Trois-Rivières, then later at Lake Nipigon where he conceived the idea of pushing westward in search of the Western Sea.
In 1731, he left Montreal for the West & built a chain of fur-trading posts at:
Lake Winnipeg
Lake of the Woods
Rainy Lake
Red River &
Assiniboine River.In 1738, he visited the Mandanes villages on the Missouri.
Although his operations opened the road for those who would follow, they were not successful from a financial point of view.
In 1743, broken in health, and burdened with debt, he was compelled to return to Montreal to face his creditors.
In 1749, he received a belated acknowledgement of his services, made a chevalier of St-Louis and was promoted to the rank of captain in the Marine troops.
Dozens of historical works have been written on La Vérenderie, some of which are:
"Dictionary of Canadian Biography", W. Stewart WALLACE, 1967;
"Dictionnaire Général du Canada", 2 vols., by L. LeJEUNE, Ottawa, 1931;
"Journals & Letters of Pierre GAULTIER de Varennes de la Verandrye & his Sons", by The Champlain Society, Toronto, 1927;
"Pierre GAULTIER de Varennes, Sieur de La Verandrye", by L.A. PRUD'HOMME in Transactions of the Royal Society of Canada, Ottawa 1905;
"Pierre GAULTIER de Varennes de La Verendrye & ses Fils",
by Abbé I. CARON in Bulletin des Recherches Historiques, Levis 1917;"La Verenderie Avant ses Voyages au Nord-Ouest",
by B. SULTE in Bulletin des Recherches Historiques, Levis 1915;"La Verendrye", by A.S. MORTON in The Canadian Historical Review, Toronto 1928.
