Family history Seigneur de Beauport

The gentlemen of Beauport – pioneers on the Saint-Lorenz stream

The history of Beauport began with Robert Giffard de Moncel, a physician from Perche. He was already familiar with Canada as a ship's doctor when the Compagnie des Cent-Associés granted him a seigneurie east of Quebec in 1634. As early as the same year, Giffard and his wife Marie Renouard, their children, and recruited settlers crossed the Atlantic. Among them were the mason Jean Guyon and the carpenter Zacharie Cloutier, to whom he promised land grants.

Between the rivers Beauport and Montmorency, an astonishingly vibrant community emerged. Families cultivated the land, built farms and constructed mills. Giffard’s mansion from 1642 combined a residence, chapel, and rooms for administration and justice. Around 1655, he had the Bourg du Fargy built, one of the earliest village centers in New France. As early as 1666, 184 people lived in the Seigneurie. Robert also served as a doctor at the Hôtel-Dieu de Québec, as a member of the Conseil de Québec, and as a determined promoter of further immigration from his homeland.

After Roberts death in 1668, his son Joseph Giffard Beauport continued the work and had the Bourg du Fargy re-surveyed. In 1683, he bequeathed the Seigneurie to his nephew Ignace Juchereau Duchesnay, son of Marie-Thérèse Giffard and Nicolas Juchereau de Saint-Denis. Ignace took over the lordship in 1689 and developed the estate, thus founding a new Beauport family line.

The Juchereau Duchesnay remained connected to Beauport for generations. They served as officers, militia leaders, judges, administrative officials, and politicians; Antoine-Louis received the Seigneurie in 1806. Under their leadership, the area along the Chemin du Roy grew, experiencing agriculture, crafts, and later industry. When Quebec abolished the seigneurial system in 1854, the feudal administration ended, but the legacy of the families did not: the historical road network, old houses, mill sites, and the name Giffard continue to tell Beauport’s story to this day.

Sources: Ville de Québec, Biographical Dictionary of Canada, Repertory of Cultural Heritage of Quebec

Family coat of arms Seigneur de Beauport

Territorial coat of arms of the former city of Beauport as a historically justified designation.

Blue and silver-painted, above it a golden three-masted sailing ship; beneath a red shield with a cross framed in black and silver, centered with a silver lily.

Robert Gifford's coat of arms from 1658 does not mention any personal coats of arms, and no secure personal coat of arms is known from other sources either. Therefore, instead of being invented freely, the territorial coat of arms created later by Beauport is used here.

Sources: Société de généalogie de Québec, Entry „Beauport (ancienne ville)“, Répertoire du patrimoine culturel du Québec, Heraldic Science Héraldique, indicating Giffards' Adelsbrief doesn't list Coat of arms, excerpts, history, print, print-optimized edition, in purely-white color, splendid