Pierre Boucher

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Pierre Boucher, (baptized 1 August 1622 – 19 April 1717), came to Canada from France in 1635 with his father. At the age of 18, he entered the services of the Jesuits and spent 4 years with the Huron missions at Georgian Bay.

He returned to Quebec city and joined the militia there but by 1645 was in Trois-Rivières, as interpreter of Indian languages, then commissary-general of the trading post, and captain of the militia by 1651.

Boucher was active in the affairs of the community including its defense against an attack by the Iroquois in 1653. He was the active governor of the settlement until a trip to France in 1661 and was re-appointed in 1662. He resigned this position in 1667 when he quit public office to establish his seignorial parish Boucherville. near Montreal. He was succeeded in the governorship by his son-in-law, René Gauthier de Varennes. (René Gaultier de Varennes was the father of Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye, the first explorer of Western Canada.)

Pierre Boucher was the first Canadian settler to be ennobled by King Louis XIV. he died at his seignory at Boucherville.