Jean-Robert DUPRAC
Biography

DUPRAC, JEAN-ROBERT, mason, court clerk, and seigneurial notary; b. c. 1646, son of Jacques Duprac, master sculptor, and of Françoise Lamoureux; originally from the parish of Saint-Porchère in Poitiers (province of Poitou); buried 30 Aug. 1726 at Beauport.

Duprac arrived in Canada in 1674 at the latest, since, on 6 Jan. 1675, he signed a marriage contract with Marguerite Vachon, daughter of the notary Paul Vachon. On 14 June 1676 Duprac was, a settler at Beauport.” He was a mason by trade, and in 1681 he had only two acres under cultivation and five head of cattle. Like many colonists in New France, artisans by trade and often town-dwellers by birth, he probably had no taste for farm work. He must therefore have welcomed his appointment, on 1 Dec. 1693, as notary in the seigneury of Beauport, replacing Paul Vachon. Although we do not know precisely when, Duprac likewise succeeded his father-in-law as notary and clerk of court for the neighbouring seigneury of Notre-Dame-des-Anges. He continued in practice until 1723.

Duprac had nine children by Marguerite Vachon, who died 24 June 1703 of smallpox; his son Noël, who was baptized 21 Sept. 1681, was eventually to succeed him. As the son-in-law and the father of notaries, and a notary himself, Duprac was no exception in New France, where official charges were often handed down as if they were part of a heritage and somehow belonged to a family’s patrimony.

André Vachon

Dictionary of Canadian Biography, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003

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