René DUMAS "RENCONTRE"

René DUMAS, son of Claude Dumas and Françoise LÉGER, was given the name "Rencontre" upon his entering Captain Rougemont's company in the Carignan-Salières regiment. He was born around 1651 in the parish of Sainte-Croix in Tours (France), and died in 1704. He arrived in New France aboard the Saint Sébastien, which casted in Québec on the 12th of September of 1665. He was first billeted in Fort Sainte Thérèse, and then in Québec.

Upon his demobilisation in 1668, he chose to settle in Chambly, where Jacques DE CHAMBLY Esquire conceded him a piece of land on the 15th of October of 1673. However, given the rampant climate of insecurity which prevailed in that area, he moved to Laprairie in the autumn of 1680.

As a marriage agreement signed before notary BECQUET indicates, René DUMAS "RENCONTRE" had married Marie LELONG in Québec on the 12th of October of 1671. She was the daughter of late Mathurin LELONG and of Perrine MORET, and had recently arrived from Rennes (Britanny, France) as a "Fille du Roy".

The couple had nine children, among which only one son left a posterity bearing the surname Dumas. Five of the daughters of René DUMAS "RENCONTRE" were married and left a numerous posterity. Three of the daughters were to be part of some of the founding couples of New France, namely Anne and Louis Bertrand AUPRY "LARAMÉE", Jeanne and François DUMONT "LAVIOLETTE", and Marie and François MONET "LAVERDURE". Some of the descendants of René DUMAS "RENCONTRE"'s daughters have borne the name Dumas, as there were some marriages amongst the posterity with descendants of François DUMAS and Marguerite FOY.

Marie LELONG died in La Prairie on the 14th of December of 1687. René remarried in June of 1689 with another "Fille du Roy", Marie Jeanne GILLES, daughter of Pierre and Anne NICOLAS, and widow of François FLEURY "MITRON". After René DUMAS' death, Marie Jeanne married again with Pierre GALAIS "LALIBERTÉ" on September 1st of 1704.

Possible links

The marriage agreement

Posterity of René DUMAS "RENCONTRE" – the first five generations