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- Mason. Seigneur en partie de la côte de Beaupré (1662-1664), seigneur de Bonsecours (1677-1683). Captain of militia (capitaine de milice).
According to a Jesuit record, he was brought over by Robert Giffard in 1636.
According to various French-Canadian sources including Tanguay, he was from Touques in Normandy. But nothing has been found to prove that the Francois Belanger baptised in St. Pierre de Seez in Orne on 7 Oct 1612 is the same individual as the settler.
From Our French-Canadian Ancestors by Thomas J. LaForest (volume 6, chapter 2):
Archange Godbout has compiled notes on several hundred Canadian pioneers, principally those who landed on our shores during the XVII century. Here is what he had to say about François Bélanger, the earliest colonist bearing this name and having offspring in Canada: "He was active and resourceful and the notaries of the time in their contracts, sometimes show us the businessman; informed, upright and honest, sometimes as a man much sought after as an expert appraiser...In order to be fair, it is necessary to add that François Bélanger was authoritative, violent, and tenacious in his demands. He wanted above all, that his ideas be those of others...which made him a few enemies...because he was not infallible, even when he appealed to the Bishop and to the Governor of New-France."
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