DCB/DBC Mobile beta
+

As part of the funding agreement between the Dictionary of Canadian Biography and the Canadian Museum of History, we invite readers to take part in a short survey.

I’ll take the survey now.

Remind me later.

Don’t show me this message again.

I have already taken the questionnaire

DCB/DBC News

New Biographies

Minor Corrections

Biography of the Day

LESAGE, DAMASE – Volume XV (1921-1930)

b. 28 March 1849 in Sainte-Thérèse-de-Blainville (Sainte-Thérèse), Lower Canada

Confederation

Responsible Government

Sir John A. Macdonald

From the Red River Settlement to Manitoba (1812–70)

Sir Wilfrid Laurier

Sir George-Étienne Cartier

Sports

The Fenians

Women in the DCB/DBC

The Charlottetown and Quebec Conferences of 1864

Introductory Essays of the DCB/DBC

The Acadians

For Educators

The War of 1812 

Canada’s Wartime Prime Ministers

The First World War

CHAUVIN DE LA PIERRE, PIERRE, also called Chavin, Huguenot merchant and sea captain, temporary commandant at Quebec in 1609–10.

Champlain normally calls him “Capt. Pierre,” and only once names him “Pierre Chavin.” But the latter’s frequent dealings with Pierre de Chauvin de Tonnetuit and his sister about an inheritance lead us to suppose that his family name was indeed Chauvin, a very common name in Normandy, and that he was a relative of his namesake, the Sieur de Tonnetuit, with whom he must not be confused.

He was a bourgeois of Dieppe and subsequently lived at Honfleur. The notarial register of that town contains several documents relating to him. In 1603 he sailed for Canada on the Bonne Renommée, with François Gravé Du Pont and Champlain. In 1607, as “king’s captain in the navy” and in association with another captain named Tuvache, he bought a small vessel, the Levrette, on which he came again to Canada the following year. When Champlain went back to France in the autumn of 1609, he left the “worthy man . . . Pierre Chavin” in command of Quebec during his absence, and subsequently mentioned him several times in the first edition of his Voyages (1613).

Chauvin returned to France in the autumn of 1610, and came back to Canada in 1611 on Isaac Martel’s ship, to trade in furs. The following winter, at the same time as François de Razilly, he undertook a journey to Brazil on the ship Perle, after which time we lose trace of him.

René Baudry

Champlain, Œuvres (Laverdière). Bréard, Documents relatifs à la marine normande. Biographical note in Dionne, Champlain, I, 378–81.

General Bibliography

Cite This Article

René Baudry, “CHAUVIN DE LA PIERRE, PIERRE,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 1, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed March 28, 2024, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/chauvin_de_la_pierre_pierre_1E.html.

The citation above shows the format for footnotes and endnotes according to the Chicago manual of style (16th edition). Information to be used in other citation formats:


Permalink:   http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/chauvin_de_la_pierre_pierre_1E.html
Author of Article:   René Baudry
Title of Article:   CHAUVIN DE LA PIERRE, PIERRE
Publication Name:   Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 1
Publisher:   University of Toronto/Université Laval
Year of publication:   1966
Year of revision:   1979
Access Date:   March 28, 2024