Claude Drouet de Richerville

Claude was the first of our ancestors in the Drouet de Richerville family to come to New France from France. Claude is the origin of the Richardville surname. Richardville is the "Anglicized" version of the original Surname. I don't think it was ever officially changed, and some went by Richardville way before others. If you are a Richardville looking into your ancestry, eventually, you should find Claude. An excellent history of the Drouet de Richerville's entitled: The Family of Drouet de Richerville; Merchants, Soldiers and Chiefs of Indiana by Donald Chaput is available online. There is a link to this article below. This was originally published in the Indiana Magazine of History, in the June 1978 issue. This publication is a quarterly magazine of Indiana History, owned by Indiana University, and published by the Department of History, in cooperation with the Indiana Historical Society.

I am looking for information on possible other children of Claude Drouet and Marie-Jeanne Desrosiers. Here are a few possibilities, which I can't verify, at this time: Marie-Anne Drouet b. 1720?; Pierre-Charles Drouet b. 1712?; Jean-Louis Drouet b. 1707?.....

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The Drouet de Richerville family, so prominent in the history of Vincennes, Ouiatanon, and Fort Wayne, was part of this élite. From the 1720s, when several members of the family entered the fur trade, until the death of Jean-Baptiste Richardville in 1841, the Drouets were one of the most significant families of officers-traders in the western Great Lakes region.

The first of the family in the New World was Claude Drouet de Richerville, who arrived in Canada in the late 1680s as a cadet. He had been born in 1665 to Claude Drouet, ecuyer, seigneur de Baudricourt and Bajolet; his mother was Appoline Soissons. The father was a lawyer in the criminal courts at Chartres and was a member of the nobility of the robe.

Claude Drouet de Richerville had an undistinguished career in New France. In 1687, at Champlain, he married Marie-Jeanne Desrosiers. They had a large family—ten children—and these decendants, too, were prolific. Claude's position as cadet in the troops was that reserved for young nobles or sons of colonial officers. Most cadets served at least five years before they were commissioned as officers. By 1702, Claude was a second ensign in the marines, the lowest of the commissioned ranks, yet the highest rank he ever attained. Probably because of his large family he always requested garrison duty in the cities of eastern Canada. Thus, he never went to the western posts where wealth and possibilities for promotion were greater but where family living was inconvenient.

The various fitness reports of officers list Claude but, aside from an occasional comment on his age, do not reveal either shortcomings or strengths. This was the price one paid for garrison duty. In 1734 he requested that he be allowed to retire and that his rank of ensign be granted to a son, Michel-Ignace Drouet de Baudricourt. Both requests were granted.11 In 1736, wishing to assure his family in the good graces of authorities in Canada and in France, Claude Drouet filed his papers of nobility and other documents with the Superior Council of New France.