JEAN GUYON DU BUISSON

One of the earliest French families to settle in the country, one of the most numerous in the beginning, one of the
most respected and best known, was that of Jean Guyon and Mathurin Robin. The descendants are often recognized
as Dion, sometimes as Despres, and in Louisiana as Dubuisson.

JEAN GUYON DU BUISSON (senior), master mason, pioneer at Beauport; baptized 18 Sept. 1592 at Tourouvre (Orne, France), son of Jacques Guyon and Marie Huet; m. 2 June 1615 Mathurine Robin at Mortagne-au-Perche (Orne); d. 30 May 1663 at Quebec and was buried there the next day.

On 14 March 1634, at Mortagne, Guyon and his fellow-countryman Cloutier signed an undertaking with Robert Giffard. Guyon settled at Beauport that year with his wife and most of their children, of whom there were at least eight.

When he received from Giffard an arriere-fief near the Rivière du Buisson, he assumed that nobiliary surname. Several of his descendants now bear the name Dion.

Guyon fathered ten children, eight of whom married, and he is known to be an ancestor of many French Canadians. By 2006, news media noted that at least three out of four pure laine (old stock) French Quebecers descend from him. The descendants are often recognized as Dion, sometimes as Despres, Dumontier, Lemoine and in Louisiana as Derbanne. He has been linked to the family trees of Madonna, Celine Dion, Stéphane Dion and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.

By 1730, more than 2,150 births of Guyon descendents had been recorded, according to The First French Canadians: Pioneers in the St. Lawrence Valley. By 1800, Guyon had 9,674 married descendents, the second-most of Nouvelle France immigrants, according to the Historical Demography Research Program of the Université de Montréal