Mathieu de Goutin
(c.1665-1714).

Goutin came to Port Royal when it was under a French flag, in 1688, there to marry, as far as his commanding officer was concerned, "foolishly, a peasant's daughter," Jeanne Thibodeau (b.1672); by her he had 12 children. He was quite a controversial figure during his days at Port Royal, where as "the busiest official of the colony ... he administered the king's accounts." Goutin was not liked by a number of his fellow government administrators and by some he was described as an "unscrupulous mischief maker." As for himself: he was critical of Subercase, but defensive of Bonaventure. After the capture of Port Royal, Goutin, together with his family was transported, as were most all of the French officials, back to France. He and his family came back out to Ile Royale, in 1714, to resume his position as a "king's writer" at Louisbourg. He was not long at Louisbourg, for he died on Christmas day in 1714 (at this time Louisbourg could not have been much more than a camp with pickets around it). At least five of his daughters married French officers, four in Ile Royale, one was to the military engineer Boucher. I digress, and say: the marriages of the Goutin girls, just go to show the family ties that developed, from one officer to another; and, indeed, from certain of the military officers to the Acadian "peasants."