"New France's seigneural land distribution system was semi-feudal. The King granded individuals (or groups, such as the Jesuits) the use of large swaths of land. The owners were seigneurs, the sections of land, divided into strips, were known as seigneuries. Seigneurs allowed individuals and families to live on the land in exchange for yearly payments of goods and/or money. The tenants were known as habitants. ... Robert Giffard, who settled in New France with his wife and children, was granted one of its first seigneuries. He recruited a number of Frenchmen to settle on his land on the Beauport River. The settlers included ... Noël Langlois." Measured by the number of pre-1800 marriages of descendants, Noël Langlois was the fifth most prolific immigrant to Quebec with 7,847 marriages of descendants recorded in the PRDH. Fellow settler Zacharie Cloutier was the most prolific with 10,850 such marriages. [1]
[1] Michael J. Leclerc, "The First Settlers of Quebec," American Ancestors 11.1 (2010), 30-31, [AmericanAncestors].