Date Published:
March 2005

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

Jean Etienne Wadin

Wadin (Waden, Wadden, or Waddens), Jean Etienne (fl. 1761-1781) was a Swiss Protestant, the son of Adam Samuel Waddens (or Vuadin) and Bernardine Ermon, of La Tour-de-Paise, in the canton of Berne. His father is said to have been a professor at the University of Geneva ; but no proof of this has been found. The son would appear to have come to Canada with the British army, and to have settled in Canada as a merchant and trader. On November 23, 1761, he married at St. Laurent, near Montreal, MarieJoseph Deguire (b. 1739); and there is, in the register of Christ Church, Montreal, the record of the christening of a number of Wadin children after this date. On January 27, 1768, "Capt. Woden" appears in a list of signatories in the "Minutes of a general meeting of the proprietors of Canada bills", held in London, England; and in 1772 his name first appears' in the fur-trade licences as trading to Grand Portage. About 1779 he formed a partnership with Venant St. Germain; and he was one of the partners in the original sixteen-share North West Company in that year. In the winter of 1780-81, while at Lac la Rouge, he was killed in an altercation with Peter Pond. One of his daughters, Véronique (d. 1846), married in 1782 the Rev. John Bethune; and her son, Angus Bethune, became a partner of the North West Company. Another daughter, Josepha, warned in Montreal in April, 1780, Alan Morrison; and her son, William Morrison, became a clerk in the XY and North West Companies.

Source  : W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. VI, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 398p. p. 249.