Notes on the Surname "Porquet" with some heraldic and genealogical references

The surname "Porquet" is a fairly rare one, though it is found with some frequency in northern France (Normandy, Picardie, Pas-de-Calais), French colonial Africa (Côte D'Ivoire), and North America (mostly via northern France). The name comes from the old French word for a swineherd or a boar-hunter (from the same root as the French "porc"). There is an apocryphal story that appears in a few surname dictionaries that claims the name comes from Simon le Porquet, grand huntsman to Hugh Capet, King of France (c.938–996 C.E.). Simon was said to have earned the nickname for his dangerous job of delivering the coup de grâce to a wounded boar on the king's hunt. Wild boar are incredibly fierce and dangerous, and they were notorious for appearing dead after being struck down, then viciously (and sometimes fatally) attacking with their very last ounce of strength.

I have the surname "Porquet" from my great-grantfather Louis Porquet. Louis was married to Regina Sgard and had their first child Charles Porquet (my great-great-uncle) back in France. Louis, his wife, and first son emigrated from the French region of Pas-De-Calais (either Marquise, his birthplace, or Noeux-les-Mines, where he worked in the coal industry) to Halifax, Nova Scotia on the vessel Lurenium in 1911. He settled in New Waterford, Nova Scotia, again working in the coal industry. There he raised the rest of his family, including my grandfather, Henri Porquet. Henri's first son, William Henry (Guillaume Henri) is my father, married to my mother Elizabeth (Gosbee) Porquet.

I'm still piecing together the genealogy and heraldry of my particular Porquet lineage, but I have found a few small gems of information after years of research, which are all on this Web page.

http://www.grand-armorial.net/patronyme.htm
[URL is defunct but is still cached on google.com and archive.org.]
Porquet - France 92 [Hauts-de-Seine (Nanterre)] - d'argent au sanglier passant
de sable, défendu et allumé d'or, surmonté d'un
écusson de sinople chargé d'un rateau d'argent, au chef de
gueules chargé de deux têtes de léopard d'or,
lampassées de gueules et allumées d'azur
(anonymous post, probably a modern example)

--
www.memodoc.com/armorial_amiens_index.html
www.memodoc.com/armorial_flandre_index.html

Hozier, Charles d' (Directeur de publication), and Borel d'Hauterive,
André-François-Joseph (Éditeur scientifique), _Artois et Picardie,
généralité d'Amiens / dressé [sous la
dir. de C. d'Hozier] par les ordres de Louis XIV, 1696-1710 ; publ.
d'après les manuscrits de la Bibliothèque impériale par M. Borel
d'Hauterive_ (1995 reprint of Num. BNF de l'éd. de Paris : bureau de
l'Annuaire de la noblesse, 1856-1878)

[Available online at gallica.bnf.fr]

Premiere partie - Armorial de Artois et de Picardie. Calais. p. 287:

66. Jaque Porquet, père, bourgeois de la ville de Callais[sic]
De sable, a une barre d'argent, chargee d'une croissette de sinople.



70. Jaque Porquet, fils, bourgeois de la ville de Callais
D'or, a une sautoir de sinople, charge de cinq billetts d'argent.



--
Hozier, Charles d' (Directeur de publication) et Borel d'Hauterive,
André-François-Joseph (Éditeur scientifique): _Flandre, Hainaut, Cambrésis
: recueil officiel dressé / [sous la dir. de C. d'Hozier] par les ordres
de Louis XIV, 1696-1710 ; publ. d'après les manuscrits de la Bibliothèque
impériale, par M. Borel d'Hauterive_, (1995 copie de Num. BNF de l'éd. de Paris : bureau de
l'Annuaire de la noblesse, 1856-1878) °

[Available online at gallica.bnf.fr]

Dunkerque. p. 57

15 bis. - Charles VERON DE L'ISLE, seigneur du fief de Mourry, et Anne
PORQUET, sa femme:
D'azur, a un chevron d'argent, accompagne en chef de deux etoilles de
meme, et en pointe d'une tour d'or, ajournee de sable; accole: d'argent, a
un porc epie de sable



Dunkerque. p. 287

155 bis. - Noe Piecourt, bourgeois et marchand en gros de la ville de
Dunkerque, et Louise Porquet, son epouse:
D'argent, a un chevron d'azur, accompagne en chef de deux pigeons au
naturel, et en pointe d'un soleil de sable; accole: d'argent, a un
porc-epi de sable, sur un terrain de sinople.



Is this g-gran'papa?

http://onac62.chez.tiscali.fr/memoire/Alphabet/R/rinxent.html
http://onac62.chez.tiscali.fr/memoire/Alphabet/C/calais.htm
http://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/citoyen/jorf_nor.ow?numjo=MENP0201316K

http://www.cam.org/~tradczi/pafn06.htm#265

Honoré Oscar PORQUET

Fils de Louis Auguste Porquet, mort à St-Pierre le 04 dec 1855 et
Augustine Brebion, 56 ans, ménagère à St-Pierre

Louise Henriette DAGBERT was born 3 Mar 1860 in , St-Pierre, PAS DE
CALAIS.
Louise married Honoré Oscar PORQUET on 8
Mar 1884 in St-Pierre, PAS-DE-CALAIS. Honoré was born 11 May 1856 in
St-Pierre, PAS-DE-CALAIS.[Notes]

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22pas-de-calais%22+porquet&btnG=Google+Search