Daily Ancestorlaboureur
Laboureur in old French records means a farmer who owned a plow and draft animals, a rank above the day laborer.
Under the Ancien Régime and into the 1800s laboureur was a status, not just a task: the peasant who had a plow and a team of horses or oxen to work the land he owned or rented. In modern French it simply means someone plowing.
The rank it implied varied by region. Around Paris a laboureur was a well-off farmer, while in Normandy he stood between the fermier and the manouvrier. In New France the word was used for farmers who did not own their land, as opposed to the habitant who did. Do not translate it as laborer.
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Daily Ancestor. "laboureur." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/french/laboureur. Last checked 2026-10-28.