Jacques Viger (May 7, 1787 – December 12, 1858) was an antiquarian, archaeologist, and the first

mayor In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a Municipal corporation, municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilitie ...

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, Canada.

Biography

Viger was born in Montreal, the son of Jacques Viger who represented Kent in the

2nd Parliament of Lower Canada The 2nd Parliament of Lower Canada was in session from January 24, 1797, to June 4, 1800. Elections to the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada, Legislative Assembly in Lower Canada had been held in June 1796. All sessions were held at Quebec Ci ...

, and studied at the Sulpician college of Montreal. On November 17, 1808, he married Marie Marguerite La Corne, daughter of

Luc de la Corne Luc de la Corne ( – October 1, 1784) was a Canadian-born military officer, merchant, interpreter and politician. Life Luc de la Corne was born in Contrecœur, Quebec, then part of the French colony of Canada. Born into a "large and ill ...

, and widow of Major the Hon. John Lennox. They had three children, all of whom died in infancy. After his studies he went to

, where he worked as an editor of the newspaper

Le Canadien ''Le Canadien'' () was a French language newspaper published at various times in Lower Canada, then the Province of Canada, and finally the province of Quebec, at various times in the 19th century. It went through three different publication pha ...

from November 1808 to May 1809. Viger served as captain in the

Canadian Voltigeurs The Canadian Voltigeurs were a light infantry unit, raised in Lower Canada (the present-day Province of Quebec) in 1812, that fought in the War of 1812 between Britain and the United States. History Formation As war with the United States threa ...

unit under

Charles de Salaberry Lieutenant-Colonel Charles-Michel d'Irumberry de Salaberry, CB (19 November 1778 – 27 February 1829) was a Canadian military officer and politician who served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and War of 1812. He is best kno ...

during the

War of 1812 The War of 1812 was fought by the United States and its allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom and its allies in North America. It began when the United States United States declaration of war on the Uni ...

. He was elected the first

mayor of Montreal The mayor of Montreal is head of the executive branch of the Montreal City Council. The current mayor is Valérie Plante, who was elected into office on November 5, 2017, and sworn in on November 16. The office of the mayor administers all ci ...

in 1833 and worked to improve its sanitary conditions. Although he wrote little, his reputation as an archaeologist was universal, and the greatest contemporary historians of

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

and the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

have drawn from his collection of manuscripts, based on forty years of research. He compiled a chronicle under the title of "Sabretache" (28 vols.), wherein he gathered plans, maps, portraits, and valuable notes illustrating many contested historical points. He was the founder of the Historical Society of Montreal in 1857, one year before his death.

Pope Pius IX Pope Pius IX (; born Giovanni Maria Battista Pietro Pellegrino Isidoro Mastai-Ferretti; 13 May 1792 – 7 February 1878) was head of the Catholic Church from 1846 to 1878. His reign of nearly 32 years is the longest verified of any pope in hist ...

honoured him with the knighthood of the

Order of St. Gregory the Great The Pontifical Equestrian Order of St. Gregory the Great (; ) was established on 1 September 1831, by Pope Gregory XVI, seven months after his election as Pope. The order is one of the five Papal order of knighthood, orders of knighthood of th ...

. He died December 12, 1858, at age 71, and was buried in the crypt of the

Notre-Dame-de-Grâce Church Notre-Dame-de-Grâce (, , ), commonly known as NDG, is a residential neighbourhood of Montreal in the city's West End, with a population of 166,520 (2016). An independent municipality until annexed by the City of Montreal in 1910, NDG is today o ...

on December 15.

Honours

The

Viger Square Viger Square (officially in ) is an urban square in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was greatly changed by the construction of the Ville-Marie Expressway in the 1970s. The square is divided into three sections. It is bordered to the west by Saint ...

and

Jacques Viger Building Place Viger was both a grand hotel and railway station in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, constructed in 1898 and named after Jacques Viger (1787–1858), Jacques Viger, the first Mayor of the city. Although combined stations and hotels were common in ...

in Montreal are named in his honour.

References

* Robert, Jean-Claude. �
Viger, Jacques
», in ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online'', University of Toronto and Université Laval, 2000 * Ville de Montréal
Jacques Viger — ''L'Album Viger : Souvenirs canadiens''
nline exposition

Bibliography

External links

*
Biography at the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online''
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Viger, Jacques 1787 births 1858 deaths 19th-century Canadian civil servants 19th-century mayors of places in Quebec Canadian archaeologists Mayors of Montreal Papineau–Viger–Cherrier family Presidents of the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society of Montreal

Biography

Honours

See also

References

Bibliography

External links