The Rimouski Seignory (french: seigneurie de Rimouski) was a

seignory In English law, seignory or seigniory, spelled ''signiory'' in Early Modern English (; french: seigneur, lit=lord; la, senior, lit=elder), is the lordship (authority) remaining to a grantor after the grant of an estate in fee simple. '' Nulle ter ...

during the French colonisation of

New France New France (french: Nouvelle-France) was the area colonized by Kingdom of France, France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to King ...

. It was located in the present-day

Rimouski-Neigette Regional County Municipality Rimouski-Neigette is a regional county municipality in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region of Quebec, Canada. The county seat is in Rimouski. Subdivisions There are 10 subdivisions within the RCM: ;Cities & Towns (1) * Rimouski ;Municipalities ( ...

Bas-Saint-Laurent The Bas-Saint-Laurent (Lower Saint-Lawrence), is an administrative region of Quebec located along the south shore of the lower Saint Lawrence River in Quebec. The river widens at this place, later becoming a bay that discharges into the Atlanti ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is ...

History

The Rimouski Seignory was first granted to by the

Marquis de Denonville A marquess (; french: marquis ), es, marqués, pt, marquês. is a nobleman of high hereditary rank in various European peerages and in those of some of their former colonies. The German language equivalent is Markgraf (margrave). A woman wi ...

, governor of

, on April 24, 1688. Augustin did not work on developing the seignory, and only used the territory for fishing.

Jean Bochart de Champigny Jean Bochart de Champigny, Sieur de Noroy et de Verneuil, chevalier (after 1645 – December 1720), was Intendant of New France from 1686 to 1702. He was the son of Jean Bochart de Champigny, intendant of Rouen, and Marie Boivin. He died in Havr ...

Intendant of New France The Intendant of New France was an administrative position in the French colony of New France. He controlled the colony's entire civil administration. He gave particular attention to settlement and economic development, and to the administration o ...

, was unhappy with seignors in

who did not work towards the development of their seignories. He looked for new seignors who would develop the seignories by using them for farming. Thus

René Lepage de Sainte-Claire Rene Lepage de Sainte-Claire (April 10, 1656 in Ouanne, Burgundy – August 4, 1718 in Rimouski, Quebec) is the lord-founder of the town of Rimouski, Quebec, Canada. Origin Born close to Auxerre in Burgundy, René Lepage immigrated to New France, ...

became the owner of the seignory of Rimouski by exchanging it for his land on the

Island of Orleans An island or isle is a piece of subcontinental land completely surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island in a river or a lake island may be ca ...

with Augustin Rouer on July 10, 1694.

Territory

At the time of its granting in 1688 the Rimouski Seignory measured two leagues along the

Saint Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connecting ...

and extended two leagues away from the river. Its territory included both sides of the

Rimouski River Rimouski River is a river emptying in Rimouski, on the South shore of St. Lawrence River, in the regional county municipality (RCM) Rimouski-Neigette, in the administrative region of Bas-Saint-Laurent, in Quebec, in Canada. From the border betwee ...

and the .

References

{{coord, 48.4167, N, 68.5333, W, source:wikidata, display=title New France History of Rimouski Lower Canada