Browse "Colonial"

Adam Dollard des Ormeaux, soldier, French colonist (born 23 July 1635 in France; died in May 1660 near Carillon, in New France). Adam Dollard des Ormeaux was the garrison commander in Ville-Marie­. He led a group of French fighters and their Algonquin and Huron-Wendat allies against the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) at the battle of Long Sault. Adam Dollard des Ormeaux has long been considered both a hero and a martyr who sacrified himself in the defence of Ville-Marie. Recent studies, however, have cast doubt on how heroic his conduct actually was.

Military supremacy did not solve the problem of how to bring real social and economic stability to the colony for d'Aulnay. After his accidental death by drowning in 1650, Acadia lapsed again into internal strife.

Esteban José Martínez Fernández y Martínez de la Sierra, naval officer (b at Seville, Spain 9 Dec 1742; d at Loreto, Mexico 28 Oct 1798). In 1774 he sailed with Juan Pérez Hernández on an exploratory voyage from San Blas, Mexico, to the northern Haida Gwaii and Nootka Sound.

Étienne Verrier, military engineer (b at Aix-en-Provence, France 4 Jan 1683; d at La Rochelle, France 10 Sept 1747). After 17 years with the engineer corps, Verrier served at LOUISBOURG as chief engineer 1724-45.

François-Gaston, Duc de Lévis, French army officer (born 20 August 1719 near Limoux, France; died 26 November 1787 in Arras, France). Born into an impoverished branch of the French nobility, he rose through the military hierarchy thanks to his family connections, his sangfroid and his bravery on the battlefield. Deployed to New France during the Seven Years’ War, he was named second-in-command to Marquis Louis-Joseph de Montcalm. On 28 April 1760, he won the Battle of Ste-Foy against the British garrison in Quebec City commanded by James Murray.

Gaspard-Joseph Chaussegros de Léry, military engineer (born 3 October 1682 in Toulon, France; died 23 March 1756 in Quebec City, QC). Chaussegros de Léry contributed to the development of New France by fortifying the colony’s towns, namely Quebec and Montreal. His relief maps of Quebec and Montreal are still regarded as accurate models of these cities. Some consider Chaussegros de Léry the father of the first truly Canadian architecture. (See also Architectural History: The French Colonial Regime.)

Isaac de Razilly, naval captain, knight of Malta, colonizer and lieutenant-general in Acadia (b at Château d'Oiseaumelle, Touraine, France 1587; d at La Hève, Acadia 1636).

Jacques-Pierre de Taffanel de La Jonquière, Marquis de La Jonquière, naval officer, governor general of New France, appointed 1746, served 1749-52 (b near Albi, France 18 Apr 1685; d at Québec 17 Mar 1752). In 1746 La Jonquière was a veteran of 49 years in the French navy.

James Baby (baptized Jacques), politician, militia officer, member of the upper house of the Legislative Council of Upper Canada (1792–96) (born 25 August 1763 at Detroit, Michigan; died 19 February 1833 at York (Toronto), Upper Canada).

Jean-François Du Verger de Verville, military engineer (b at Paris, France c 1670-75; d at Valenciennes or Paris, France 1729).

Joseph-François Hertel de La Fresnière, soldier (bap at Trois-Rivières, New France 3 July 1642; buried at Boucherville, New France 22 May 1722). As a youth, he was captured and adopted by the Iroquois (1661), escaped, and took part in retaliatory raids, accompanying FRONTENAC to Lake Ontario (1673).

Josué Dubois Berthelot de Beaucours, military officer, engineer, governor of Trois-Rivières and Montréal (b in France c 1662; d at Montréal 9 May 1750).

Miles Macdonell, soldier, governor of Assiniboia (born c 1767 in Inverness-shire, Scotland; died 28 June 1828 in Pointe-Fortune, Upper Canada).

Pierre de Troyes, soldier (d at Niagara 8 May 1688). He arrived at Québec in Aug 1685 with reinforcements for the beleaguered colony. Departing on 20 Mar 1686, de Troyes led a force of 30 colonial regular French troops and 60 militia from Montréal overland to James Bay.

Simon Girty, frontiersman, British Indian agent, Loyalist settler in Upper Canada (Ontario), (born 14 November 1741 near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; died 18 February 1818 in Malden, Upper Canada). Girty fought in the American Revolution and in wars involving Indigenous peoples and white settlers. Girty had a great capacity to work with Indigenous leaders but was often remembered as a villain and controversial figure, mainly because of his allegiance to Britain, rather than to the Americans.

Sir John Johnson, soldier, Loyalist, public servant (b at Mohawk Valley, NY 5 Nov 1742; d at Mount Johnson, near Montréal 4 Jan 1830). He was the son of Sir William JOHNSON and heir to the Johnson family's massive Mohawk Valley estates.

William Hamilton Merritt, soldier, businessman, politician (b at Bedford, NY 3 July 1793; d at Cornwall, Canada W 5 July 1862). "A Projector," as he styled himself, he epitomized what John Beverley ROBINSON called the defining characteristic of American society, the "anticipating spirit.