DCB/DBC Mobile beta
+

As part of the funding agreement between the Dictionary of Canadian Biography and the Canadian Museum of History, we invite readers to take part in a short survey.

I’ll take the survey now.

Remind me later.

Don’t show me this message again.

I have already taken the questionnaire

DCB/DBC News

New Biographies

Minor Corrections

Biography of the Day

ROBINSON, ELIZA ARDEN – Volume XIII (1901-1910)

d. in Victoria 19 March 1906

Confederation

Responsible Government

Sir John A. Macdonald

From the Red River Settlement to Manitoba (1812–70)

Sir Wilfrid Laurier

Sir George-Étienne Cartier

Sports

The Fenians

Women in the DCB/DBC

The Charlottetown and Quebec Conferences of 1864

Introductory Essays of the DCB/DBC

The Acadians

For Educators

The War of 1812 

Canada’s Wartime Prime Ministers

The First World War

LA CORNE DE CHAPTES, JEAN-LOUIS DE, king’s lieutenant at Montreal; b. 23 Oct. 1666 at Chaptes, in the commune of Beauregard-Vendon (department of Puy-de-Dôme), son of Luc de La Corne and Antoinette d’Allemagne; d. 6 May 1732 at Montreal.

In 1685 New France welcomed a young soldier, second lieutenant La Corne, who was descended from a noble family of the province of Auvergne. Only 19 years old, he had already lost an eye in battle. In 1691 Buade* de Frontenac granted him a commission as a lieutenant, which received royal approval on 1 March 1693, the year in which he was wounded in the thigh while on active service. On 4 June 1698 he received a year’s leave to go to France; this leave was renewed on 25 May 1699 and 8 June 1701.

Three years later we find him at Fort Frontenac (Cataracoui, now Kingston, Ont.), contending with the Ottawas; the latter were attacking the Iroquois who had pitched their tents not far from Cataracoui. Suspecting La Corne of having been a trouble-maker in this affair, Louis XIV withheld the promotion of a man whom he had always considered up to then “as a good officer.” But the authorities of the colony lost no time in establishing his innocence, and on 27 May 1706, at their urgent request, he was promoted captain. The preceding year, according to Gédéon de Catalogne, Jean-Louis de La Corne had lost the command of Fort Frontenac because he had had an artillery salute fired in honour of Laumet, dit de Lamothe Cadillac, who was at that time on bad terms with Governor Rigaud de Vaudreuil. On 15 Nov. 1707 Vaudreuil and Jacques Raudot requested the cross of the order of Saint-Louis for La Corne, assuring the minister that the latter was “a very good and brave officer, who is all covered with wounds.” However, it was a little more than five years before the king granted La Corne the decoration.

In 1712 La Corne, through the mediation of Vaudreuil, vainly entreated the king to give him the command of Fort Chambly. On the other hand, on 12 May 1714 he became town major of Trois-Rivières, and on 27 April 1716 garrison adjutant in the colonial regular troops at Quebec. In a document dated 1722 appears the following favourable comment by Vaudreuil on La Corne; “He leads a steady life, and performs very well his duties as garrison adjutant. Of the many wounds that he has received, one has cost him an eye and another has maimed him in one arm, but he is capable of marching anywhere where his services may be required.” Consequently, on 8 Feb. 1724, the king granted to this disabled officer a pension of 400 livres, and on 23 April 1726 named him king’s lieutenant at Montreal. A few months after this last promotion, La Corne informed the new governor, Beauharnois* de La Boische, that the English had incited the Five Nations to destroy the French fort at Niagara. Then, on 13 Feb. 1731, he drafted a report, which was forwarded to the minister, on the need for setting up a trading post at Pointe de la Couronne, on Lake Champlain. That autumn Beauharnois praised La Corne, saying that he was an excellent man, who was active and vigilant, and who loved the service. But his devotion to the king seems to have brought La Corne more wounds and praises than fortune. Indeed, when he died on 6 May 1732, he left his wife in straitened circumstances. Marie Pécaudy de Contrecoeur, whom he had married on 11 June 1695, owed the seminary of Quebec, in 1734, 450 livres “for her sons’ board.”

Jean-Louis de La Corne de Chaptes was the founder of one of the most important families in New France, and four of his sons became knights of the order of Saint-Louis.

Céline Dupré

AN, Col., C11A, 120, ff.126v., 127ff. ASQ, mss, 132, 133; Polygraphie, XXII, 28; Séminaire, V, 57. Coll. de manuscrits. relatifs à la N.-F., I. 607. “Correspondance de Vaudreuil,” APQ Rapport, 1938-39, 66, 80, 95, 127; 1939-40, 402; 1947-48, 183, 226, 260, 270. Lettres de noblesse (P.-G. Roy), I. 217–60. NYCD (O’Callaghan and Fernow), IX. P.-G. Roy, Inv. concessions, II, IV; Inventaire des papiers de Léry conservés aux Archives de la province de Québec (3v., Québec, 1939–40), I. 172f. Taillemite, Inventaire analytique, série B, I. Fauteux, Les chevaliers de Saint-Louis, 106. P.-G. Roy, Les officiers détat-major, 113–16. Emmanuel de Cathelineau, “Gens d’Auvergne en Canada: l’abbé de La Corne, généalogiste,” NF, IV (1929), 259–82; “Gens d’Auvergne en Canada: le sieur de Vernerolles et ses amis,” NF, III (1927–28), 157–61. J.-J. Lefebvre, “Luc Lacorne de Saint-Luc,” APQ Rapport, 1947–48, 31.

General Bibliography

Cite This Article

Céline Dupré, “LA CORNE DE CHAPTES, JEAN-LOUIS DE,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 2, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed March 19, 2024, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/la_corne_de_chaptes_jean_louis_de_2E.html.

The citation above shows the format for footnotes and endnotes according to the Chicago manual of style (16th edition). Information to be used in other citation formats:


Permalink:   http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/la_corne_de_chaptes_jean_louis_de_2E.html
Author of Article:   Céline Dupré
Title of Article:   LA CORNE DE CHAPTES, JEAN-LOUIS DE
Publication Name:   Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 2
Publisher:   University of Toronto/Université Laval
Year of publication:   1969
Year of revision:   1982
Access Date:   March 19, 2024