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

PEIRAS, JEAN-BAPTISTE DE, councillor in the Conseil Souverain of New France; b. c. 1641 in Paris, son of Jean de Peiras, king’s counsellor, and of Denise Marion; d. September 1701 at Quebec.

After his father’s death, Jean-Baptiste de Peiras went to New France around 1670 with his mother (who was to be buried at Quebec in 1677) and his sisters Marie-Madeleine and Denise; the former was to marry Paul Denys de Saint-Simon and the latter Joseph Giffard, son of Robert Giffard*, first seigneur of Beauport. The young man had inherited his father’s capabilities in legal matters, and lost no time in winning official recognition of them. Protected by Buade* de Frontenac, he was appointed to the Conseil Souverain in January 1673 in place of Nicolas de Mouchy*, and two years later the king appointed him a councillor for life. In 1674 two famous cases were heard by the council: those of Abbé de Fénelon [Salignac*] and of the Sieur Perrot*. These two took exception to Peiras and two of his other colleagues because they were “tools of M. de Frontenac, their only enemy.” In 1675 Peiras was involved in a quarrel over precedence between the parish priest of Pointe-Lévy, the notary François Genaple, the churchwardens, and the settlers.

On 6 May 1675, wishing to give recognition to his protégé’s talents or to reward him for his loyal services, Frontenac granted the Sieur de Peiras a fief with a frontage of two leagues on the St Lawrence River, “beginning in the middle of the river called Mitis . . . and going down the said river . . .” and having a depth of two leagues, taking in the three Îles Saint-Barnabé. The whole was a land grant in the form of a fief, with rights of seigneury and justice. The king confirmed this grant on 12 May 1677. Once he had become a seigneur, Peiras concerned himself with fur trading, and bought a number of properties at Quebec and Sillery. After some years he was in a position to lend money, lease out his farms, and obtain from the governor several fur-trading licences for the pays den haut. In 1696 Frontenac, as syndic of the Recollets of Quebec, arranged for him, on very advantageous terms, the exchange of a house situated in Rue Saint-Louis at Quebec. Five years later, on 6 Sept. 1701, Peiras was buried in the paupers’ cemetery of the Hôtel-Dieu. On 8 May 1702 he was replaced on the Conseil Souverain by Mathieu-François Martin de Lino.

On 18 Aug. 1671, at Quebec, Jean-Baptiste de Peiras had married Anne Thirement, daughter of Jacques Thirement and Marie Hubert of the parish of Saint-Sulpice in Paris; by her he had a daughter, Élisabeth, who inherited the Peiras seigneury, and two sons, of whom the elder, Louis, had Frontenac as a godfather. It seems that the two sons spent their life in France after their father’s death. Anne Thirement died prematurely in 1679, leaving in Paris an annuity of 10 livres of which Catherine de Peiras, Jean-Baptiste’s aunt and attorney, received the arrears in 1689.

Roland-J. Auger

AJQ, Greffe de Romain Becquet, 10 nov. 1677, 26 avril, 30 oct. 1678; Greffe de Pierre Duquet, 9 nov. 1680; Greffe de François Genaple, 6 oct. 1696; Greffe de Gilles Rageot, 6 mars 1691. AQ, Jean-Baptiste Peiras; NF, Ins. Cons. sup., I, 160; VI, 163, 187, 207–9. Ord. comm. (P.-G. Roy), I, 306. “Le procès de l’abbé de Fénelon devant le Conseil souverain de la Nouvelle-France en 1674,” APQ Rapport, 1921–22, 154, 164. PAC Report 1899, Supp., 62, 64, 66f., 257, 362. P.-G. Roy, Inv. concessions, III, 149–53. J.-E. Roy, Histoire de la seigneurie de Lauzon (5v., Lévis, 1897-1904), I, 281.

General Bibliography

Cite This Article

Roland-J. Auger, “PEIRAS, JEAN-BAPTISTE DE,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 2, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed March 19, 2024, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/peiras_jean_baptiste_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/peiras_jean_baptiste_de_2E.html
Author of Article:   Roland-J. Auger
Title of Article:   PEIRAS, JEAN-BAPTISTE 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