PEUVRET DE GAUDARVILLE, ALEXANDRE, counsellor, king’s secretary, chief clerk of the Conseil Souverain, son of Jean-Baptiste Peuvret* Demesnu, first chief clerk of the Conseil Souverain, and of Catherine Nau; baptized 6 Oct. 1664 at Quebec; buried there 30 Dec. 1702.

Following in his father’s footsteps, he occupied at an early age the office of secretary. In 1682 he became deputy secretary to Intendant de Meulles. In 1686, after de Meulles’ departure, he worked with his father at the registry of the Conseil Souverain. At the request of Frontenac [Buade*] and Champigny [Bochart], he received on 1 March 1693 the letters according him “reversion of the office of king’s counsellor and secretary, and of chief clerk of the Conseil Souverain of Quebec.” He held this appointment until his death.

In 1695 he adopted the name of Gaudarville, when he inherited this seigneury; he also secured title from Frontenac, in 1693, to a fief which he had named Fossambault, after his maternal grandfather Jacques Nau de La Boissière et de Fossambault. In 1696 he married Geneviève Bouteville, who died in September 1699 at the age of 17. On 12 Jan. 1700, he married Marie-Anne Gaultier, daughter of Philippe Gaultier* de Comporté, who bore him two children: Marie-Anne and Alexandre-Joseph.

In December 1702 he was carried off by the epidemic of smallpox that ravaged Quebec at that time.

Robert Lahaise