LE VIEUX DE HAUTEVILLE, NICOLAS, lieutenant-general for civil and criminal affairs in the seneschal’s court at Quebec; b. c. 1617, probably at Paris, son of Nicolas Le Vieux de Hauteville, secretary of the council of finance of His Royal Highness, Seigneur de La Mothe, d’Esgry et de Hauteville, and of Marguerite Lyonne.

During the five years he spent in New France, from 1651 to 1656, Hauteville was lieutenant-general for civil and criminal affairs in the seneschal’s court established at Quebec by Governor Jean de Lauson, with whom he had arrived at Quebec on 13 Oct. 1651. It fell to him to preside at two investitures of grants of land: one to the Indians at Sillery on 6 Feb. 1652, and the other for the benefit of the parochial council of Quebec on 26 July. When, on 10 Sept. 1654, he married in the parish of Notre-Dame de Québec Marie Renardin (Renaudin) de La Blanchetière, the daughter of Vincent de La Blanchetière, an attorney at the presidial seat of Nantes, and of Françoise Ouary, Hauteville was granted by Governor Lauson a site on the Quebec quay. On 20 September he purchased from Christophe Crevier a piece of land popularly called “La Cabane aux Taupiers” (“Molecatchers’ Cabin”), to which he gave the name “Hauteville fief.” When he returned to France along with Lauson, probably in June 1656, he was the father of one daughter. Two years later, he sold off his properties at Quebec.

Honorius Provost