BECQUET, ROMAIN, notary, court officer, clerk of the diocesan officiality (l’officialité diocésaine), seigneurial judge, and seigneur; b. 1640 or shortly before at Le Bec (or Becq), near Rouen; d. 20 April 1682 at Quebec.

Becquet, the son of a surgeon, Julien Becquet, and of Anne Vasse, married at Quebec (1) Romaine Boudet, 5 June 1666, and (2) Marie Pellerin, 2 May 1677; only two daughters survived him. But the name of the family has been preserved through the seigneury of Saint-Pierre-les-Becquets, which was granted to it in 1672. The presence of Romain Becquet at Quebec can be traced back to 31 July 1661.

He exercised the profession of notary from 1665 on, even styling himself “notaire royal,” although he seems never to have had a commission of this kind. On 20 March 1668 the intendant Talon granted him a commission as court officer and sergeant. On 23 Oct. 1678, at the request of Bishop François de Laval*, seigneur of Beaupré, Becquet became judge or “baillif haut-justicier” of the county of Saint-Laurens (Île d’Orléans) and of the shore of Beaupré. It was in this capacity that he drew up the first registry of the land belonging to the seigneury. The bishop had also made him clerk of his officiality on 18 April 1675. Becquet’s registry, preserved in the judical Archives of Quebec, is one of the most important for the study of 17th-century Quebec.

Honorius Provost