BOUCHER DE NIVERVILLE, JEAN-BAPTISTE, officer in the colonial regular troops, seigneur; b. 6 Dec. 1673 at Boucherville (Que.), son of Pierre Boucher* and Jeanne Crevier; d. 1748 at Boucherville.

Jean-Baptiste Boucher de Niverville was initiated into a military career at an early age. He first was in the militia, then enlisted in the colonial regular troops. Around 1695 he was appointed an ensign, and in 1690 and 1696 he apparently took part in the expeditions organized by Frontenac [Buade*] against the English and Iroquois. In a letter to Pontchartrain, the minister of Marine, on 12 Nov. 1707, Governor Vaudreuil [Rigaud*] and Intendant Jacques Raudot* informed the minister that they were sending him “a bag full of mineral samples found at Lake Champlain by the Sieurs de Niverville, Graveline, and Destailly, as well as a map of Lake Champlain.” It is not known, however, for what purpose they were at Lake Champlain. Boucher, who had been promoted lieutenant in 1705, was put on half pay in 1711.

In 1710 he married Marguerite-Thérèse, the daughter of Joseph-François Hertel* de La Fresnière and Marguerite de Thavenet*. Nine years earlier, in 1701, he had received from his father an arrière-fief of 60 acres in the seigneury of Boucherville, which he exchanged on 14 March 1719 for the rights and claims his brother-in-law, Zacharie-François Hertel de La Fresnière, held in the seigneury of Chambly. On 28 September Boucher signed an agreement with the other members of the Hertel family, who held rights in that seigneury, to obtain a majority of the shares. In 1721, as seigneur of Chambly, he attended the meetings held by the attorney general, Mathieu-Benoit Collet*, on the redistribution of parish districts in New France. In this capacity also he rendered fealty and homage and drew up the recognition of sovereignty and census for the seigneury in 1723.

Boucher was interested in the settling and development of his domain. In 1721 he was successful in his request that Chambly be raised canonically to a parish, and in 1724 he made the Charon Brothers a land grant of 640 acres. He seems, however, to have had difficulty in interesting his censitaires in tending their land. On 27 July 1732 he had to restore to his domain of Chambly the lands of 19 who had not bothered to develop them or settle on them. On 10 March 1740 he had Intendant Gilles Hocquart* issue an ordinance to force five other habitants of the seigneury “to take up residence . . . otherwise proceedings will be taken to reunite their lands with the domain of Jean-Baptiste Boucher de Niverville.”

Boucher died in 1748 at Boucherville. Of his 14 children, six at least survived him, including Joseph-Claude*, an officer in the colonial regular troops, who in 1754 became seigneur of Chambly after having bought out his father’s other heirs.

Roland-J. Auger