DUPUY, ZACHARIE, sometimes called “sieur de Verdun,” from the name of his fief on the St. Lawrence; commandant of the forts of Quebec and of Onondaga (Onnontagué); town-major, commandant, and acting governor of Montreal; b. 1608 or 1610 at Saverdun in Gascony; d. 1676 at Montreal.

We do not know the exact date of Dupuy’s arrival in New France, and more particularly at Quebec, where as early as 1656 he was in command of the fort. That same year the Jesuits, impressed by his qualities as an honest and excellent officer, accepted his offer to join the expedition which had been organized to found a mission among the Onondagas. On his return in 1658 he settled in Montreal, with the title of assistant town-major. He succeeded Major Lambert Closse in 1662 and served as acting governor of Montreal in 1665, replacing M. de Chomedey de Maisonneuve.

In 1671 the seigneurs of Montreal granted to Dupuy 320 acres, at the Saint-Louis rapids, as a noble fief without rights of justice; this was the Verdun fief. In the following year he received a new grant, this time from Talon, consisting of the Île aux Hérons and other islands, opposite the Verdun fief. In 1673 Dupuy and his wife, “desirous of withdrawing from the cares of the world and of devoting themselves to God,” made over all their property to the Congrégation de Notre-Dame. The sisters of the Congrégation undertook to pay Dupuy and his wife a pension for life.

On 15 May 1674 the old town-major – he stated his age as 66 – attended Easter mass in Notre-Dame church; he heard the Abbé Salignac de Fénelon’s sermon in which he attacked Buade de Frontenac. When the witnesses were interrogated afterwards, Dupuy shrewdly deemed it more prudent to claim that he was “deficient in hearing and in memory,” and he was not called to give testimony in the sensational case that followed.

Dupuy was buried at Montreal 1 July 1676. His widow appears to have returned to France shortly afterwards. His first wife, Jeanne Fauvenel, probably died before he came to New France; his second wife was Jeanne Groisard, whom he married on 25 Oct. 1668 at Quebec. Dupuy left no descendants.

Roland-J. Auger