HAZEUR, JEAN-FRANÇOIS, lawyer in the parlement of Paris, special lieutenant of the provost court of Quebec, councillor in the Conseil Supérieur; baptized 16 July 1678 in Quebec, son of François Hazeur and Anne Soumande; buried 14 May 1733 in Quebec.

At the age of nine, Jean-François entered the seminary of Quebec, where he studied for four years. In 1694, he enrolled at the Jesuit college of Clermont in Paris to study theology, and in 1700 proceeded to the Jesuit noviciate at Quimper in Brittany. He never joined the Society of Jesus, however, preferring instead to go into law. He became a lawyer in the parlement of Paris and was back in New France by 1708. During most of these years in France he had been supported by his father who had paid him an annual pension of 150 livres from 1694 until 1700 and one of 350 livres after that date. His brothers had also loaned him considerable sums of money.

On 4 March 1708, the cream of Quebec society gathered to witness the drawing up of the marriage contract between Jean-François and Catherine Martin de Lino, whose wedding had been arranged to take place on the 20th of that month. Over 100 persons signed the document, including the governor, the two intendants, the senior councillors. Quebec provost court officials, treasurers and senior officers of the colonial regular troops, and friends and relatives. This impressive assembly provides some indication of the prestige which the Hazeur and Martin de Lino families enjoyed in the colony.

Following the death of François Hazeur on 28 June 1708, Jean-François and his two brothers, Joseph-Thierry* and Pierre*, attempted to carry on, apparently without success, his fishing operations in the St Lawrence River. They were also granted the lease of the Tadoussac trade for a four-year period without charge in consideration of the losses suffered by their father. Jean-François, for his part, applied for the position which his father had held in the Conseil Supérieur, claiming that it had been promised to him en survivance in 1703. His application was turned down, however, although it was supported by Intendant Jacques Raudot, and he had to settle for the position of special lieutenant of the Quebec provost court, a position which he held from 1710 until 1712.

Finally, in 1712, the death of Augustin Rouer de Villeray created a vacancy on the Conseil Supérieur, which was filled by Jean-François. He continued to serve as councillor for another 21 years. The only incident that marked this long tenure occurred in 1728, when he was obliged to apologize to the ministry of Marine for having wrongly supported Intendant Claude-Thomas Dupuy in his dispute with the clergy.

Jean-François died in Quebec in May 1733. He was survived by his wife, Catherine, who was buried in Quebec on 13 Dec. 1740, and by two of seven children. The eldest, François-Marie-Joseph, served in the Louisiana colonial regular troops as an ensign and lieutenant, and then held the position of commandant among the Alibamus during the 1730s and 1740s. His younger brother, Louis-Ignace, settled in Saint Domingue where he worked as an inspector in a sugar refinery, and later married a mulatress.

C. J. Russ