JACOB, ÉTIENNE, court officer, serjeant of the Conseil Souverain, seigneurial notary, judge of the bailiff’s court of Beaupré and Île d’Orléans, son of Étienne Jacob and Jeanne Bellejambe, of Saint-Germain in Paris; b. c. 1648; d. after 10 April 1726.

He arrived in New France before 4 July 1665, for on that date he was a domestic of Antoine Berson, dit Chatillon, on the Beaupré shore. He was to spend his life in that locality. It was at Quebec, however, that on 14 Oct. 1670 he married a king’s girl (fille du roi), Jeanne Fressel, who was 17 years old and had a dowry of 850 livres.

After being an ordinary settler, he was nominated on 4 Jan. 1676 by Bishop Laval as court officer of the seigneurial jurisdiction of Beaupré. On 10 April 1683 he was further promoted to the office of clerk of court and notary for the same jurisdiction. Finally, on 12 March 1689, Jacob was promoted judge of the bailiff’s court of Beaupré; the investigation into his character and his swearing-in took place on the 28th of the same month. Jacob became, moreover, judge of the bailiff’s court for the countship of Saint-Laurent (Île d’Orléans) on 25 May 1703, and took the oath on 5 June. Because of “the infirmities of his age,” Jacob’s appointment as judge of Beaupré was revoked on 22 Aug. 1712, but he carried on his practice as seigneurial notary.

The date of Jacob’s death remains unknown, although we do know that his last act is dated 10 Aug. 1726.

Honorius Provost