LE VERRIER DE ROUSSON, LOUIS, officer in the colonial regular troops; b. 11 April 1705 in Montreal, son of François Le Verrier* de Rousson and Jeanne-Charlotte de Fleury Deschambault; d. in or after 1789 in France.

Like his father, Louis Le Verrier de Rousson joined the colonial regulars, initially serving as a half-pay ensign until that rank was abolished in New France in 1722. He then became a second ensign, was promoted ensign in 1731, and lieutenant in 1739. In the latter year he accompanied Charles Le Moyne* de Longueuil to the Mississippi valley on his campaign against the Chickasaws.

Le Verrier’s fortunes began to rise after Pierre de Rigaud de Vaudreuil started to court his widowed mother (he married her in 1746). When Vaudreuil was appointed governor of Louisiana in 1742, he obtained permission to take Le Verrier along as an officer. Le Verrier became a captain in Louisiana in 1744 and for most of the next ten years served with the New Orleans garrison.

Although in the early 1750s Le Verrier was one of the senior captains in Louisiana, he followed Vaudreuil to France in 1753. On 1 Feb. 1754 he was created a knight of the order of Saint-Louis; Vaudreuil presented the order to him. When Vaudreuil was appointed governor general of New France in 1755, Le Verrier obtained a transfer into the Canadian colonial regulars. In the early campaigns of the Seven Years’ War he served with Lévis at Lake Champlain. He had rheumatism in the summer of 1756, and Vaudreuil solicitously suggested to Lévis that Le Verrier might recover better in the comfort of Montreal.

From 1757 to the summer of 1759 Le Verrier was commandant at Fort Saint-Joseph (Niles, Mich.), with a gratuity of 2,000 livres and control of the local fur trade. He managed to send several contingents of Indian warriors to Montreal, but a smallpox epidemic and British agitation among the tribes interfered with the smooth operation of the post. In early 1758 Vaudreuil tried to have Le Verrier appointed town major of Quebec, succeeding Jean-Daniel Dumas, but he was hindered by his own arrangements, having already recommended Pierre-Paul Margane de Lavaltrie. He then suggested that Lavaltrie be pensioned instead. The commission came through in January 1759, and Le Verrier returned from the west that summer. He must have been present during Wolfe*’s siege of the capital, but his role in its defence and in the subsequent operations leading to the fall of Canada is unknown.

After the conquest, Le Verrier went to France, where he continued to try to obtain preferment through his stepfather. Since Vaudreuil was preoccupied with his own troubles at this time, it is unlikely that Le Verrier achieved much. In 1767 he was living in Paris and he was still alive in 1789. He does not appear to have married. Although he had served in many regions and had rank and position, he seems to have been of mediocre talent. What he became was due to the good graces of the Marquis de Vaudreuil.

Donald Chaput