LEMIRE, JEAN, master-carpenter; b. 1626 in France; in Quebec by 1653, when his marriage to Louise Marsolet is recorded; d. 1685 at Quebec.

In civic records Lemire is named as preparing an estimate for the building of the presbytery in Quebec in November 1664; as preparing a report, along with Paul Chalifour – both are called “carpenters” (charpentiers) – on a house at Coulonge on 5 April 1664; and, on 21 June 1664, as delivering it. The most important notice of him, however, is as a carpenter working on the enlargement programme for the cathedral of Quebec undertaken in 1684. A contract for the work was signed by him 4 Jan. 1684, and he is credited with constructing “out of oak from Batiscan” a clocher on the south tower of the cathedral, under the direction of Claude Baillif. Since he died soon after beginning work on the cathedral, it is to be presumed that Lemire constructed the clocher on the ground for later installation; perhaps it was finished, after his death, by one of his many sons.

Alan Gowans