LORIMIER DE LA RIVIÈRE, GUILLAUME DE (Lorrimier, Lormier), captain in the colonial regular troops, seigneur of Les Bordes (Boyne) in Gâtinais, commandant of Fort Rolland; b. 1657, son of Guillaume de Lorimier, also seigneur of Les Bordes and a captain in the troops, and of Jeanne Guilbaut, of the parish of Saint-Luc et Saint-Gilles in Paris; m. Marie-Marguerite Chorel de Saint-Romain, dit d’Orvilliers, at Champlain on 27 Jan. 1695; buried 29 July 1709 at Montreal.

Guillaume de Lorimier the younger continued the military tradition of a family of the minor nobility as well as establishing the Lorimier family in Canada. It has been suggested that he came to the colony with his father in 1685, and that the latter subsequently returned to France. It is more likely, however, that he came out with the reinforcements of 1685 along with Captain Pierre de Troyes*, to whom Lorimier was assigned as a company lieutenant. According to one contemporary memoir, in 1686 “Sieur de Lorimier, who was only a sergeant, was promoted captain to replace Sieur de Flours [chevalier de Saint-Flour] ‘ who died in the Hôtel-Dieu at Quebec.” In 1701 Governor Louis-Hector de Callière summarized his early career differently: “Sieur Lorrimier, native of Paris, 46 years old, made second lieutenant of the Régiment de la Reine, 20 March 1673, lieutenant in the same regiment 15 Sept. 1676, lieutenant of the first company of grenadiers in the same regiment 2 Sept. 1679, captain in Canada 10 Sept. 1685.” He was first stationed on Montreal Island.

In February 1691, while at a gathering of officers in Lower Town, Quebec, Lorimier fell into an argument with Pierre Payen de Noyan over the winnings in a game of chance. Violent words were followed by the use of swords and Lorimier was seriously wounded in the back. For his part in the duel, Lorimier was deprived of his command and was ordered to give 50 livres to charity.

This punishment was little more than a gesture for Lorimier was reinstated in 1692 and he received the honorary post of midshipman at Rochefort the following year. He is said to have participated as captain in the 1696 expedition led by Frontenac [Buade*] against the Iroquois. He was at that time stationed at Lachine and in 1705 he was the commander of nearby Fort Rolland, where he had served in 1692.

Lorimier’s second major encounter with the law came in 1707, when he was convicted of having maliciously accused Henri Catin, a Montreal butcher, of maligning Governor Philippe de Rigaud de Vaudreuil and of beating the butcher with the flat of his sword. Although Lorimier was heavily fined for this outrage, a rumour reached the minister of Marine that Vaudreuil had prevented collection of the fine. This story was cited as proof that the governor protected his officers from the normal course of the law. Vaudreuil denied both the story and the charge of favouritism.

Lorimier’s superiors described him as “ill-tempered” and “wedded to wine but a good officer.” In 1707 he was informed that “the King is acquainted with the services that you have rendered up to the present, both in France and in Canada, and His Majesty is satisfied with them.” His widow, by whom he had had four children, was awarded a belated pension of 75 livres, and his son, Claude-Nicolas* (1705–70), received a commission in the colonial regular troops.

Peter N. Moogk