MACARD (Maquard), CHARLES, businessman, member of the Conseil Supérieur of New France; b. 16 Dec. 1656 at Quebec; d. 1732. His father, Nicolas Macard, dit Champagne, son of Thomas Macard and Marguerite Hardy, of Mareuil-sur-Dié, had married Marguerite Couillard, daughter of Guillaume Couillard* and widow of Jean Nicollet*.

In a will received by the notary Becquet* on 14 Dec. 1677, Charles Bazire* “gives to his brother-in-law, Charles Macart, 2,000 livres, as well as the title-deed to Charlesville, with the farm and outlying buildings.” This small fief, situated near Montmorency Falls, had been granted by Bishop Laval on 21 July 1677 to Bazire and Charles Aubert de La Chesnaye.

Macard was one of the founders and administrators of the Compagnie de la Colonie du Canada, which was created in 1700 to carry on trade in beaver furs in Canada and Europe. But as the market price for these furs had completely collapsed, the company went bankrupt.

On 14 June 1704, Louis XIV, in a letter addressed to Rigaud de Vaudreuil and Beauharnois* de La Chaussaye, announced the appointment of Charles de Monseignat to the office of court clerk to the Conseil Supérieur, which with the death of the Sieur Charles Denys de Vitré left two vacancies on the council. “[His Majesty] has granted the seats, one to the Sieur Maccart, one of the deputies of the company, at present in France, who is ordered to return to Canada, and the other to the Sieur Juchereau du Chesnay [Ignace Juchereau].” Macard was not installed until 16 Nov. 1705.

The company’s affairs failed completely; on 7 Nov. 1711 Vaudreuil and Jacques Raudot informed the King that Macard and Guillaume Gaillard had been named to be present as representatives of the administration of the company at the inventory of its assets.

As the Sieur François-Madeleine-Fortuné Ruette d’Auteuil had been suspended in 1707 from his office of attorney general, Macard replaced him temporarily. Subsequently Jessé Leduc Des Fontaines was appointed to succeed Ruette d’Auteuil. He arrived on 8 Sept. 1710 and died on 22 September. Macard therefore continued to hold this office. Vaudreuil and Raudot, although with some reservations, proposed that his appointment be made permanent: “. . . it is true that he lacks the brilliant qualities that may be found in others, but often those who have them have nothing else, and do not possess that solidity which engenders in men justice, equity, and uprightness.” The minister seemed to look favourably upon this suggestion, but on 14 June 1712 he named Mathieu-Benoît Collet to occupy the post as of 14 October. He concluded by promising that his majesty “will remember the Sieur Maccart when the time comes.”

Macard remained a member of the Conseil Supérieur until his death on 9 Dec. 1732. He had already been almost helpless for four years, according to Intendant Dupuy; the latter, in a report on the incidents following the death of Bishop Saint-Vallier [La Croix], speaks “of the second councillor, the Sieur Maquard, who for three years has suffered from paralysis of the tongue, and who can give his opinion only by nodding his head. . . .”

On 20 Dec. 1686 Macard had married Jeanne-Renée Gourdeau de Beaulieu, daughter of Jacques Gourdeau de Beaulieu and Éléonore de Grandmaison*; she died in 1717 after bearing him several children, who did not reach adult age.

Hervé Biron