NOUCHET, JOSEPH-ÉTIENNE, councillor of the Conseil Supérieur, director of the Domaine d’Occident, commissary of prisons; b. 7 July 1724 at Quebec, son of Joseph Nouchet and Geneviève Gatin; d. 3 Feb. 1758 in Quebec.

Like his father, Joseph-Étienne Nouchet chose a career in the administration. Even while attending the law lectures given by the king’s attorney general, Louis-Guillaume Verrier, he was writer in the office of the administration in Quebec in 1744 and 1745. His assiduity at Verrier’s lectures resulted in his appointment on 3 Dec. 1746 by the colonial authorities as assessor to the Conseil Supérieur. For three and a half years he prepared the documents on certain lawsuits for the councillors and investigated and reported on other cases. After the death of Eustache Chartier de Lotbinière the king promoted Joseph-Étienne councillor on 1 June 1750. On 27 September of the same year, the day his father died, he took his place as director of the Domaine d’Occident. Because he was well informed about the rules of protocol, he was on a few occasions “delegated” by his colleagues of the Conseil Supérieur to congratulate the new governor general “on his safe arrival in New France” or to lead the delegation of the council at an official meeting. On 26 Jan. 1756 Nouchet was appointed by the Conseil Supérieur commissary of the king’s prisons in succession to Joseph Perthuis* de La Salle; on 15 November of that year, when his commission came to an end, he was replaced by Jacques Imbert.

On 8 Feb. 1747 Joseph-Étienne Nouchet had married Louise-Catherine, daughter of François Foucault, chief writer in the Marine and a member of the Conseil Supérieur. Nouchet died 3 Feb. 1758 and was buried the next day in the crypt of the church of Notre-Dame de Québec, which was a signal privilege for the period.

André Lachance