PERROT DE RIZY (d’Erizy, Derezy, Drisy), PIERRE, merchant, major of the Quebec militia. b. 1672 at Sainte-Famille (Île d’Orléans), son of Jacques Perrot, dit Vildaigre, and Michelle Le Flot; buried 18 Oct. 1740 at Quebec.

At an early age Perrot sailed the seas and served in the army; in 1697 we find him at Placentia (Plaisance), where he was apparently engaged in business; for example, he advanced 37 livres to the brothers Alexis, Nicolas, and Pierre Lefrançois. He then settled at Quebec, where he continued his commercial activities; various lawsuits took him before the Conseil Supérieur including a very lengthy one in 1715–16 with Marie-Renée Chorel de Saint-Romain, the widow of Jacques Le Picard Du Mesnil de Norrey, about a house in Quebec. Several of these legal actions concerned questions of inheritances in which Perrot was involved. In 1726 he became major of the Quebec militia, and remained so until his death. In 1727 he requested the post of captain of the port of Quebec; Maurepas wrote on that occasion to Beauharnois* de La Boische and Claude-Thomas Dupuy to inquire “whether he is a man of good conduct and has the necessary ability”; however, Richard Testu* de La Richardière was appointed.

Maurepas again made inquiries about Perrot in 1731, in connection with a power of attorney from M. de Montmorency apparently instructing Perrot to sell “certain possessions which belonged to him in the colony,” and from the sale of which Perrot was thought to have kept the 14,000 livres realized. It seems, however, that Perrot succeeded in explaining his conduct, for he retained his office.

He was married twice: first, in 1699, to Anne Jourdain; then, in 1704, to the widow of Charles Arnaud, Marie Willis, who later married Barthélemy Cotton*. He had three children who died in infancy.

Nive Voisine