POLLET, ARNOULD-BALTHAZAR, royal notary; b. 1702 in France, son of Germain Pollet and Marguerite Harry, of the parish of Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs in Paris; d. and buried 17 Jan. 1756 at Batiscan in the government of Trois-Rivières.

We have little information about Arnould-Balthazar Pollet prior to his marriage with Angélique Hamelin on 10 May 1729 at Les Grondines, in the government of Quebec. He was living there on 6 Jan. 1730 when he was appointed notary and clerk of court for Batiscan, a seigneury which at that time belonged to the Jesuits. Some months later, on 12 September, he received from Gilles Hocquart*, the financial commissary, a commission as royal notary for the region covering the seigneuries of Batiscan, Champlain, and Les Grondines. On 24 March 1732 Intendant Hocquart granted him a new commission as notary for the seigneuries of La Chevrotière, Deschambault, Les Becquets, and Saint-Ours as well. To exercise his office, which he held for 23 years, Pollet had to go into the governments of Montreal, Trois-Rivières, and Quebec; his jurisdiction extended from Saint-Ours on the west to Deschambault on the east, a distance of more than 80 miles.

On 3 Jan. 1753 Pollet was forbidden to exercise his functions. In the ordinance concerning this affair Intendant Bigot* mentions, without giving any details, that it was the itinerant notary’s bad conduct that had warranted this interdiction. Pollet died three years later and was buried at Batiscan.

Michel Paquin