RAGEOT, GILLES, clerk of court, notary, seigneur; b. c. 1642 at Saint-Jean-de-l’Aigle, diocese of Évreux (Orne, France), son of Isaac Rageot and of Louise Duret; d. at Quebec 1692.

Rageot came to Quebec in 1663 or shortly before. He began his career as recorder by virtue of being clerk of the registry of the Conseil Souverain. In 1666, however, he acquired more important functions. The Compagnie des Indes occidentales granted him two commissions in rapid succession: that of clerk of the seigneurial jurisdiction of the town of Quebec (5 May 1666), and that of notary in the jurisdiction of Quebec. Having been appointed by the company, Rageot had not the right to take the title of royal notary; Intendant Talon, however, who disputed the company’s right to appoint notaries, issued a warrant dated 7 Nov. 1666, whereby Rageot could henceforth practise as a royal notary. When the company finally withdrew from Canadian affairs (1674), Rageot decided to make sure of the validity of his notary’s commission, and asked the king himself for permission to continue in his office. This was granted by a commission signed by Louis XIV on 17 May 1675. The same day the king also renewed his commission as clerk of court. Rageot thus became the first notary of New France to receive a royal commission. But in 1685 the intendant, on the pretext that Rageot was sick, relieved him of his office of clerk and conferred it on François Genaple*. Rageot appealed to the king, who reinstated him on 24 May 1686.

Through his wife, Rageot became the owner of the arriere-fief of Saint-Luc, in the seigneury of Rivière-du-Sud.

Rageot had married Marie-Madeleine Morin on 29 May 1673, and from this union were born eight children. Three, following in their father’s footsteps, became clerks of court and notaries: Charles*, born in 1674, Nicolas*, in 1676, and François, in 1682. The Rageot family, therefore, occupies an important place in the history of the profession of notary in Canada. Two other sons of Gilles Rageot, Philippe, born in 1678, and Jean-Baptiste, born in 1680, entered the priesthood, the first in 1701 and the second in 1700. The last-born son (1689) of the family, christened Gilles like his father, made his fortune in business.

Gilles Rageot was buried at Quebec on 3 Jan. 1692.

André Vachon