REGNARD DUPLESSIS DE MORAMPONT, CHARLES-DENIS, officer in the colonial regular troops in Canada, provost marshal; b. 22 June 1704 at Quebec, son of Georges Regnard* Duplessis, treasurer of Marine, and Marie Le Roy; brother of the Jesuit François-Xavier and of Mother Marie-Andrée de Sainte-Hélène; m. on 29 May 1742, at Quebec, Geneviève-Élizabeth, daughter of Charles Guillimin*; d. 14 Aug. 1765 and was buried the next day at Versailles, France.

Charles-Denis Regnard Duplessis de Morampont began his studies in Quebec and from 1719 to 1723 continued them at the Jesuit college in La Flèche, France, under the supervision of his older brother François-Xavier, who for three years had been doing his noviciate in the Society of Jesus. The following year he began to study philosophy in Paris, but soon tired of it and returned to Canada in 1725 where, against his brother’s advice, he took up a military career.

A cadet in the colonial regular troops, he went to France in the autumn of 1733 to settle “the accounts which his late father . . . had” with Pierre-Nicolas Gaudion, treasurer general of the Marine, and “to obtain a posting.” On 13 April 1734 he received the expectancy of a posting as second ensign and immediately returned to Canada, where he obtained the promised promotion on 1 April 1735. Eight years later, on 31 May 1743, the king appointed him ensign on the active list. Finally on 1 May 1749, thanks to his older brother and despite the colonial authorities, who had put forward the name of Antoine Juchereau Duchesnay, Charles-Denis succeeded Charles-Paul Denys de Saint-Simon, who had died the previous year, as provost of the marshalsea in Canada. He held this office in the colony for only a short time, however; difficulties with his wife – her family threatened him with a request for a separation for her – led him to decide to go to France in the autumn of 1751. Subsequently he refused to return to the colony, even though the king granted him free passage on the royal flute Outarde in 1756 and Governor Vaudreuil [Rigaud*] was clamouring for his presence. He lived in Paris until at least about 1759.

Son of a noble family, “a very pretty child,” the darling of the “ladies of Canada,” Charles-Denis Regnard Duplessis de Morampont moved in the best society of his time. He led the life of a son of a great family, and his only thought was to seek pleasure and spend money; he and his wife even treated themselves to the luxury of having as many as three slaves in their service. He lived so much beyond his means that his numerous creditors had to take proceedings for seizure of his land and barn in 1757 and his money in 1758.

André Lachance