ROY, dit Châtellerault, MICHEL, soldier, settler, seigneurial notary, royal attorney, court officer; b. 1649 in the little town of Sénillé, near Châtellerault (Vienne), son of Michel Roy and Louise Chevalier; buried 14 Jan. 1709 at Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade.

Michel Roy arrived at Quebec in September 1665 as a soldier in the Carignan regiment (company of Naurois). When the troops were disbanded, he decided to settle down in the country, and on 8 Oct. 1668 he married a fille du roi, Françoise Hobbé, an educated Parisian of good family who was 10 years older than he. There were five children from this union. On 16 November of the same year he obtained a grant of land in the seigneury of Sainte-Anne. At the same time the seigneur Michel Gamelain* appointed him seigneurial notary and his chargé d’affaires. He enjoyed the confidence of successive seigneurs and attracted around him several former comrades in arms.

For 40 years this pioneer combined the functions of farmer, notary, attorney, court officer, and commander of the militia. In 1689, perhaps at his sons’ request, he agreed to enter into partnership with a full-time fur-trader, Robert Rivard, dit Loranger; they contracted with the Compagnie du Nord for the trade of the Lacs Abitibi and Témiscamingue region. This was his only venture into the fur trade, in which he seems to have played no active role.

His registry, from which certain documents have disappeared, includes 345 deeds concerning almost exclusively the seigneuries of Sainte-Anne, Saint-Charles-des-Roches (Grondines), and Sainte-Marie.

Michel Roy was interred 14 Jan. 1709. His wife had been buried two days before him. They had five children, three girls and two boys, many of whose descendants have carried on the name Châtellerault till the present day.

Raymond Douville