TARIEU DE LANAUDIÈRE, XAVIER-ROCH (also called François-Xavier-Roch), office holder, lawyer, and militia officer; b. 19 April 1771 at Quebec, son of Charles-François Tarieu* de La Naudière and Marie-Catherine Le Moyne de Longueuil; d. there, unmarried, 5 Feb. 1813.

Xavier-Roch Tarieu de Lanaudière, who was the 13th in a family of 17 children, came from the colony’s seigneurial and military aristocracy. From 1782 to 1787 he studied at the Séminaire de Québec. He began his clerkship in the office of notary Pierre-Louis Deschenaux in 1793. The following year he obtained the position of secretary and translator to the governor and Executive Council, which he shared with Jacques-François Cugnet until the latter’s death in 1797 and then took on alone. In January 1795, following Deschenaux’s departure for Trois-Rivières, Lanaudière continued his training with lawyers Pierre-Stanislas Bédard* and Alexis Caron. In 1801, two years after he had finished, Lieutenant Governor Sir Robert Shore Milnes* granted him the titles of advocate, barrister, attorney, and solicitor. He does not, however, appear to have practised full time, although he kept his titles all his life and on a few occasions acted as attorney or exercised a power of attorney.

As a member of the best society in Quebec, Lanaudière signed the addresses of welcome and farewell to colonial administrators from 1785. In 1790 he signed the petition for a non-sectarian university at Quebec [see Jean-François Hubert*]. In 1793 and 1804 he contributed to a fund for disaster victims, and from 1799 he was a member of the Quebec Fire Society. Lanaudière also displayed unwavering attachment to the British crown. In 1797 he gave generously to the war fund to support Great Britain against France. Ten years later he visited the United Kingdom. In 1809, he acted as master of ceremonies at a ball and banquet celebrating a royal birth.

Having lived on Rue Saint-Famille and then Rue Saint-Georges (Côte d’Abraham), Lanaudière in 1802 bought a house at 39 Rue Saint-Louis for £200. He must have lived quite comfortably, since there were some servants in the household. Lanaudière drew mainly on the income from his position as secretary and translator, which brought in £200 a year, and from the rent for a house in the faubourg Saint-Roch. In addition he received certain sums as the owner of an eighth of the seigneury of Saint-Vallier which he had inherited from his parents in 1797 and in which he showed a keen interest. In 1810, for example, he took legal action against some of his censitaires who had cut hay on his domain without authorization.

Concurrent with his career as an official Lanaudière had a second one as a militia officer. He was serving as a captain in 1798, major in 1805, and lieutenant-colonel in 1810. On 10 Oct. 1811 he was appointed deputy adjutant general of the Lower Canadian militia. Because of the imminence of a clash with the United States, a complete reorganization of the available forces, and particularly of the militia units, was necessary. Lanaudière therefore temporarily handed over his office as secretary and translator to his nephew, Philippe-Joseph Aubert* de Gaspé, to devote himself to running the militia at Quebec. As deputy to adjutant general François Vassal* de Montviel, Lanaudière went to Montreal and Chambly at the end of 1812. Early in 1813 he came back to Quebec to testify before a committee of the House of Assembly. Shortly after his return Lanaudière had problems with his health; he died on 5 Feb. 1813, at the age of 41. The burial took place three days later at Quebec in Notre-Dame church before a large number of civilian and military figures.

His place within his family being what it was, Lanaudière did not have the advantages given the first son. But with the help of his circle of friends he managed to obtain rewarding posts. His career, however, was neither as renowned nor as brilliant as that of his father or of his half-brother Charles-Louis. He remained a minor official devoted to the British authorities. After his death the Quebec Gazette commented: “Mr. F.X. De Lanaudière was one of those rare men whose every moment is devoted to the most scrupulous and exact performance of their duties . . . no one surpassed him in zeal for his Prince.”

Yves Beauregard