VERREAU, BARTHÉLEMY, clerk of court and notary; b. 12 July 1678 at Château-Richer; son of Barthélemy Verreau, dit Le Bourguignon, of Saint-Jean de Dijon (Burgundy), maker of edge tools or blacksmith at Château-Richer prior to his marriage with Marthe Quittel (Guittel, Quitter, Quintal) on 22 Sept. 1665; buried 3 June 1718 at Château-Richer.

Thanks to his education, probably received at the school founded by Bishop Laval at Château-Richer, Verreau was able to become an important person in the locality, although he started as a blacksmith, as his father had been. On 7 March 1709 the superiors of the seminary of Quebec, who were seigneurs of Beaupré, appointed him clerk of their seigneurial court, and on the 23d of the same month he was received and sworn in, in succession to Guillaume Maroist, who had died. He even officiated temporarily as a judge of this court in 1711, during Étienne Jacob’s illness. Implied in the commission of a seigneurial court clerk was that of a notary; hence, although Barthélemy Verreau was not formally declared a notary until 9 Oct. 1714, his registry, preserved in the Palais de Justice of Quebec, covers the period 1710–18.

On 13 Feb. 1708, he had married at Quebec Marguerite Prieur, who gave him six children. On 18 Jan. 1721, at Château-Richer, his widow took as her second husband Pierre Gravelle.

Honorius Provost