DCB/DBC Mobile beta
+

As part of the funding agreement between the Dictionary of Canadian Biography and the Canadian Museum of History, we invite readers to take part in a short survey.

I’ll take the survey now.

Remind me later.

Don’t show me this message again.

I have already taken the questionnaire

DCB/DBC News

New Biographies

Minor Corrections

Biography of the Day

ROBINSON, ELIZA ARDEN – Volume XIII (1901-1910)

d. in Victoria 19 March 1906

Confederation

Responsible Government

Sir John A. Macdonald

From the Red River Settlement to Manitoba (1812–70)

Sir Wilfrid Laurier

Sir George-Étienne Cartier

Sports

The Fenians

Women in the DCB/DBC

The Charlottetown and Quebec Conferences of 1864

Introductory Essays of the DCB/DBC

The Acadians

For Educators

The War of 1812 

Canada’s Wartime Prime Ministers

The First World War

VILLEDONNÉ, ÉTIENNE DE, esquire, captain in the colonial regular troops, commandant at Fort Saint-Joseph, 1722–26; b. in Paris, c. 1666; d. in Quebec, 12 May 1726.

The son of Étienne de Villedonné, an attorney of the parlement of Paris, and Marie Vezins, he came to Canada in 1685 as either a cadet or a second lieutenant in the colonial regular tropps. Four years later he was taken prisoner by the Iroquois who, in the course of his captivity, chewed off one of his fingers and burnt his arm. In 1692, Villedonné managed to escape. Undaunted by the treatment he had suffered at the hands of the Five Nations, he participated in several expeditions against them in the years that followed. During the War of the Spanish Succession he campaigned in Newfoundland with a detachment commanded by Jacques Testard de Montigny which attacked the English settlements of Trinity and Bonavista in 1705.

Villedonné was named assistant town major of Quebec in 1712 and promoted to the rank of captain the following year. He was highly regarded by Philippe de Rigaud de Vaudreuil who appointed him commandant of Fort Saint-Joseph, off the southeastern tip of Lake Michigan, in 1722. By that time the Fox Indians had begun to attack the settlements of the Illinois country, and Villedonné became involved in the controversy between the post commandants of Canada and Louisiana who accused each other of not taking appropriate measures to end this war.

In Quebec in 1697 Villedonné had married Marie Damours, daughter of Mathieu Damours* de Chauffours and Marie Marsolet. She bore him three children and died in 1703. In 1715 he married his second wife, Françoise Roussel, daughter of the surgeon Timothée Roussel*; they had seven children.

Yves F. Zoltvany

AJQ, Greffe de Louis Chambalon, 28 sept. 1697. AN, Col., C11A, 12, 22, 24, 25, 28, 30, 56; D2C, 222. “L’expédition de M. de Montigny à Terreneuve en 1705,” APQ Rapport, 1922–23, 290–98. A. Roy, Inv. greffes not., V, 321; XII, XVIII, XIX. P.-G. Roy, “Ce que Callières pensait de nos officiers,” 328. Wis. State Hist. Soc. Coll., XVI, 444–51 (some of Villedonné’s correspondence during his command at Fort Saint-Joseph). Tanguay, Dictionnaire, I, 154, 194, 530; III, 412. [Tanguay gives Villedonné’s dates as 1663-1726. In 1701, however, Callière stated that Villedonné was 35 years old, which would place his birth in 1666.  y.z.f.]

General Bibliography

Cite This Article

Yves F. Zoltvany, “VILLEDONNÉ, ÉTIENNE DE,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 2, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed March 19, 2024, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/villedonne_etienne_de_2E.html.

The citation above shows the format for footnotes and endnotes according to the Chicago manual of style (16th edition). Information to be used in other citation formats:


Permalink:   http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/villedonne_etienne_de_2E.html
Author of Article:   Yves F. Zoltvany
Title of Article:   VILLEDONNÉ, ÉTIENNE DE
Publication Name:   Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 2
Publisher:   University of Toronto/Université Laval
Year of publication:   1969
Year of revision:   1982
Access Date:   March 19, 2024