Jean  DE LAUZON

In 1635, Jean de Lauzon became the owner of the Island of Montréal, reflecting the early seigneurial system used by France to organize land and settlement in New France. Lauzon, an influential administrator and later Governor of New France, acquired the island as part of France’s broader effort to encourage colonization, control territory, and develop the fur trade along key waterways.

At the time, Montréal was still a strategic but vulnerable outpost, valued for its location at the confluence of major rivers and Indigenous trade routes rather than for large-scale settlement. Lauzon’s ownership represented a legal and economic claim rather than immediate development, as the island remained exposed to Iroquois raids and lacked the population needed for sustained growth.

The transfer of ownership in 1635 laid important groundwork for the island’s future. Within a few years, Montréal would become the site of Ville-Marie, founded in 1642 as a religious and trading settlement. Jean

Much later, on February 11, 1711, Jean-Baptiste Côté exchanged his two lands on Île d'Orléans for the seigneury of L'Isle-Verte and an era of agricultural development began which continued, with his descendants, for a whole century. Under the dynasty of the Côté lords, L'Isle-Verte built a reputation as a leader in the agricultural sector that continues to this day.