Jean LEROUGE
Biography

LE ROUGE, JEAN, mason and surveyor; b. in France 1639; buried 30 Sept. 1712 at Charlesbourg.

It was Talon* who on 5 Nov. 1672 conferred upon Le Rouge “the office of surveyor in the [ . . . ] seigneurial jurisdiction of Quebec and in other parts of this country, to have, hold, and exercise the aforementioned office in conformity with the customary law of Paris.” Mason by trade, he was for many years Claude Baillif *’s partner.

The minute-books of the notaries Pierre Duquet* and François Genaple disclose the numerous contracts that were entrusted to Jean Le Rouge, who proved himself an ingenious artisan whose talents were often utilized.

These contracts are detailed; it is stipulated, for example, that a house shall be “built upon the former traces and foundations,” and that it “shall have two storeys in stonework above the ground floor.” Then there are details concerning the doors and windows: “There shall be two window frames to hold glass, and the others only to hold paper”; and also concerning the oven, which is to have a capacity “of about two bushels.” Finally, the requirement is sometimes laid down that he “render and deliver, in a finished and perfect state, with the key handed over,” for a given date. On 12 Aug. 1685 he signed a contract before the notary Genaple for the building of a powder magazine in one of the bastions of Fort Saint-Louis.

In 1693 Frontenac [Buade*] entrusted to Jean Le Rouge and Pierre Janson, dit Lapalme, the construction of the first Saint-Louis gate to Quebec, which stood until 1878. Then in 1695 Le Rouge built a water-mill in the seigneury of Saint-Ignace, “on the Berger River,” at the request of the Reverend Mothers Hospitallers.

He married Jeanne Poitevin, by whom he had four daughters, two of whom died in infancy; the oldest was born at Quebec in 1669.

Maurice Carrier

Dictionary of Canadian Biography, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003

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