Jean-Baptiste Varin (November 26, 1810 – July 8, 1899) was a

notary A notary is a person authorised to perform acts in legal affairs, in particular witnessing signatures on documents. The form that the notarial profession takes varies with local legal systems. A notary, while a legal professional, is disti ...

and political figure in

Canada East Canada East (french: links=no, Canada-Est) was the northeastern portion of the United Province of Canada. Lord Durham's Report investigating the causes of the Upper and Lower Canada Rebellions recommended merging those two colonies. The new ...

. He represented Huntingdon in the

Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada The Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada was the lower house of the legislature for the Province of Canada, which consisted of the former provinces of Lower Canada, then known as Canada East and later the province of Quebec, and Upper C ...

from 1851 to 1854. He was born on Manitoulin Island,

Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada (french: link=no, province du Haut-Canada) was a part of British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of the ...

, the son of Guillaume Varin and Marguerite Bourassa. He was educated at the

Petit Séminaire de Montréal Petite or petite may refer to: *Petit (crater), a small, bowl-shaped lunar crater on Mare Spumans *Petit (EP), ''Petit'' (EP), a 1995 EP by Japanese singer-songwriter Ua *Petit (typography), another name for brevier-size type *Petit four *Petit G ...

, then articled as a notary at Laprairie, qualified as a notary in 1833 and set up practice at Laprairie. In 1834, he married Hermine, the daughter of

Jean-Moïse Raymond Jean-Moïse Raymond (January 5, 1787 – February 8, 1843) was a businessman, militia officer and political figure in Lower Canada, and briefly in Canada East (now Quebec), in the Province of Canada. He was active in a family business inh ...

. Varin was part of the commission charged with registering title to

seigneuries ''Seigneur'' is an originally feudal title in France before the Revolution, in New France and British North America until 1854, and in the Channel Islands to this day. A seigneur refers to the person or collective who owned a ''seigneurie'' (o ...

in Canada East in 1855, helped prepare the laws on the registration of land titles after the seigneurial system was abolished, served as director of the land registry office at

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

from 1868 to 1878 and registrar for Laprairie County from 1878 to 1892. Varin died in Laprairie at the age of 88. His daughter Marie Elmire married Léon-Benoît-Alfred Charlebois.

References

* 1810 births 1899 deaths Members of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada from Canada East People from Manitoulin Island People from Montérégie {{Quebec-MNA-stub