Thomas-Jacques Taschereau (August 26, 1680 – September 25, 1749) was the

patriarch The highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Catholic Church (above major archbishop and primate), the Hussite Church, Church of the East, and some Independent Catholic Churches are termed patriarchs (and in certai ...

of the illustrious Taschereau family in

New France New France (french: Nouvelle-France) was the area colonized by France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Great Britain and Spai ...

(Canada). It is believed that he may have come from some level of nobility in France and his family descended from a line of royal municipal officials. He arrived in New France in 1726 as a private secretary to the

Intendant of New France The Intendant of New France was an administrative position in the French colony of New France. He controlled the colony's entire civil administration. He gave particular attention to settlement and economic development, and to the administration of ...

Claude-Thomas Dupuy Claude-Thomas Dupuy (10 December 1678 – 15 September 1738) was from Paris, France, where he followed the family's path of upward mobility and prepared himself for a career in law. His good fortunes regarding his career were recognized in the ...

. In 1728 he married a young Canadian girl from nobility, Marie-Claire, daughter of Joseph de Fleury de La Gorgendière. They returned briefly to France and then came back to Canada in 1732. It was then that his most important contribution to the Taschereau family's future took place, mainly establishing their

seigneury ''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 ...

of Sainte-Marie-de-la-Nouvelle-Beauce. Shortly after he died, but by this point, Taschereau's seigneury was nonetheless well established. His wife was able to raise and educate their remaining 8 children. The youngest,

Gabriel-Elzéar Taschereau Gabriel-Elzéar Taschereau (March 27, 1745 – September 18, 1809) was the second in a line of distinguished French Canadians whose influence has spanned three centuries. Gabriel-Elzéar Taschereau was born at Quebec City, the son of Thomas-J ...

, carried on the name and became the second seigneur of Sainte-Marie. One of Gabriel-Elzéar's sisters, Marie-Anne-Louise Taschereau, joined the Ursuline order in Quebec and became superior of the convent.

External links

* (http://www.republiquelibre.org/cousture/1759B.HTM) * 1680 births 1749 deaths Thomas-Jacques People of New France {{NewFrance-stub