Laurent Bermen ( fl. 1647–1649) 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 ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

. Historically, the first clerk of the court, Nicolas, to sign an act 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 ...

did so in 1621. Bermen, in drafting acts during his tenure, referred to himself as the royal notary. This was not within his rights to do so since that type of appointment could only be made by the king or his representative. Nevertheless, he created 39 notarial acts in his time in the

New World The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. 3 ...

. Four more notaries who followed Bermen in the post acted on his precedent and used the title. They were: Claude Lecoustre (1647–1648), Guillaume Audouart (1649–1663), Jean Durand (1653–1654) and Louis Rouer de Villeray
/sup> (1653–1657). None legally held the title. Bermen would have fallen under the authority of the

Company of One Hundred Associates The Company of One Hundred Associates ( French: formally the Compagnie de la Nouvelle-France, or colloquially the Compagnie des Cent-Associés or Compagnie du Canada), or Company of New France, was a French trading and colonization company ch ...

(Compagnie des Cent-Associés) in regards to his work as a notary. It would seem that they had some ability to shape the laws of this new colony.

References

* Year of birth uncertain Year of death uncertain People of New France Canadian notaries {{Quebec-bio-stub