AILLEBOUST DES MUCEAUX, CHARLES-JOSEPH D’, soldier, acting governor of Montreal, civil and criminal judge of Montreal, businessman, member of the Communauté des Habitants as well as of the Société Notre-Dame de Montréal; baptized in June 1621 at Ancy-le-Franc, France, son of Nicolas d’Ailleboust de La Madeleine et de Coulonges and Dorothée de Manthet; buried 20 Nov. 1700 at Montreal.

D’Ailleboust Des Muceaux came to Canada with his uncle Louis d’Ailleboust, the recently appointed governor of New France. He arrived at Quebec on board the Cardinal 20 Aug. 1648, and immediately set out for Montreal, where he took command of a flying column, a troop of 40 men who were kept in constant readiness to repel the Iroquois. A year later he went back to France, probably to seek reinforcements, for he was listed among those who landed 8 Sept. 1650 at Quebec, and a few months later the strength of his column stood at 70 soldiers. Chomedey de Maisonneuve, before sailing for France in 1651, entrusted to him the governorship of Montreal.

On 16 Sept. 1652 at Quebec, where he took up residence, he married Catherine, daughter of Pierre Legardeur de Repentigny; she was to give him 14 children. Then, having sold his properties at Quebec to Jean Madry on 8 Aug. 1659, he went back to Montreal to live; since 1661 he had owned two sites there, in Notre-Dame street, and his residence was the most important one in the town.

In 1663 he was the lieutenant of the Montreal garrison; he was already dispensing seigneurial justice there, a function which he seems to have exercised from his arrival in 1659, but to which he was not officially appointed until 27 Sept. 1666, when Talon settled in favour of the Sulpicians, who were the seigneurs of Montreal, and of their candidate Charles-Joseph d’Ailleboust, a conflict of jurisdiction between the royal seneschal’s court (created in 1663 by Governor de Saffray de Mézy, with Louis-Arthus de Sailly as the judge), and the seigneurial court set up by the members of Saint-Sulpice. Des Muceaux remained the civil and criminal judge of Montreal until 26 Aug. 1677, at which date he was replaced by Migeon de Branssat.

In 1666 M. d’Ailleboust set off with Prouville de Tracy’s expedition against the Mohawks, but he was obliged to return to Montreal when he was bitten by a bear. From 1670 on he turned more and more towards business, but with indifferent success. In 1668 he had come to an understanding with his aunt, Mme Louis d’Ailleboust [see Boullongne], in respect of the deceased governor’s estate, and in 1673 he sold to the Hôtel-Dieu of Quebec his share of the Saint-Vilmé, d’Argentenay, and Coulonges lands. With his capital thus increased, he entered into partnership with the merchant François Lenoir*, dit Rolland (18 March 1675). But in 1681 he was so poor that Governor Buade de Frontenac had to obtain for him a pension of 150 livres from the king.

Since Governor Louis d’Ailleboust died childless, Charles-Joseph is the ancestor of all the d’Aillebousts in Canada.

J. Monet

Dollier de Casson, Histoire du Montréal, passim. JR (Thwaites). JJ (Laverdière et Casgrain). Jug. et délib. P.-G. Roy, Inv. concessions. Claude de Bonnault, “Le Canada militaire, état provisoire des officiers de milice, de 1641 à 1760,” APQ Rapport, 1949–51, 292. BRH, XV (1909), 53. Daveluy, “Bibliographie,” RHAF, VI (1952–53), 147. Faillon, Histoire de la colonie française, II, 95f., 134f., 498; III, 75, 341. Aegidius Fauteux, La famille d’Aillebout (Montréal, 1917). Godbout, “Nos ancêtres,” APQ Rapport, 1951–53, 468. É.-Z. Massicotte, “Migeon de Branssat,” BRH, XXI (1915), 232; “Les tribunaux et les officiers de justice à Montréal sous le régime français, 1648–1760,” RSCT, 3d ser., X (1916), sect.i, 273–339. P.-G. Roy, “Le premier juge de Montréal,” dans Les petites choses de notre histoire (3e sér., Lévis, 1922), 102–9. Régis Roy, La famille d’Ailleboust (Montréal, s.d.). Benjamin Sulte, “Le camp volant de 1649,” RC, XVII (1881), 159–69.

Revisions based on:
Arch. Départementales en Ligne, Yonne (Auxerre, France), “Arch. en ligne,” Ancy-le-Franc, juin 1621: archivesenligne.yonne-archives.fr (consulted 25 Feb. 2011). Bibliothèque et Arch. Nationales du Québec, Centre d’arch. de Québec, CE301-S1, 16 sept. 1652.