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CHAUMONT, ALEXANDRE DE, chevalier, marshal of the camps and armies of the king, seigneur (France), officer in the Carignan regiment, aide-de-camp and captain of the guards to Alexandre de Prouville* de Tracy, ambassador to Siam in 1685; b. c. 1640, son of Alexandre de Chaumont, seigneur of Athieules, member of a branch of the Quitry family, and of Isabelle Du Bois Des Cours, daughter of Adrien, seigneur of Fafières; d. 28 Jan. 1710.

The Chevalier de Chaumont came to New France in early 1665, carrying the minister’s instructions to Tracy for the latter’s Canadian campaign. He had been given a commission to serve as Tracy’s aide-de-camp and was soon awarded the additional title of captain of the guards. He was described by Intendant Talon* as an assiduous and useful officer. Talon, in fact, selected him to join a group of distinguished persons who were to build houses in one of the new model villages to be established near Quebec. But by mid-summer 1666, Chaumont was more seriously engaged in assisting Tracy and Rémy* de Courcelle in organizing an army to attack the Mohawk canton. Although his duty obliged him to remain close to Tracy throughout the ensuing expedition, the account given in the Jesuit Relations singled him out as an officer whose conduct was most exemplary. He was present when the main Mohawk village, Andaraque, was taken and he witnessed the formal ceremonies held to claim the neighbouring lands for Louis XIV. Chaumont sailed to France in the fall of 1666 to report personally to the minister on the Iroquois war, but does not appear to have returned to the colony. In 1675 he was in the navy and brought news of the war in Sicily to Versailles. In later years he became a royal musketeer and, in 1685, served as a special French ambassador to Siam, where he signed a trading agreement.

Donald J. Horton

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