CREVIER DE SAINT-FRANÇOIS, JEAN, fur-trader, a prominent person in the colony; baptized 3 April 1642 at Trois-Rivières, son of Christophe Crevier, dit La Meslée, and Jeanne Énard; d. shortly after August 1693.

On 26 Nov. 1663, at Trois-Rivières, he married Marguerite, daughter of Jacques Hertel and Marie Marguerie. He fell foul of the law with respect to his fur-trading with the Indians who frequented Cap-de-la-Madeleine. He bought the Saint-François-du-Lac seigneury from his brother-in-law Pierre Boucher* in 1673. He obtained ordinances from the intendants Duchesneau and de Meulles*, forbidding anyone to hunt or fish throughout the area of his seigneury. He was one of the 20 principal settlers summoned to Quebec by Governor Buade de Frontenac on 26 Oct. 1678 to express their opinion on trading in spirits, and he voted in favour of it, attributing the crimes committed by the Indians to their savage disposition rather than to the use of liquor. He was carried off by the Iroquois during a raid on Saint-François in August 1693, and just as they were getting ready to burn him alive he was ransomed for 50 livres by Major Peter Schuyler*, the commandant of the Albany garrison; but he died shortly afterwards, as a result of his wounds. His son Louis had been killed 27 March 1690, during the expedition of François Hertel* against Salmon Falls. His widow and his son Joseph, on 23 Aug. 1700, gave part of their seigneury to the Abenakis and the Sokokis, for whom the Jesuits opened a mission which still exists today.

Thomas Charland

ASQ, Polygraphic, XIII, 47. Coll. de manuscrits relatifs à la Nouv.-France, I, 589f. Découvertes et établissements des Français (Margry), I, 405–20. NYCD (O’Callaghan and Fernow), IV, 66; IX, 554f. T.-M. Charland, “Enlèvement et mort du seigneur Crevier,” BRH, XLIII (1937), 346–48; Histoire de Saint-François-du-Lac (Ottawa, 1942). J.-A. Maurault, Histoire des Abénakis (Sorel, 1866), 278–80.

Revisions based on:
Bibliothèque et Arch. Nationales du Québec, Centre d’arch. de la Mauricie et du Centre-du-Québec (Trois-Rivières, Québec), CE401-S48, 3 avril 1642, 26 nov. 1663.