DUMOULIN, JEAN-GASPARD, lawyer and office holder; b. 19 April 1832 in Trois-Rivières, Lower Canada, son of Pierre-Benjamin Dumoulin and Hermine Rieutord; m. 10 Jan. 1855, in Saint-Norbert d’Arthabaska (Norbertville), Alida Pacaud, daughter of Philippe-Napoléon Pacaud*, a notary, and they had three children; d. 25 July 1860 in Trois-Rivières.

Nothing is known of Jean-Gaspard Dumoulin’s childhood. He received his classical education at the Séminaire de Nicolet from 1842 to 1846, and then at the Petit Séminaire de Montréal from 1847 to 1851. In 1849, when he entered the two-year philosophy program, he began training as a law clerk under Louis-Charles Boucher* de Niverville in Trois-Rivières.

Dumoulin was called to the bar of Lower Canada in 1853 and went into practice at Trois-Rivières. He moved to Saint-Christophe-d’Arthabaska (Arthabaska) later that year. The first lawyer to settle in this locality, he was appointed clerk of the Circuit Court of Arthabaska on 2 September. On 10 Oct. 1855 the council of the county of Arthabaska, which had been created by the partitioning of Drummond County, was installed in a ceremony held at Dumoulin’s house. The mayors of several municipalities in the county took part in the first session of this council, when Saint-Christophe-d’Arthabaska was chosen as the county seat. On 6 March 1858 the governor-in-chief, Sir Edmund Walker Head*, appointed Dumoulin protonotary of the Superior Court and clerk of the Circuit Court in the new district of Arthabaska, which had been set up the year before.

Dumoulin had also taken a hand in municipal affairs. On 27 Feb. 1856 he had been appointed secretary-treasurer of the board of school commissioners for the parish of Saint-Christophe-d’Arthabaska, an office he retained until 1858. To serve in this capacity he had to provide guarantees, which he did by mortgaging a property he owned in Saint-Maurice Township, near Trois-Rivières. In addition, the mayor of the municipality and warden of the county, Adolphus Stein, as well as the county registrar, Édouard-Modeste Poisson, answered for Dumoulin’s good conduct in the administration of the school board.

Jean-Gaspard Dumoulin died prematurely on 25 July 1860 in Trois-Rivières at the age of 28, and was buried three days later in the crypt of the cathedral there. He had engaged in a number of real estate transactions at Saint-Christophe-d’Arthabaska; however, fortune apparently did not favour him, since on his death his widow renounced her inheritance, considering it too heavy a liability. Dumoulin was also survived by three children. His son Philippe-Benjamin became cashier (manager) of the Banque du Peuple at Quebec around 1885.

Alcide Fleury

AC, Arthabaska, État civil, Catholiques, Saint-Christophe (Arthabaska), 11 mars 1917. ANQ-MBF, CE1-48, 20 avril 1832, 28 juill. 1860; CE2-72, 10 janv. 1855; CN1-19, 15 août 1849; CN1-25, 17 janv. 1855, 15 févr. 1861; CN2-15, 26 févr. 1856; 14 avril, 16 juill. 1860; CN2-26, 17 janv. 1855. Arch. de la Corporation des commissaires d’écoles de la paroisse Saint-Christophe-d’Arthabaska (Arthabaska), Livres des délibérations, 14 déc. 1858. ASTR, 0184; 0296. PAC, MG 30, D1, 11: 739–40; RG 68, General index, 1841–67: 35, 314. L’Écho du Saint-Maurice (Trois-Rivières), 12 mars 1858. L’Ère nouvelle, 26 juill. 1860. F.-J. Audet, Les députés des Trois-Rivières. P.-G. Roy, Les avocats de la région de Québec. Le Centenaire d’Arthabaska ([Arthabaska], 1951), 37, 85, 91, 93, 95, 97, 159, 169. Douville, Hist. du collège-séminaire de Nicolet. Alcide Fleury, Arthabaska, capitale des Bois-Francs (Arthabaska, 1961), 164–65, 188, 190, 228. Maurault, Le collège de Montréal (Dansereau; 1967). Robert Cannon, “Les Trois-Rivières et les familles Dumoulin et Cannon,” BRH, 40 (1934): 109–16.