LE ROY DESMAREST, CLAUDE-JOSEPH (usually signed Desmarest and rarely Leroy Desmarest), royal notary, clerk of the admiralty court and of the Conseil Supérieur of Île Royale (Cape Breton Island), king’s attorney of the bailiff’s court at Louisbourg; b. c. 1695 at Trévoux in the province of Burgundy, son of Catherin Le Roy, notary, and Jeanne-Marie Boyat; d. 1 July 1737 at Louisbourg, Île Royale.

There is no mention of Demarest’s presence in the colony before 8 April 1728 when he married, at Louisbourg, Marie-Suzanne de La Bazanière of La Rochelle. She was the daughter of Pierre de La Bazanière, a navigator, and of Louise Briet and the widow of Jean-François Lorant of Louisbourg. By her Desmarest had at least six children.

That same month, April 1728, he became the colony’s royal notary and continued to serve in this capacity until his death. In March 1729, he was appointed clerk of the admiralty court of Île Royale. He subsequently became as well the clerk of the Conseil Supérieur of Île Royale, and he is referred to in this way as early as September 1730. In May 1735 Desmarest was appointed king’s attorney of the bailiff’s court of Louisbourg and at the time of his death in 1737 he exercised all four of the above functions. In 1741 a detailed inventory was prepared of the property and goods he held in common with his wife.

Bernard Pothier

AN, Col., B, 52–65; C^11B, 10–19; E, 126; Section Outre-Mer, G¹, 406/1, pp.145–46; 406/2, pp.29, 112, 171. 248; 406/3, pp.419, 481, 568; 466/3, p.53 (copies in PAC) G³, 2037–2039 (which contain Demarest’s notarial papers).