LEMAIRE, FÉLIX-HYACINTHE, notary, legislative councillor; b. 14 March 1808 at the mission of Lac-des-Deux-Montagnes (which became the parish of Oka in 1910), L.C., son of Ignace Lemaire and Louise Gastonguay; d. 17 Dec. 1879 at Saint-Benoit (Deux-Montagnes County), Que.

Félix-Hyacinthe Lemaire became a notary in January 1836, and practised his profession until the last month of his life; he signed some 6,000 acts. His principal client was the seminary of Saint-Sulpice in Montreal (the Sulpicians were the seigneurs of the region); he was its agent for more than 30 years after 1842. As agent his chief duty was to collect seigneurial dues from the farmers. Félix-Hyacinthe Lemaire was a major in the militia battalion of Deux-Montagnes, and also clerk of the Circuit Court there.

In November 1867 he was appointed to the Legislative Council as representative for the division of Mille-Isles, which comprised Terrebonne and Deux-Montagnes counties. In September 1874, in his capacity as president of the Legislative Council, he was sworn in as a member of the Executive Council of the province in Charles-Eugène Boucher* de Boucherville’s cabinet. The obtaining of this appointment was no doubt facilitated by the friendship between Boucher de Boucherville and himself. Less than two years later the state of his health obliged him to resign.

Félix-Hyacinthe Lemaire died in his village of Saint-Benoit, where he was buried. La Minerve of Montreal stressed that he had “a high sense of his family traditions, a lofty intelligence, a firm character allied to a strong underlying sense of moderation.”

In January 1837, at Sainte-Scholastique, Lemaire had married Luce Barcelo, who survived him. She was the daughter of Jacob Barcelo, a merchant and Patriote of 1837, and of Luce Dorion. They had one son and one daughter.

Jean-Jacques Lefebvre