MALHIOT, CHARLES-CHRISTOPHE, doctor, seigneur, member of the Legislative Council of the Province of Canada and of the Canadian Senate; b. 11 Oct. 1808 at Verchères, L.C., second son of François-Xavier-Amable Malhiot, seigneur of Verchères, member of the assembly and legislative councillor for Lower Canada, and of Julie Boucher de La Perrière; d. 9 Nov. 1874 at Pointe-du-Lac, Que.

After completing a classical education at the college of Montreal, Charles-Christophe Malhiot studied medicine under Dr Robert Nelson, considered a great surgeon at that time. Having qualified as a doctor, he first went to live at Yamachiche; on 20 Oct. 1835, at Pointe-du-Lac, he married Julie-Éliza Montour, daughter of Nicolas Montour*, seigneur of Pointe-du-Lac, member of the assembly for Saint-Maurice, and one of the pioneers of the North West Company. Nine children were born of this marriage, but they all died in infancy.

After his marriage Charles-Christophe established his office and took up residence in the parish of La Visitation-de-la-Pointe-du-Lac. In 1833 he had been appointed surgeon in the 3rd Battalion of Saint-Maurice County. Although a stranger to this region, Dr Malhiot, who was a great benefactor of the poor, rapidly won the respect of the people. The fact that he was seigneur of Pointe-du-Lac undoubtedly also brought him a good deal of prestige. Dr Malhiot’s wife had inherited a joint third of this seigneury, of which Malhiot was to become owner on her death in 1865; a few years later, in 1873, he made an offer to purchase another third of the seigneury. As well as this land at Pointe-du-Lac, he possessed titles to other seigneuries: on the death of Joseph Boucher de La Perrière in 1819 he had become the owner, with his father and two brothers, of the seigneury of Contrecoeur, and in 1854 his father bequeathed to him the seigneury of Verchères.

Even if the practice of medicine in this rural region interested him greatly, Dr Malhiot did not restrict his field of activity to his occupation. In 1847 he sat on the council of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Lower Canada in his capacity as one of the governors of this organization, representing the district of Trois-Rivières and Saint-François. He had, moreover, supported with his signature a petition, presented that same year to the house, seeking legal recognition of the medical profession in Canada East.

Dr Malhiot, like several doctors in his day, was interested in political life. The son of an ardent Patriote, he had defended the cause of the Patriotes in the circles in which he moved, but does not seem to have taken part actively in the disturbances of 1837–38. He began his political career at the municipal level when he was elected mayor of Pointe-du-Lac in 1859; he held this office until 1864. At the same period, following in his father’s footsteps, Dr Malhiot turned his attention to the national scene; he stood as candidate in the Shawinigan division for the elections to the Legislative Council of 1862. He was the Liberal candidate, and faced George Baptist, a merchant of Trois-Rivières. Baptist, less popular than his opponent, withdrew a few days before the election, and on 30 Sept. 1862 Dr Malhiot vas elected by acclamation. He sat until confederation. In May 1867, by royal proclamation, he was called to the Senate as representative for the division of La Vallière. He remained a senator until his death. Malhiot was acknowledged as a loyal supporter of the Liberal party throughout his career. Although he took a fairly active interest in political life, he seems on the whole to have played only an unobtrusive part in it.

Charles-Christophe Malhiot, a great landowner and from a fairly well-to-do family, lived in comfortable circumstances. On his death he left a fortune estimated at about $60,000, which, after charitable donations to religious communities at Trois-Rivières and to the parish council of Pointe-du-Lac, he bequeathed to his brothers, chiefly to Adolphe.

Louise Crête-Bégin