POLLET, ARNOULD-BALTHAZAR, royal notary; b. 1702 in France, son of Germain Pollet and Marguerite Harry, of the parish of Saint-Nicolas-des-Champs in Paris; d. and buried 17 Jan. 1756 at Batiscan in the government of Trois-Rivières.

We have little information about Arnould-Balthazar Pollet prior to his marriage with Angélique Hamelin on 10 May 1729 at Les Grondines, in the government of Quebec. He was living there on 6 Jan. 1730 when he was appointed notary and clerk of court for Batiscan, a seigneury which at that time belonged to the Jesuits. Some months later, on 12 September, he received from Gilles Hocquart*, the financial commissary, a commission as royal notary for the region covering the seigneuries of Batiscan, Champlain, and Les Grondines. On 24 March 1732 Intendant Hocquart granted him a new commission as notary for the seigneuries of La Chevrotière, Deschambault, Les Becquets, and Saint-Ours as well. To exercise his office, which he held for 23 years, Pollet had to go into the governments of Montreal, Trois-Rivières, and Quebec; his jurisdiction extended from Saint-Ours on the west to Deschambault on the east, a distance of more than 80 miles.

On 3 Jan. 1753 Pollet was forbidden to exercise his functions. In the ordinance concerning this affair Intendant Bigot* mentions, without giving any details, that it was the itinerant notary’s bad conduct that had warranted this interdiction. Pollet died three years later and was buried at Batiscan.

Michel Paquin

AJTR, Greffe d’A.-B. Pollet, 1730–1753. ANQ, NF, Coll. de pièces jud. et not., 2068; NF, Ord. int., 12 sept. 1730, 24 mars 1732, 3 janv. 1753. Tanguay, Dictionnaire. Vachon, “Inv. critique des notaires royaux,” RHAF, IX (1955–56), 438. J.-E. Roy, Histoire du notariat, I, 204–5.