QUINIARD, dit Duplessis, ANTOINE-OLIVIER, process-server and seigneurial notary, originally from Saint-Michel in the diocese of Saint-Brieuc (Brittany); b. c. 1651, son of Antoine Quiniard and Jeanne Branquais; buried 17 Sept. 1738 at Quebec.

It seems that Quiniard came to Canada only a short time before his marriage, which was celebrated 3 Feb. 1701 at Sainte-Famille on the Île d’Orléans. He was a settler at Argentenay, and married a widow from this fief, Marie-Louise Bolper, who was 53. He was 50. From 1701 on, Quiniard had occasionally received notarial acts, by virtue of special ordinances from the intendants; in 1705 he was also acting as a process-server, on what authority is not known. But his situation was soon to be regularized. On 15 Jan. 1707 Jacques Raudot officially appointed him process-server for St Lawrence island and countship (Île d’Orléans); furthermore, on 3 July 1711 he made him a notary, thereby ratifying all the acts which he had previously drawn up and depositing them in his registry.

Quiniard was not exactly scrupulous. In 1714 the Conseil Supérieur threatened him with suspension and a fine of 20 livres; again, on 3 Aug. 1722, he was censured by Intendant Bégon* for a seizure made illegally; finally, 14 May 1727, Intendant Claude-Thomas Dupuy dismissed him for life from his offices as notary and process-server, and likewise debarred him from any other post in the judiciary.

Becoming a widower in 1728, Quiniard went to live at the Hôpital Général in Quebec, where he finished his days. His registry is lost, but a fairly large number of copies of his acts are in the archives.

André Vachon

AJQ, Registres d’état civil de Sainte-Famille (I.O.), 3 févr. 1701. AQ, NF, Ord. des int., I, 84; V, 41. Jug. et délib. P.-G. Roy, Inv. ord. int., I, 227; II, 8. “Les notaires au Canada,” 37. Tanguay, Dictionnaire, VI, 485. J.-E. Roy, Histoire du notariat, I, 169.