TÉTRO (Tétreau), JEAN-BAPTISTE, schoolmaster, seigneurial then royal notary, court clerk of the jurisdiction of Montreal; son of Louis Tétro and Marie-Noëlle Landeau; baptized 25 Oct. 1683, in the region of Montreal; d. between September 1728 and February 1730.

As he first intended to take up the priesthood, he received the tonsure from Bishop Laval in 1703. Some years later he turns up again as an itinerant schoolmaster. In 1712 he received a commission as notary for the seigneury of Boucherville. He was appointed in 1727 royal notary and clerk of court at Montreal at the same time as Joseph-Charles Raimbault; his registry, which extends from 28 April 1712 to 11 Sept. 1728, contains only 104 acts.

On 8 July 1710, he married Jeanne Tailhandier, daughter of Marien Tailhandier, seigneurial judge of Boucherville; they had three sons. The exact date of his death is unknown, but we do know that it occurred between 11 Sept. 1728, the date of his last notarial act, and 11 Feb. 1730, when his widow took Jean de Latour, a notary, as her second husband.

Tétro exemplifies two characteristics of the officers of justice of the period: he held more than one post at a time, and he married into a family of the judiciary.

Robert Lahaise

AJM, Greffe de, J.-B. Tétro, 1712–28; Index des sépultures catholiques, 1643–1967, IX. A. Roy, Inv. greffes not., XIII, 5. P.-G. Roy, Inv. ord. int., II, 21. “Les notaires au Canada,” 37. Tanguay, Dictionnaire, VII, 285. Vachon, “Inv. critique des notaires royaux,” RHAF, XI (1957–58), 95. J.-E. Roy, Histoire du notariat, I, 210.