THIBOULT, THOMAS, priest, canon, parish priest at Quebec, fourth superior of the Quebec seminary; b. c. 1681 at Purier in the diocese of Rouen; d. 12 April 1724 at Quebec.

For 4 or 5 years Thiboult had been a priest in the seminary in Paris, in preparation for joining the missions in China; beyond that we know nothing of his birth or his education prior to his being sent to Quebec in the spring of 1710. On 6 May 1711 he was admitted as a member of the community of the seminary of Quebec. Upon the death of Pierre Pocquet, the parish priest of Quebec, the superior of the seminary, Louis Ango Des Maizerets, with whom the appointment rested. chose the new arrival to be administrator of the charge, before bestowing upon him the title of parish priest on 2 Nov. 1713. By virtue of his office he had already become a canon on 18 March of that year.

While Dom Poulet, a notorious Jansenist, was dangerously ill at the Hôtel-Dieu, Bishop Saint-Vallier [La Croix] gave instructions to Father Thiboult, as parish priest, concerning the conditions upon which Poulet might be admitted to the Sacrament; but the sick man would not yield. Although he was a member of the seminary, M. Thiboult was imprudent enough to agree to act as attorney for the chapter and went to France (1713–16) to settle a dispute between the chapter and the seminary to the detriment of his own house. This made of him “a sorry figure,” to use his own expression, and compromised the success of his mission. Upon his return there was an attempt to appoint him honorary canon without consulting the bishop, who rebuked such procedure. Disillusioned, M. Thiboult spoke of going to the missions in the Mississippi country, but no attention was paid to this. Then the ill-health of M. de Glandelet, superior of the seminary, led to Thiboult’s being chosen as his successor in 1723. When Thiboult died, therefore, he was parish priest and superior of the seminary. The historian Bertrand de Latour* accused him of being a follower of Jansenism, but nothing is more inconsistent with the facts.

Honorius Provost

ASQ, Chapitre, 40, 47, 177, 270, 273; Fonds Verreau, cahier 035, pièce 14; Lettres, M, 41, 42, 45–47; O, 50; Paroisse de Québec, 1–3, 40, 115. Bertrand de Latour, Mémoires sur la vie de M. de Laval, premier évêque de Québec (Cologne, 1761), 50. Provost, Le Séminaire de Québec: documents et biographies, 438.