Sieur de Villeneuve

1666 Census of New France, Québec Cité page 23

Mathieu Amiot d. Villeneufve.................37 habittant
Marie Minville...............................33 sa femme
Charles Amiot ...............................14 fils
pierre Amiot ................................13 fils
Anne Marie Amiot.............................11 fille
Margueritte Amiot ............................9 fille
Jean Baptiste Amiot...........................8 fils
Jean Amiot ...................................6 fils
francoise Amiot ..............................5 fille
Catherine Amiot...............................3 fille
Daniel Amiot ............................6 mois fils
Et Anthoine DuCos ...........................26 domestique Engaigé


AMIOT (Amyot), dit Villeneuve, MATHIEU, donné, interprète, seigneur, né entre 1627 et 1629. probablement près de Chartres (Orléanais), de Philippe Amiot et d’Anne Convent, décédé à Québec le 18 novembre 1688.
      Originaire des environs de Soissons, son père était à Québec dès l’été de 1635. Mathieu, comme son frère Jean, fut pendant quelques années interprète des Jésuites, travaillant chez eux à Trois-Rivières et peut-être aussi en Huronie. Puis il se fit colon et réussit pendant le reste de sa vie à accumuler un nombre assez intéressant de possessions. Ainsi, en 1649, le gouverneur LouIs d’Ailleboust lui concéda une terre à Trois-Rivières ; en outre, lors de son mariage, le 22 octobre 1650, Marie Miville lui apporta en dot une propriété dans la ville de Québec ; en 1661, les Jésuites lui firent concession d’un lot à Sillery, où il se construisit une maison, tout en conservant sa demeure en ville ; le 6 septembre 1665, Jean Juchereau de Maur lui donna, sur la Pointe-Villeneuve, près de Saint-Augustin de Portneuf, une propriété qu’il agrandit en 1677 et en 1685 ; le 3 novembre 1672, Talon lui avait concédé en fief et seigneurie un autre domaine à la Pointe-aux-Bouleaux.
      À mesure que ses biens s’accumulaient, Mathieu devenait un personnage de plus en plus important dans la colonie. Comme notable, à Québec, il avait participé à l’élection d’un syndic en 1664 et, trois ans plus tard, le roi agréa la requête de Talon de lui octroyer des lettres de noblesse. Cependant, quand elles arrivèrent, en 1668, l’intendant ignorait s’il devait les faire enregistrer au Conseil souverain de Québec ou au parlement de Paris. En attendant la réponse de Versailles, il apprit que Louis XIV avait aboli tous les titres non encore enregistrés (1669). Trois autres colons avaient reçu des lettres de noblesse en même temps qu’Amiot. Eux ou leurs descendants les firent reconnaître en dépit de l’ordonnance de 1669. Amiot n’ayant fait aucune revendication au sujet des siennes, semble-t-il, elles furent définitivement annulées.
      Villeneuve laissa à ses héritiers plus de dettes et de soucis que de biens. En 1703, les dettes de la succession s’élevaient encore à 700ª et Marie Miville, qui avait vendu les terres pour 1 500ª, était morte (septembre 1702) des angoisses que lui causait un procès intenté contre elle par son fils Charles, l’aîné de ses 15 enfants.
Source: Dictionnaire biographique de Canada

From: http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/amiot_mathieu_1E.html

AMIOT (Amyot), dit Villeneuve, MATHIEU, donné, interpreter, seigneur; b. between 1627 and 1629, probably near Chartres (Orléanais), son of Philippe Amiot and Anne Convent; d. 18 Nov. 1688 at Québec.

His father, who came originally from the neighbourhood of Soissons, was at Québec from the summer of 1635 on. Mathieu, like his brother Jean, was for some years an interpreter for the Jesuits; he worked in their house at Trois-Rivières and perhaps also in the Huron country. Then he became a settler, and during the remainder of his life he managed to accumulate a fairly sizable number of properties. Thus, in 1649, Governor Louis d’Ailleboust made him a grant of land at Trois-Rivières; in addition, on the occasion of his marriage on 22 Nov. 1650 at Québec, Marie Miville brought him as her dowry a property in the town of Québec; in 1661 the Jesuits granted him a portion of land at Sillery, where he built a house for himself, whilst keeping his town residence; on 6 Sept. 1665 Jean Juchereau de Maur gave him an estate on Pointe Villeneuve, near Saint-Augustin de Portneuf, which he enlarged in 1677 and 1685; and on 3 Nov. 1672 Talon granted him another domain, as a fief and seigneury, at Pointe aux Bouleaux.

As his possessions increased, Mathieu became a more and more important person in the colony. A notable at Québec, he had taken part in the election of a syndic in 1664, and three years later the king acceded to Talon’s request to grant him letters of nobility. However, when these letters arrived in 1668 the intendant did not know whether he should have them registered in the Conseil Souverain of Québec or in the Parlement of Paris. While awaiting the reply from Versailles he learned that Louis XIV had abolished all titles not yet registered (1669). Three other settlers had received letters of nobility at the same time as Amiot. They or their descendants had them recognized despite the 1669 ruling. But as Amiot apparently made no claim in respect of his, they were finally annulled.

Villeneuve left his heirs more debts and worries than assets. In 1703 the debts encumbering the estate still amounted to 700 livres, and Marie Miville, who had sold the lands for 1,500 livres, had died (September 1702), a victim of the distress caused her by a lawsuit which her son Charles, the eldest of her 15 children, had brought against her.

J. Monet

ASQ, Documents Faribault, 22, 104; Registre A, pp.588–94. Jug. et délib., passim. Papier terrier de la Cie des I.O. (P.-G. Roy), 42–44. P.-G. Roy, Inv. concessions, I, 276–78; II, 68: III, 4–6. Lionel Audet-Lapointe, “Famille Amiot-Villeneuve,” BRH, LX (1954), 121–35. Godbout, “Nos ancêtres,” APQ Rapport, 1951–53, 488. P.-G. Roy, “Les Amyot sous le régime français,” BRH, XXIII (1917), 164f.; “Mathieu Amiot Villeneuve,” BRH, XXV (1919), 321–31.

Revisions based on:
Bibliothèque et Arch. Nationales du Québec, Centre d’arch. de Québec, CE301-S1, 22 nov. 1650.

Our French Canadian Ancestors:

Mathieu Amiot, Sieur de Villeneuve, born in France about 1628, owned a small lot in 1655, measuring 54 feet in
frontage on the chemin Saint-Louis, to a depth of 18 feet, which ran as far as the south-western part of the land of Sieur Chartier de Lotbiniére, near Cap-aux-Diamants.

On the occasion of his marriage to Marie Miville, on 21 November 1650, at Québec, Mathieu received from his father-
in-law Pierre Miville, a plot of land on the Grande-Allée, bordering that of Jean Bourdon. Mathieu owned several other pieces: at Sillery, at the Chatellenie de Coulonges, at Saint-Augustin and at Cap-Rouge. The census of 1681 recorded the colonist Amiot as living in the seigneurie of Maure, between Tugal Catin and Jacques Lemarie, where he owned three head of cattle and had thirty arpents of land under cultivation.

To summarize, let's recall that Mathieu was a valiant pioneer. In 1668, he was awarded letters of nobility. Unfor-
tunately, they were imalid, wrote Father Archange Godbout, because they had not been registered. The Intendant Jean Talon wanted to amend this oversight by conceding at Villeneuve, on 3 November 1672, the seigneurie of Pointe-aux-Bouleaux, near Sainte-Croix de Lotbiniére.

Mathieu and Marie raised a family of 16 children who have numerous descendants. Mathieu died on 18 December 1688 and was buried the next day at Québec. As for Marie Miville, she died at the Hétel-Dieu on 5 September 1702, during harvest time.

Mathieu and Marie count among their descendants, Jean-Marie-Rodrique Villeneuve (1883-1947), son of Rodrique, a
shoemaker, and of Marie-Louise Lalonde; he was an Oblate of Marie Immaculate, Bishop of Gravelbourg in 1930, Archbishop of Québec in 1931, named Cardinal on 13 March 1933 and Papal FeBae the National Eucharistic Congress held at Québec in June 1938.