Chaboillez, Charles Jean Baptiste, 1736-1808

Charles Jean Baptiste Chaboillez was born on July 9, 1736, in Michilimackinac (Mackinaw City, Michigan) and died on September 25, 1808, in Montreal. He was the eldest son of Charles Chaboillez, a voyageur and fur trader, and Marie-Anne Chevalier, the daughter of the merchant Jean-Baptiste Chevalier. In 1769, Chaboillez married Marguerite Larcheveque (1749-1798), the daughter of merchant Jacques Larcheveque and Jeanne Godet. They had nine children, but only five survived him. After his father’s death in 1757, his mother settled in Montreal, where Chaboillez became a founding member of the Beaver Club. Chaboillez concentrated his fur trading activity in Michilimackinac and the larger area south of Lake Superior and the Mississippi region. During this period, Chaboillez maintained business relations with fur trader Benjamin Frobisher. Until around 1780, he wintered in the region of Grand Portage (near Grand Portage, Minnesota) and spent his summers in Montreal. Chaboillez then wintered in Montreal and spent the summers on trading trips the following decade. In 1785, Chaboillez went into partnership with Étienne-Charles Campion, to form the General Company of Lake Superior and the South. In 1786, while in Michilimackinac, he signed a petition to Bishop Hubert of Quebec requesting a missionary for the locality, and the following year, he was elected a churchwarden of the parish of Saint-Anne-de-Michilimackinac. In 1793, he gave his wife Marguerite power of attorney and lessened his visits to Montreal. In 1799, Chaboillez was promoted to major of Montreal’s 2nd Militia Battalion. Chaboillez owned two farms in the Montreal region, one on the Côte de Liesse on Montreal Island and another in the seigneury of Châteauguay, both purchased in 1779. He also owned three islands near the tip of Montreal Island, one was called Île à l’Aigle, which he purchased in 1788. In 1802, he was appointed storekeeper for the Indian Department in St Joseph Island in Upper Canada and was there until 1805, when his daughter Marie-Charlotte-Domitille died. Chaboillez returned to Montreal in 1807 where he died the following year.

Revised on June 12, 2024, by Leah Louttit-Bunker

http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/chaboillez_charles_jean_baptiste_5E.html https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Chaboillez