Individual Details

From Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online (_http://www.biographLca/EN/ShowBio.asp?Biold=34141_ () ) and Our French-Canadian Ancestors" by Thomas J. Laforest, Volume 26, Page 45:

His father, who came originally from the neighborhood of Soissons, was at Quebec 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 Oct. 1650, Marie Miville brought him as her dowry a property in the town of Quebec; 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 Quebec, 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 or Quebec or in the Parlement of Paris. While awaiting the reply from Versaille he learned that Louis XIV had abolished the 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.

Mathieu 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 Iivres, 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.

Among Mathieu and Marie's descendants was Jean Marie Rodrigue Villeneuve (1883-1947), son of Rodrigue, a shoemaker, and of Marie Louise Lalonde. He was'an Oblate of Marie Immaculate, Bishop of Gravelbourg in 1930, Archbishop of Quebec in 1931, named Cardinal on March 13, 1933 and Papal Legate to the National Eucharistic Congress held ,at Quebec in June ,1938.


--bob s. in monterey

Birth	23 May 1628	Soissons, Aisne, France
Marriage	22 Nov 1650	Notre-Dame de Québec Basilica-Cathedral, Notre-Dame de Québec, Québec, Québec, Canada, Nouvelle-France - Marie Deschènes Miville
Miscellaneous	18 Jun 1655	arrived - Canada, Île-de-France, France
Death	18 Dec 1688	Québec, Québec, Canada, Nouvelle-France
Burial	19 Dec 1688	Notre-Dame-de-Québec, Québec, Québec, Canada, Nouvelle-France
Alt name		Matthieu Amiot
Alt name		Mathieu Amiot Villeneuve
Occupation		Sieur de Villeneuve

Spouse

Marie Deschènes Miville (1632 - 1702)

Father	Philippe Amiot (1601 - 1636)
Mother	Anne Couvent (1604 - 1675)