Duke of Kent House, Quebec
On May 27, 1671, the Ladies of the Hôtel-Dieu sold the property to Louis-Théandre Chartier de Lotbinière, Lieutenant-General of the Civil and Criminal Courts at Quebec, who at once took up residence there.
Their son, René-Louis Chartier de Lotbinière, Chief Councillor of the Sovereign Council of New France, lived there from 1679 until his death on June 4, 1709.
The Lotbinière house (as it had come to be known) and its dependencies were sold by voluntary decree for 10,000 livres on March 14, 1713, to Jean-Baptiste Maillou, architect and contractor to the King of France at Quebec.
Following the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, it was de Ramezay who signed the Articles of Capitulation of Quebec before Governor-General James Murray at the house, September 18, 1759.
Following the British Conquest of New France, de Ramezay maintained ownership of the property until with his permission his wife sold it on August 23, 1763, to John Bondfield, the Quebec merchant who only the following year was forced to flee Canada with his brother, Achlam, because of "an open avowal of the American measures".
On the formation of Lower Canada, in August, 1791, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn arrived in Quebec City and shortly afterwards leased Judge Mabane's house for £90 per annum.
He lived there for three happy years with his beautiful mistress, Madame de Saint Laurent, before he was posted to Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1794.
For twenty-eight years Madame de St. Laurent presided over the Duke's household, as a local chronicler records, "with dignity and propriety."
She later married a Russian-Italian nobleman and eventually settled back in the Quebec City area at the summer home (built by Governor-General Sir Frederick Haldimand) she had shared with the Duke, which also still stands today.
Judge Mabane died in 1792, his death being attributed to a cold he contracted while walking into town in a snowstorm, having lost his way on the Plains of Abraham.
According to the deed of sale, the building still retained its ancient appearance and the space from the west gable of about eighteen feet, to Haldimand Street, was vacant ground.
Over the next hundred years, the property changed hands on many occasions, being owned in turn by John Jones; Dame Amelie Duchesnay, wife of Alexander Lindsay; an hotel keeper named O'Neil; Hon.
