Jean Bochart de Champigny

He served as intendant during the terms of Governors Denonville, Frontenac, and Callière, and was in office at the time of King William's War, the Lachine Massacre, the Battle of Quebec, and the Great Peace of Montreal.

Little is known about his life before his appointment as intendant, however, it is likely that he was educated at a Jesuit college, studied law, and had held a number of minor administrative posts in France.

He took with him a bronze copy of the Bust of Louis XIV by Gian Lorenzo Bernini which he installed in the market square of the lower town of Quebec, site of present-day Place Royale, so that the inhabitants of New France would know what their sovereign looked like.

[1] In preparation for Denonville's expedition, Champigny led an advance party to Fort Frontenac at the eastern end of Lake Ontario in June 1687.

In 1688, he asked the Sovereign Council of New France to establish a Bureau for the Poor in Quebec, Montreal and Trois-Rivières so as to support the indigent by giving them work.

After several reprimands for excessive spending, Champigny reminded the minister that soldiers in France didn't need snowshoes or canoes, and that expenditures could not be reduced "unless it was decided to abandon the colony completely and leave it a prey to its enemies.

He undermined Champigny's efforts to limit the number of independent fur-traders by granting twice as many licences as permitted, and ignored the king's order strictly forbidding officers and soldiers to engage in trade.

[4] When Frontenac died in November 1698, Champigny wrote to the minister: "The foremost favour that I could ask of you, my lord, is that you send us a governor who has no other aim but to carry out the king's orders."