- Duke of Kent House, Quebec
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Duke of Kent House or Kent House is situated on Rue Saint-Louis, behind the Château Frontenac in Quebec City. It is presently serves as the French Consulate. Though vastly altered and transformed since its original construction, the most part of its foundations and of the first floor walls date back to the vicinity of 1650, making it one of the oldest houses, if not the oldest house in Quebec City.
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Occupants during the French regime
The first owners of the land on which Kent House stands were Louis d'Ailleboust de Coulonge, Governor of New France from 1648 to 1651, and his wife, Marie-Barbe de Boulogne. Shortly after 1650, they had a house built on this site. Following the death of the governor's wife in 1665, at Quebec, her property and house on Saint-Louis Street passed to the Hôtel-Dieu de Québec.
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. In 1679, he left for his mother country, never to return to New France. His son, René-Louis Chartier de Lotbinière, who had succeeded his father in his legal positions, inherited the house and lived there until his death on June 4, 1709. All of his children were born there, including Eustache Chartier de Lotbinière, the first Canadian Dean of the Chapter of Quebec.
The Lotbinière house and dependencies were sold by voluntary decree for £10,000 and purchased on March 14, 1713, by Jean-Baptiste Maillou, architect and contractor to the King of France at Quebec. On his death in 1743, the house was inherited by his son, Vital Maillou, who did not live in it but leased it to Michel Chartier de Lotbinière, Marquis de Lotbinière, the son of the previously mentioned Eustache Chartier de Lotbinière.
On June 1, 1758, the house was bought by Jean-Baptiste-Nicolas-Roch de Ramezay who had grown up at Château Ramezay in Montreal and had just been promoted King's Lieutenant at Quebec. Following the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, it was de Ramezay who signed the Articles of Capitulation of Quebec, and there are grounds to believe that they were signed at the house.
Ownership following the capitulation of New France
Following the British Conquest, the house passed through many hands. On August 23, 1763, Madame de Ramezay, under authority given by her husband, sold the house to John Bondfield, merchant of Quebec. One year later, August 4, 1764, he sold it to London merchant James Strachan, acting for himself and for the London house of Greenwood & Higginson. On October 24, 1777, The Hon. Adam Mabane, Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, became the proprietor.
Residence to the Duke of Kent
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 occupied the house for three years with his beautiful mistress, Madame de Saint Laurent. In his memoirs, Pierre-Ignace Aubert de Gaspé (father of the author of Les Anciens Canadiens), speaks several times of dinners given by the Duke of Kent in his fine residence on Saint-Louis Street. He happily remained there until posted to Halifax, Nova Scotia in 1794.
The Duke's mistress with whom he shared his house in Quebec was Madame Alphonsine Therese Bernadine Julie de Montgenet de St. Laurent, Baronne de Fortisson. They first met in Martinique, and she accompanied him to Quebec, and afterwards to Nova Scotia and to England. For twenty-eight years she presided over his household, as a local chronicler records, " with dignity and propriety." After the Duke's marriage to the widow of the Prince of Leiningen, in 1818, Madame de St. Laurent retired to a convent, and the date of her demise is unknown. Her first husband was the Baron de Fortisson, a colonel in the French service. She is described as having been beautiful, clever, witty and accomplished. Many of her letters will be found in Anderson's " Life of the Duke of Kent " (Quebec: 1870). In 1792, she stood sponsor, with the Duke, at the christening of one of the de Salaberry children, at Beauport. It was claimed by several writers that the Baroness was morganatically allied to the Duke of Kent.
Occupants in the 19th and 20th centuries
Following the Duke's departure, the house changed owners and tenants many more times. After Judge Mabane's death, the house was inherited by his sister, Isabella Mabane, who leased it to Bishop Jacob Mountain from 1802. She sold it in 1809 to The Hon. John Craigie, a member of His Majesty's Executive Council. The owners then proceeded as follows: Pierre Brehaut (1816); The Hon. Judge Olivier Perrault (1819), and then Pearrualt's son-in-law, The Hon. Elzéar-Henri Juchereau Duchesnay; John Jones; Mrs Alexandre Lindsay; O'Neil, the hotelkeeper; The Hon. Thomas McGreevy; The Hon. Jean-Thomas Taschereau (jurist) etc., etc. In 1927, it was owned by the brothers William Evan Price and David Edward Price of Quebec. The house today serves as the French Consulate at Quebec.
External links
Categories:- Buildings and structures in Quebec City
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