Christophe Dufrost de La Jemerais
| Christophe Dufrost de La Jemerais | |
|---|---|
| La Jemerais; La Jemeraye; Dufrost de La Gemerais | |
| Born | 1708-12-06 Varennes, New France |
| Died | 1736-05-10 near Fort Maurepas (Manitoba) |
| Occupation | Officer; explorer; second in command to La Vérendrye |
| Father | |
| Mother | |
Christophe Dufrost de La Jemerais (6 December 1708 – 10 May 1736), who signed La Jemerais, was a French colonial officer and the nephew and "second in command" of Pierre Gaultier de Varennes et de la Vérendrye on the western expeditions of 1731–36. He was in the party that reached Grand Portage on 26 August 1731 and, after a mutiny there, he went on with Jean-Baptiste Gaultier de La Vérendrye to build Fort Saint-Pierre on Rainy Lake.[1][2]
Life
He was born at Varennes on 6 December 1708 and baptized the next day, the youngest child of François-Christophe Dufrost de La Gemerais and Marie-Renée Gaultier de Varennes, a sister of La Vérendrye. The family name was spelled in several ways; he signed La Jemerais.[1]
He served as a young officer at Fort Saint-Philippe des Miamis and at Fort Beauharnois. In 1731 he went west with his uncle. After the engagés refused to cross the Grand Portage, La Vérendrye sent La Jemerais and Jean-Baptiste on with a smaller party. They built Fort Saint-Pierre that autumn and La Jemerais wintered there. In 1732 he helped build Fort Saint-Charles on the Lake of the Woods. In 1733 he and Jean-Baptiste went down the Winnipeg River nearly to Lake Winnipeg, after which La Jemerais travelled east to report to the governor. He was appointed second ensign on 9 March 1734.[1]
He died on 10 May 1736 while being brought back, seriously ill, from Fort Maurepas toward Fort Saint-Charles, and was buried "at the Fourche des Roseaux," near the later village of Letellier, Manitoba. He left a map of the west dated 1 October 1733, drawn in finished form by the engineer Gaspard-Joseph Chaussegros de Léry, which the Dictionary of Canadian Biography describes as the first French map of that country.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Antoine Champagne, "Dufrost de La Jemerais, Christophe," Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 2 (University of Toronto/Université Laval, 1969; rev. 2024).
- ↑ Yves F. Zoltvany, "Gaultier de Varennes et de La Vérendrye, Pierre," Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 3 (University of Toronto/Université Laval, 1974; rev. 2023).