Luc de La Corne

Luc de La Corne
La Corne Saint-Luc; Chaptes de La Corne
Born	1711 Contrecœur, Quebec
Died	1784-10-01 Montreal, Quebec
Occupation	Military officer; fur trader; interpreter; legislative councillor
Father	Jean-Louis de La Corne de Chaptes
Mother	Marie Pécaudy de Contrecœur
Partner	Marie-Anne Hervieux Marie-Joseph Guillimin Marie-Marguerite Boucher de Boucherville
Siblings	François-Josué de La Corne Dubreuil

Luc de La Corne (autumn 1711 – (1784-10-01)1 October 1784), also known as La Corne Saint-Luc and Chaptes de La Corne, was a French-Canadian military officer, fur trader, interpreter, and legislative councillor whose career spanned the final decades of New France and the early British colonial period in Canada. He is notable in the Thunder Bay region for his operations at the post of Kaministiquia in the early 1740s, and for his extensive network of fur trade partnerships across the western Great Lakes country.

Early life

La Corne was born in the autumn of 1711 at Contrecœur, Quebec, the son of Jean-Louis de La Corne de Chaptes and Marie Pécaudy de Contrecœur. His brother was Louis de La Corne, known as the Chevalier de La Corne, and another brother was François-Josué de La Corne Dubreuil, who would later partner with him in the fur trade. The family was among the colonial military nobility of New France.

In 1742, Governor Beauharnois recommended La Corne for an ensigncy in the colonial regular troops, citing his bravery the previous year at Fort Clinton (Easton, New York). He was married on 10 December 1742 in Montreal to Marie-Anne Hervieux, with whom he had four sons and three daughters; only the daughters survived to adulthood.

Fur trade career

From 1738 onward La Corne was deeply involved in the fur trade of the western interior. More than 80 hiring contracts survive documenting his operations at posts including Detroit, Michilimackinac, Sault Ste Marie, Chagouamigon, and the Lake Superior north shore.

Of particular significance to the Thunder Bay region, La Corne exploited the post at Kaministiquia from 1742 to 1743 in partnership with his brother François-Josué de La Corne Dubreuil. Kaministiquia, situated at the mouth of the river of the same name on the northwest shore of Lake Superior, was a key node in the western fur trade network and the site of the future Fort William — the heart of present-day Thunder Bay. La Corne's engagements also covered Nipigon and other posts across the Lake Superior country.

On 18 February 1752, La Corne entered a three-year partnership with Louis-Joseph Gaultier de La Vérendrye for operations at Chagouamigon; La Corne provided the financing and received three-quarters of the profits. Around 1754–55 he also partnered with Captain Robert Stobo.

La Corne spoke several Indigenous languages fluently — reportedly four or five — and served as an interpreter at conferences between Governor Vaudreuil and Seneca and other Indigenous delegations in 1755 and 1756. He was extensively engaged in recruiting Indigenous warriors for French military operations.

At the time of the Conquest, he was listed among the wealthiest men in Canada, with a fortune estimated at 1,200,000 livres. He also held numerous enslaved people — primarily Pawnees, with some Black individuals — placing him second only to Governor Beauharnois as a slaveholder in the colony.

Military service

La Corne served throughout the major campaigns of the mid-eighteenth century. During January to April 1746 he commanded approximately 150 Canadians and Indigenous allies at Fort Saint-Frédéric (near Crown Point, New York), assisting Jacques Legardeur de Saint-Pierre in harassing enemy forces around Lac Saint-Sacrement. In late June 1747, he led about 200 men in capturing part of the garrison at Fort Clinton.

He became a lieutenant in 1748 and received his captain's commission on 15 March 1755, with Governors Duquesne praising him as "a brave man and skilled in recruiting."

During the Seven Years' War, La Corne served as an officer attached to the Indigenous forces opposing Anglo-American advances via Lake Champlain in 1755. In August 1757 he commanded the Indigenous warriors on the left flank at Fort George (Fort William Henry), contributing to Montcalm's celebrated victory. In the aftermath, however, Indigenous allies attacked British garrison members being escorted to Fort Lydius; La Corne, who was responsible for escorting Lieutenant-Colonel George Monro and his garrison, was unable to prevent the violence.

In late July 1758, following Montcalm's victory at Carillon, La Corne led 400 Canadians and Indigenous fighters in an attack on an enemy convoy bound for Fort Lydius, taking 64 prisoners and 80 scalps and destroying supplies. Governor Vaudreuil commended him in November 1758: "This captain has rendered very fine service at all times. He has fought in all the campaigns in this war." On 1 January 1759, La Corne received the Cross of Saint-Louis.

At the Battle of Sainte-Foy in April 1760 he commanded Indigenous fighters in the advance guard under François-Charles de Bourlamaque and was wounded.

The Auguste shipwreck (1761)

On 15 October 1761, La Corne sailed from Quebec aboard the Auguste with a party of prominent Canadian nobles, including Louis-Joseph Gaultier de La Vérendrye, his own brother Louis de La Corne, two of his children, and two nephews. The vessel was struck by a storm a month later and wrecked near Cape North, Cape Breton Island. Of 121 passengers and crew, only seven survived; La Corne was among them.

He subsequently made a remarkable overland journey of some 550 leagues, crossing Cape Breton Island, travelling along the northwest coast of Nova Scotia to Baie Verte (New Brunswick), up the Saint John River to the Témiscouata portage, and from Kamouraska to Quebec, arriving on 23 February 1762 after 100 days of travel. He published an account of the voyage in 1778.

British régime and later life

Under British rule La Corne remained an influential figure. He fostered ties with the new colonial administration through his daughters' marriages: Marie-Anne La Corne wed John Campbell around 1763, and Marie-Marguerite La Corne married Major John Lennox. Another daughter, Marie-Louise-Charlotte La Corne, married Georges-Hippolyte Le Comte Dupré in early 1770, a union La Corne initially opposed.

In December 1763, during Pontiac's War, Lieutenant Governor Cadwallader Colden of New York accused La Corne of inciting western Indigenous peoples against the British for two years.

Following the Quebec Act, La Corne was appointed to the Legislative Council created in May 1775. Governor Carleton had recommended him in 1769 as among those with "First Property and Consequence."

American Revolutionary War

In autumn 1775, with Montreal threatened by American forces, La Corne opened negotiations through Iroquois intermediaries at Sault-Saint-Louis (Caughnawaga) toward a possible surrender to General Richard Montgomery. When a rebel detachment under Colonel Ethan Allen was intercepted at Longue-Pointe, La Corne reconsidered. Montgomery, who considered him "a great villain and as cunning as the devil," barred him from Montreal after its November 1775 capitulation. Brigadier-General David Wooster suspected further intrigue and had La Corne sent to Philadelphia in February 1776, confining him at Kingston (Esopus), New York.

After his release, at age 66, La Corne advised loyalist ex-Governor William Tryon that unleashing Indigenous allies against the American rebels would end the war quickly. He joined Major-General Burgoyne's 1777 campaign as commander of Indigenous forces, a role that ended in disaster at Saratoga (Schuylerville) in October 1777.

In the subsequent parliamentary controversy, Burgoyne accused La Corne of causing the defection of the Indigenous allies, characterizing him as "by nature, education, and practice, artful, ambitious, and a courtier." La Corne replied in a letter of 23 October 1778 to London newspapers, calmly but firmly demonstrating that Burgoyne's own indifference to Indigenous casualties following the action at Bennington, Vermont, had driven them away.

Legislative advocacy

On 21 April 1784, La Corne proposed in the Legislative Council an address to Governor Haldimand calling for the continuation of the Quebec Act "in all its force" as "a precious charter" for the French-Canadian people. The motion was supported by the French party and endorsed by Haldimand, who in turn argued to London that maintaining the 1774 legislation was "the most likely means to attach the People to the Mother Country."

Death

La Corne died on 1 October 1784 at his residence on Rue Saint-Paul in Montreal. He was buried on 4 October in Sainte-Anne's chapel within Notre-Dame Church. His third wife, Marie-Marguerite Boucher de Boucherville, survived him by 35 years.

External links

• Biography at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography