Date Published:
March 2005

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

François Joseph Cugnet

Cugnet, François Joseph (1720-1789), lawyer, was born at Quebec on June 26, 1720, the eldest son of François-Étienne Cugnet and Louise-Madeleine DuSautoy. Before the conquest he was counsellor to the Superior Council of New France; and in 1760 he was attached by General Murray. to the military court at Quebec . In 1766 Carleton appointed him French secretary to the governor and council, and employed him in drawing up an abstract of the laws during the French régime. The result was published in four volumes, Traité abrégé des anciennes lois (Quebec, 1775), Extraits des édits, declarations, ordonnances, et réglemens (Quebec, 1775), Traité de la loi des fiefs (Quebec, 1775), and Traité de la police (Quebec, 1775). He took part in the controversy over the framing of the Quebec Act, and was the object of attack by Francis Maseres in his Mémoire à la défence d'un plan de l'acte de parlement . . . contre les objections de M. François Joseph Cugnet (London, 1773). He died at Quebec on September 16, 1789. In 1757 he married Marie-Josephte de la Fontaine de Belcour, one of the heirs of the Bissot estate, and by her he had five sons. See P. G. Roy, La famille du légiste François-Joseph Cugnet (Bull. rech. hist., 1915).

Source  : W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. II, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 411p., p. 155.