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Y Establir Nostre Auctorité’: Assertions of Imperial Sovereignty Through Proprietorships and Chartered Companies in New France, 1598-1663

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Y Establir Nostre Auctorité’: Assertions of Imperial Sovereignty Through Proprietorships and Chartered Companies in New France, 1598-1663 ‘Y establir nostre auctorité’: Assertions of Imperial Sovereignty through Proprietorships and Chartered Companies in New France, 1598-1663 by Helen Mary Dewar A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of History University of Toronto © Copyright by Helen Dewar 2012 ‘Y establir nostre auctorité’: Assertions of Imperial Sovereignty through Proprietorships and Chartered Companies in New France, 1598-1663 Helen Dewar Doctor of Philosophy Department of History University of Toronto 2012 Abstract Current historiography on French empire building in the early modern period rests on a host of unexamined terms, including colony, empire, monopoly, company, and trading privileges. Yet, these terms were anything but fixed, certain or uncomplicated to contemporaries. This dissertation takes as its subject the exercise of authority in New France through proprietorships and companies to get to the political, legal, and ideological heart of French empire building. Organized chronologically, each chapter corresponds to a different constellation of authority, ranging from a proprietorship in which the titleholder subdelegated his trading privileges and administrative authority to two separate parties to a commercial company that managed both jurisdictions. Engaging with cutting-edge international literature on sovereignty, empire formation, and early modern state building, this thesis resituates the story of the colonization of French North America in an Atlantic framework. It relies partly on civil suits that arose in France during the first three decades of the seventeenth century over powers and privileges in New France. This frequent litigation has traditionally been ignored by historians of New France; however, my research suggests that it was an integral part of the process of ii colonization. On the ground, claimants fought for ascendancy using instruments of legal authority and personal power. These contests in New France often had a second act in the courts of France, where parties’ actions exposed preoccupations quite removed from the colonial enterprise, particularly jurisdictional rivalries, both personal and institutional. New France became part of the admiral’s efforts to consolidate and extend his authority, thereby incorporating the colony into an existing French institution. Royal ambitions to control maritime commerce and navigation conflicted with the admiral’s growing jurisdiction, leading to plays for power in New France. Domestic challenges to exclusive trading privileges overseas were intimately connected to concerns over royal encroachment on provincial jurisdiction. Such examples highlight both the intimate connections between the construction of sovereignty in the colonial realm and the process of state formation in France and the contingency and contestation associated with these processes in the early seventeenth-century Atlantic. iii Acknowledgments This dissertation has benefitted from the support, expertise, and guidance of numerous individuals. I am indebted to the graduate students, faculty, and staff of the Department of History at the University of Toronto for creating an intellectually vibrant and supportive atmosphere in which to pursue the historian’s craft in all its dimensions. This project would not have been possible without the generous financial assistance of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Ontario Graduate Scholarship Program, the Department of History and the School of Graduate Studies at the University of Toronto, and the Harvard Atlantic Centre. I am grateful for the expertise, patience, and guidance of the staff at the following institutions: Library and Archives Canada, the Archives nationales de France, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the Archives départementales de la Charente-Maritime in La Rochelle, the Archives départementales de Seine Maritime in Rouen, the Archives municipales de Saint-Malo, the Bibliothèque Villon (Rouen), and the Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library at the University of Toronto. I would like to thank, in particular, Lorraine Gadoury of Library and Archives Canada for her prompt and thorough responses to my many queries. Over the course of my research, which has taken me to Paris, Rouen, La Rochelle, Ottawa, and Montréal, I have had the pleasure of many stimulating conversations with a variety of scholars, who have taken the time to share their knowledge and sources. They include Kenneth Banks, Natalie Zemon Davis, Nicholas Dew, Gilles Havard, Silvia Marzagalli, Michel Morin, Jean-Frédéric Schaub, and Cécile Vidal. I have also benefitted from the assistance of lawyers Sheherazade Ghorashy and Benoît Gravel, who patiently took me through the finer points of French civil law. Special thanks go to Camille Bégin, Daniel Laxer, Vanessa McCarthy, Brad Miller, and Candace Sobers for helping me with my defense preparations and their encouragement during that process. The loneliness and isolation of intense scholarly work has been much mitigated by the convivial and intellectually rewarding monthly meetings of the Premodern discussion group at the University of Toronto and the Toronto-area France seminar. Several chapters of this dissertation have benefitted from the insightful and constructive comments of members of the Premodern group as well as the Politics and Policy discussion group. Helpful feedback and encouragement from the participants of the Harvard Atlantic seminar and the audiences of the meetings of the French Colonial Historical Association, the Histoire de l’Acadie symposium, and iv the French Atlantic History Group of Montreal have been invaluable. The latter group deserves special mention, as it has fostered an energetic and stimulating intellectual home for scholars on both sides of the Atlantic working on French Atlantic topics, particularly those at the start of their careers. Finally, I would like to thank Lauren Benton, Catherine Desbarats, Richard Ross and Thomas Wien for their comments on versions of chapters, all of which pushed my analysis further, as I prepared articles for publication. If scholarship in general is solitary, work on seventeenth-century New France can be positively isolating. That this was not my experience for many of my doctoral years is due in large part to my fellow New France traveller, Chris Parsons. I drew inspiration from his energy and enthusiasm for the subject and time period as well as his engagement with many other facets of life in Toronto. His friendship and encouragement have been invaluable. I have been very fortunate in the support and encouragement I have received from various dedicated professors along the way. Jack Crowley of Dalhousie University initially opened my eyes to the possibilities of following people, ideas, and goods around the Atlantic Ocean during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. His enthusiasm, energy, and wide- ranging intellectual curiosity continue to be a source of inspiration for me. At the University of Toronto, Adrienne Hood has been variously a professor, supervisor, teaching colleague, mentor, and friend. Our discussions of early American history remain one of the highlights of my doctoral career. I am grateful for her professional guidance and her belief in me as both a scholar and teacher. The members of my dissertation committee have been extremely complementary, each bringing a particular expertise and style to the dissertation, thereby enriching the whole. It was Ken Mills’ graduate seminar on Latin America that originally got me thinking deeply about the meaning of empire, both its intellectual foundations and how it worked on the ground. His continued faith in the quality of my work, even as I plodded along, was encouraging. Paul Cohen’s timely arrival at the University of Toronto in the second half of my first year stimulated and strengthened my engagement with early modern France. With his masterful command of the historiography and generous use of time, he patiently guided a novice through the labyrinthine and sometimes bewildering organization of the early modern French state and society. Allan Greer has been the best supervisor one could hope to have. He is unfailingly enthusiastic towards and engaged in his graduate students’ work. Allan’s conscientiousness in checking in, arranging meetings and phone calls even as he settled in to a new university in another province v has been proof of this dedication. His always incisive and constructive criticisms of thesis chapters, articles, and proposals have helped me hone my analytical and writing skills. He has truly been an inspiration to me, as an intellectual, historian, engaged citizen, and generous person. I would also like to thank Paul Cheney and Nicholas Terpstra, who served as thesis examiners, for their insightful and constructive comments and questions during the defence. The generous assistance of the above people aside, all errors are mine alone. The completion of this dissertation would not have been possible without the unstinting support of my family. I am grateful to my sister Megan and her partner Chris for their generous hospitality during archival stints in Ottawa and their travels to Paris to meet up with me. Their beautiful and curious infant daughter, Madeline, has kept me going over the past several months. Denis McKim’s patient understanding and unwavering faith in me have been a constant source of strength. His love and encouragement have lifted me out of many difficult periods. My parents,
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