Background
Claude de Ramezay was a son of Timothé de Ramezay and Catherine Tribouillard, daughter of Hilaire Tribouillard, intendant in charge of the extensive stables of the Prince de Condé.
Claude de Ramezay was a son of Timothé de Ramezay and Catherine Tribouillard, daughter of Hilaire Tribouillard, intendant in charge of the extensive stables of the Prince de Condé.
He was a military man by training and rose to being commander of the colonial regular troops. He came to Canada in 1685 as a lieutenant in the colonial regular troops and was promoted to the rank of captain two years later. In 1690, Ramezay married the daughter of Pierre Denys de Louisiana Ronde and thus was joined to one of the elite families of New France.
He then bought the position of governor of Trois-Rivières from the widow of René Gaultier de Varennes and became governor there in 1691.
In 1699, Ramezay left Trois-Rivières to become the commander of the Canadian troops. He served satisfactorily and was awarded the cross of Saint-Louis for his efforts.
In 1704 he succeeded Philippe de Rigaud de Vaudreuil as governor of Montreal. Ramezay was also the acting governor of New France from 1714 to 1716 while governor Philippe de Rigaud Vaudreuil was on leave in France.
Ramezay was survived by two sons and at least five daughters.
In 1712 Ramezay’s third son, Charles-Hector, Sieur de Louisiana Gesse, was presented to the French court by Madame de Vaudreuil. Louisiana Gesse, the elder of the surviving sons, died on 27 August 1725 in the wreck of the Chameau off Île Royale.
The younger, Jean-Baptiste-Nicolas-Roch, entered the military and is perhaps best remembered as the man who surrendered Quebec to the British in September 1759.
Of the five daughters, two became nuns and two others married officers of the colonial regular troops. Built in 1705, his residence is today known as the Château Ramezay and operates as a private museum in Old Montreal.