20 Apr History of D’Auteuil Street in Old Québec

History of D’Auteuil Street in Old Québec

Located at the entrance to Old Quebec, along the St-Jean and St-Louis gates, it was around year 1735 that d’Auteuil street was traced. First known as the Rue des Remparts and then the Rue de l’Esplanade, the final name of the Rue d’Auteuil will be attributed in 1876.

The origins of the d’Auteuil family in Old Québec

Denis-Joseph Ruette d’Auteuil was born in Paris in 1617. He is the son of Jean, squire, lord of d’Auteuil and de la Rousselière. When he became an adult, he served as the King’s ordinary councillor and steward.

It was in Paris in 1647 in the parish of Saint-Eustache that the couple Denis-Joseph Ruette d’Auteuil and Dame Claire-Francoise Clement du Vuault had their union celebrated. Less than two years later they made the great crossing to New France.

Previously ennobled during the reign of Louis XIII, Denis-Joseph Ruette d’Auteuil became Lord of d’Auteuil and Monceaux. On his arrival in Quebec City, he was offered a seigneury in Sillery near Quebec City.

The Sieur d’Auteuil became one of the first members of the Conseil Souverain. And later with the help of Lieutenant-General Prouville de Tracy, the manager of all the French possessions in North America, he took the post of Attorney General, to the great discontent of Frontenac, who later will banished him from Quebec. But d’Auteuil, too weak to make the return trip to France, died the week following his banishment from a long pulmonary infection on December 9, 1679 at the Hôtel-Dieu in Quebec City.