Jean-Baptiste Migeon de Branssat

Jean-Baptiste Migeon de Branssat was a French merchant and clerk in the service of the West India Company who held various public offices in New France.

Born into a merchant family at Moulins in Bourbonnais, Migeon came to New France around 1665. In that year he started to trade at Montreal and in 1666 he entered the service of the the Compagnie des Indes Occidentales serving as a company’s clerk. Besides being involved in trade, he was also engaged in numerous real estate dealings. In 1665 he married to Catherine Gauchet de Belleville of a noble background.

In the subsequent period de Branssat was granted various honorable offices. From 1667 to 1667 he served as attorney of the seigneury of Montreal, and after its termination he was named the civil and criminal judge in the bailiff’s court of Montreal in 1677. Finally, in 1693 he was appointed royal judge of Montreal but unfortunately he died the following year before the office was officially conferred to him.