Pierre de Saurel

Pierre de Saurel (1626–1682) was a captain in France's Carignan-Salières Regiment and later a seigneur in New France. He was with the Carignan-Salières in 1665 when it was sent to New France to protect the colony from the Iroquois. When the regiment returned to France in 1668, Saurel remained behind and was granted a seigneury at the mouth of the Richelieu River, now the site of the city of Sorel-Tracy in Quebec, Canada.

Military career

Saurel, the son of Mathieu de Saurel and Jeanne de Girard was baptized at Grenoble, Dauphiné, France on December 26, 1626. His father was a lawyer. It is not known when Saurel became a military officer but by 1665 he was a captain and company commander in the Carignan-Salières Regiment. The Carignan-Salières was formed in 1659 by the merger of two existing regiments: the Carignan, raised in 1644 by Thomas-François de Savoie, Prince of Carignan, and the Salières (formerly the Balthasar Regiment), raised by Johann Balthasar de Gachéo during the Thirty Years' War.

Early in 1665, the Carignan-Salières received orders to deploy overseas to New France. The struggling colony had recently become a royal province but was threatened by the Mohawk, the easternmost of the five Iroquois nations. The regiment marched from northeastern France to the Atlantic coast and arrived at the port city of La Rochelle at the beginning of April.

The first four companies of the regiment left La Rochelle for New France in mid-April. The next eight companies, including Saurel’s, sailed on May 13. Before boarding they were inspected by Jean Talon, the newly appointed Intendant of New France. Talon praised Saurel’s company, writing that it was “much better than the others in terms of weapons and clothing.” He recommended that an award of 15 to 20 pistoles (Spanish gold coins) be given to Saurel. Saurel’s company sailed aboard La Paix and arrived at Quebec on August 19, 1665.

Fort Richelieu in 1695.Six days after his arrival, Saurel was tasked with rebuilding of Fort Richelieu. A fort at the confluence of the Richelieu River and the St. Lawrence River had been built in 1641 by Charles Huault de Montmagny but had been abandoned in 1646 and burned by the Mohawk in 1647. Fort Richelieu was one of five forts constructed by the Carignan-Salières astride the route that the Mohawk used to attack settlements on the St. Lawrence. It was later renamed Fort Sorel. Saurel wintered at the fort, and foreseeing future settlement, had his men clear a large amount of the surrounding forest.

Saurel died suddenly in Montreal on November 26, 1682, and was buried there two days later.