Gilles Hocquart

Gilles Hocquart was born in 1694, in Sainte-Croix, Mortagne-au-Perche to Jean-Hyacinthe Hocquart. From September, 1729 to August, 1748, Hocquart served as Intendant of New France, this being the longest lasting intendancy contract in the colony's history. Hocquart put his faith in the Canadian bourgeoisie as the main player in the development of a profitable economy for the colony. Although his ideas were grand, he did not recognize the flaws that were already impeding the economy at a smaller scale. After a few rentable years, New France's fragile economy began to crumble, and by the end of his contract, Hocquart was held responsible for too many extraordinary expenses. He was called home and replaced by Francois Bigot. Nonetheless, the years between 1737 and 1741 were among the most prosperous in the history of New France.

There is an unfortunate lack of materials regarding Hocquart's personal history. What little sources remain are mostly professional exchanges between various officials, making it difficult to understand the man behind the intendant.

We do know that Hocquart's family came from the provincial nobility. Gilles Hocquart was born in the parish of Sainte-Croix, Mortagne, Perche in 1694. His official date of birth remains a mystery. His young adult years were spent in school, preparing for his ultimate goal: to follow in his father Jean-Hyacinthe's footsteps. In 1723, at 29 years old, Hocquart arrived at the Marine commissariat at Rochefort, where he remained until his appointment to New France in 1729. In 1725, now aged 31, Hocquart took on the position of Port controller permanently, which made him a financial officer with broad responsibilities including finances and material resources at Rochefort. These responsibilities were of the utmost importance. So much so, in fact, that by 1728, he was "second in authority to Beauharnois." Therefore, Hocquart found himself in a very favorable place for a promotion to a colonial intendancy.

At the time, Jean Frédéric Phélypeaux, comte de Maurepas, was the State Secretary of Navy in charge of colonial intendants. In the case of New France, Maurepas wanted "a more obedient, down-to-earth and efficient man with whom to replace Claude-Thomas Dupuy," the intendant from 1725 to 1728. On March 8, 1729, Maurepas formally commissioned Hocquart to perform the functions of Intendant in remote New France as commissaire-ordonnateur, a rank below that of Intendant. This measure was adopted to give Hocquart a trial period of two years. Indeed, two years later, Hocquart would be promoted to the full rank of Intendant in March 1731.

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