Seigneurie of Batiscan

The Seigneurie of Batiscan^[1] was located on, and included 1/2 lieue of frontage along, the north shore of the St. Lawrence River (between the mouth of the Batiscan River and the Champlain River, in the current administrative area the Mauricie) in the province of Quebec, Canada. It was 20 lieues deep. Granted in 1639 to the Jesuits, colonization of the manor began in 1666, after an initial allotments were added to the census in 1665.) The northern boundary of the seigneurie was past the source of the Saint-Maurice River. It was the deepest in the seigneurial system of New France. The seigneurie of Batiscan became the most populous governed area of the Three Rivers by the end of the 17th Century.

In the 17th century, intensive colonization of the seigneurie focused on the lowlands south of the Saint-Narcisse moraine, especially between 1665 and 1674, when the Jesuits approve 79 concessions. In the 18th century, the colonization effort involved two major phases: from 1705 to 1724 and from 1740 to 1760. Colonization north into pioneer zones north of the Saint-Narcisse moraine because lots below the moraine were fully settled. Today this area is included in Saint-Stanislas, Mauricie, Quebec whose civil registers opened in 1787. In the middle of the 18th century (the end of French rule), the seigneurie of Batiscan ceased to exist and its population was included in the manors north of Lake Saint-Pierre or those of Lordship Yamachiche and Lordship of Rivière-du-Loup.