Joseph-Antoine Lefèvre de la Barre, Seigneur de La Barre

Governor-general of New France (1682–85), counsellor in the Parlement of Paris in 1645, maître des requêtes c. 1650, intendant of Paris during the Fronde, then intendant of Bourbonnais, Auvergne, and Dauphiné, ship’s captain, governor and lieutenant-general of Guiana c. 1666; b. 1622 in France, son of Antoine Le Febvre de La Barre, a counsellor in the Parlement of Paris and prévôt des marchands, and of Madeleine Belin; d. 1688 in Paris.

On 1 May 1682, King Louis XIV appointed Le Febvre de La Barre governor-general of New France. He was then 60 years old and had had a long career in the navy. In Canada he succeeded a man of fine character, who was difficult to replace: the Comte de Frontenac [see Buade]. The period was a tragic one, for the Iroquois, who had conquered the other tribes, were becoming a menace for the French. There was also the English threat in Hudson Bay. And when the new governor and Intendant de Meulles* landed at Quebec, at the end of September 1682, they found half the town destroyed by the great fire of August 1682. Despite these unpropitious circumstances, M. de La Barre wrote highly confident letters to the king and the minister, assuring them that he would be able to overcome the Iroquois, who must, he said, be familiar with his victories over the English in the West Indies. He also declared to the minister, Colbert de Seignelay, that he would not follow the example of his predecessors, who had made their fortunes in Canada through trade.

The department of the Marine, under whose jurisdiction Canada came, first approved M. de La Barre’s action against the Iroquois, for on 30 July 1684 the king wrote to the governor that he endorsed “his decision to attack the Iroquois because of their action against the Fort Saint-Louis” – which did not prevent the king from blaming La Barre a year later. The latter had moreover a very personal grievance against these Indians. Out of hatred for La Salle, whom he wanted to ruin completely, and with the aim of sparing La Chesnaye any commercial competition, the governor had been unwise enough to authorize the Iroquois to attack and pillage any canoe the owner of which could not show a fur trading licence signed by him. Now the Iroquois, fortified by this official permission, set about attacking all canoes indiscriminately, even those carrying goods belonging to M. de La Barre. This, according to Abbé Vachon* de Belmont, sent him into a towering rage....http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/le_febvre_de_la_barre_joseph_antoine...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/François-Jean_de_la_Barre, his descendant