The First Census of New France (Québec) – 1666
The following information appears in current (original) form on WikiTree (source link):
Intendant Jean Talon began his administrative appointment by taking stock of the colony. This included two census documents, the first in the winter of 1665-66, and another census in 1667. He conducted both census on the de jure principle – that is, counting people where they normally reside.
Under the de jure method an individual is enumerated as belonging to the locality that they normally reside in, even if on the census date they are elsewhere.
The 1666 census was actually ordered by the king’s minister Colbert. It was haphazardly done and missed a quarter of the population. Very unhappy that the census showed only around 3,000 people in the colony, Colbert ordered another one. The 1667 census was the result. It is missing a sixth of the population.
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This site provides a recovered Digital Copy of the 1666 New France Census extracted from the Wayback Machine.
So far as I am able to determine, the original Internet Website developed, managed and provided by Hugh Armstrong is no longer online. The site content remains largely unchanged with the following exceptions. I have made minor spelling corrections & reformatted the site layout for ease of maintenance. I, also, replaced the original glossary and terms with new links.
If you are the original author and wish to move this site to your own server, please contact me directly. I am happy to assist you in affecting the transfer of this site to your control.
This census is presented as the names were listed in ten regions. An alphabetical list of residents has not been prepared. [Although the search function on this site should allow for easy digital discovery.]
- Habittans de Beauport
- Habittans de Beaupré
- Habittans de Coste de Lauzon
- Habittans de Isle de Orleáns
- Habittans de Montreal
- Habittants de Sillery
- Habittants de Trois Rivieres
- Habittants des la Haute & Basse Ville de Quebecq y compris la grande Allée
- Habittants des Nostre Dame des Anges, La Riviere si Charles & Charlesbourg
- Habittants des Sainct Jean, Sainct Francois, & Sainct Michel
- Statistics for the 1666 Census
Related 1666/1667 New France Census Material
Follow the links below if you wish to see additional Census materials:
- 1666 Handwritten Census
- 1667 Handwritten Census
- A downloadable & searchable version of the 1667 Census is available via this link.
- Report of the Archivist of the Province of Quebec, 1935, 1935-1936 (Rapport de l’Archiviste de la province de Québec, 1935, 1935-1936)