Bigot, François

   Born at Bordeaux, Jan. 30, 1703; son of Louis-Amable Bigot. Through his influence at court, obtained several lucrative offices in New France, which he turned to his own personal advantage. Arrived at Louisbourg in 1739. After the capture of Louisbourg in 1745, returned to France, where serious charges of misappropriating public funds had been brought against him, but his influence at court was still powerful enough to extricate him from this scrape, and to secure him the office of intendant of New France, 1748. Sailed for Quebec and arrived the same year. There elaborated a system of peculation, by which every branch of the public service was laid under tribute to enrich himself and his creatures, helping thereby to bring about the final loss of the colony. Returned to France after the conquest of Canada; thrown into the Bastille, and released only to be banished from France.

   Index: WM Intendant, appearance and character, 32; made profit of famine, 53; gambling habits, 54; reprimanded by minister, 88; hostility to Bougainville, 88; makes his headquarters at Beauport, 88; letter to Bougainville, 165. Hd Disliked, 52.

   Bib.: Roy, Intendants de la Nouvelle-France (R. S. C., 1903); Parkman, Montcalm and Wolfe.