Article

Augustin Cuvillier

Published Online January 20, 2008

Last Edited December 16, 2013

Augustin Cuvillier, soldier, banker, politician (b at Québec C 21 Aug 1779; d at Montréal 11 July 1849). He attended the Collège de Montréal and became a Montréal merchant and auctioneer, served in the militia during and after the War of 1812, and was promoted to major.

Cuvillier, Augustin

Augustin Cuvillier, soldier, banker, politician (b at Québec C 21 Aug 1779; d at Montréal 11 July 1849). He attended the Collège de Montréal and became a Montréal merchant and auctioneer, served in the militia during and after the War of 1812, and was promoted to major. One of the promoters of the Bank of Montreal, he served as a director from 1817 to 1826. He was president of the Montreal Committee of Trade in the 1830s and helped to form the Board of Trade in 1842. He served as a magistrate during the election riots of 1832.

Cuvillier represented Huntingdon in Lower Canada's legislative assembly from 1812 to 1830, and Laprairie from 1830 to 1834. He was one of the 3-man delegation sent by the assembly in 1828 to advise the British on the political and economic problems of Lower Canada (see Canada Committee). However, he withdrew from active political life in 1834 after being estranged from Louis-Joseph Papineau's Patriotes. Having returned to politics in 1841 as the member for Huntingdon, he was elected speaker of the assembly, but was defeated in the 1844 election.