Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Narbonne, Peter Remi

876751Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 40 — Narbonne, Peter Remi1894Gerald Patrick Moriarty

NARBONNE, PETER REMI (1806–1839), Canadian insurgent, was born in 1806 at St. Remi in Lower Canada, of an old French Canadian family. He took an active part in the events preceding the Lower Canadian rebellion of 1837, and was among the insurgents defeated at St. Charles on 23 Nov. 1837, but managed to escape to American soil. He now entered a band of insurgents collected together by Louis Gagnon, with whom he recrossed the frontier, but was defeated and driven back by the loyalists at Moore's Corner on 28 Feb. 1838. He then joined another body of insurgents, and with them made a fresh attack on Canada in March 1838. He was taken prisoner at St. Eustache, nineteen miles from Montreal, and brought a captive to St. Jean.

Narbonne was released from prison in July, but immediately joined the fresh rebel army organised across the frontier by Robert Nelson in the autumn of 1838. He took part in a number of raids on the Canadian territory, the chief of which was checked by the loyalists at Odeltown Church on 9 Nov. 1838. Narbonne was captured after the latter defeat, and taken to Montreal. He was tried there for high treason, convicted, and hanged on 15 Feb. 1839.

[Appleton's Cyclopædia of American Biography; Histories of Canada by Garneau and Withrow; Canadian State Trials.]

G. P. M-y.