As an officer in the 1660s he took part in some early campaigns against the Iroquois and Mohawks, soon after composing his first known poem. Following in his father's shoes he was appointed Deputy Attorney-General of New France in 1670. In 1672, he was granted a Seigneury which he named after one of his family's old seigneuries in France, Lotbinière, which had since been passed to the Chateaubriand family of Combourg as a wedding dowry.[a] Two years later his name was put forward by the Compagnie des Indes Occidentales and appointed a Councillor of the Sovereign Council of New France. The following year he was made a Councillor for life by Louis XIV of France, the only such Councillor to hold the appointment by the King. In 1677, he replaced his father as Lieutenant-General for Civil and Criminal Affairs (Judge) of the Provost Court.
Patent confirming a concession in Canada by the King to René-Louis Chartier de Lotbinière, April 15, 1694.
De Lotbinière had maintained his connections to the military after his early campaigns against the Iroquois. In 1673, he had been promoted to lieutenant colonel of the Quebec Militia, and in 1684 again accompanied Joseph-Antoine de La Barre in campaigns against the Iroquois as Commander of the Regiment of Quebec. At the Siege of Quebec 1690 he was the colonel of the Quebec militia in the defence of the colony.
Family
René-Louis's well-known granddaughter, Angelique-Genevieve Renaud d'Avène des Méloizes (1722-1792), c.1754
At Quebec City in 1678, de Lotbinière married Marie Madeleine Lambert du Mont (1662–1695), daughter of Eustache Lambert du Mont (1618–1673), Seigneur and Commandant of the Quebec Militia. After his father returned to France in 1679, they lived at his old house, Maison Lotbinière in Quebec, where all his children were born and where he died. René-Louis and his wife were the parents of seven children,
Rene-Louis Chartier de Lotbinière (1681-1718), became an officer in the French Royal Army and was killed at Louisiana.
Angelique de Lotbinière (1692-1772), was married twice. In 1712, she married Jean-Francois Martin de Lino de Chalmette, Attorney General of New France. Their son, Louis Xavier Martin de Lino de Chalmette founded Chalmette, Louisiana, and married the sister of Antoine Philippe de Marigny, grandfather of Bernard de Marigny. The Battle of New Orleans was fought at Chalmette, Louisiana, on the plantation of Louis's son, Ignace Martin de Lino de Chalmette. In 1722, Angelique married Captain Nicolas-Marie Renaud d'Avène des Méloizes (1696-1743), Comte des Meloizes and Chevalier de St Louis, whose sister was married to her brother, Eustache. They were the parents of Angelique-Genevieve d'Avene des Meloizes, the subject of Nadine Grelet's book, La Belle Angelique (2003) and one of the two central figures in William Kirby's classic book, The Golden Dog (1873). She was married to Michel-Jean-Hugues de Pean (directly descended from Hugues de Payens), but better known for her affair with François Bigot. Her brother, Nicolas Renaud d'Avene des Meloizes-Fresnoy (1729-1803), became the Marquis de Fresnoy through his marriage to the heiress Agathe-Louise de Fresnoy.
