He was born at the Castle of Vaudreuil near
Castelnaudary in France. He was the second son of Jean-Louis de Rigaud (d. 1659), Baron de Vaudreuil, Seigneur d'
Auriac and de
Cabanial, by his wife Marie de Château-Verdun. She was the daughter of François,
Seigneur de la Razairie. As Chevalier de Vaudreuil, he was sent to command French forces in
New France before being appointed
Governor of Montreal in 1699, and then
Governor General of New France in 1703. He died at
Quebec City. He married
Louise Élisabeth de Joybert, a daughter of
Pierre de Joybert de Soulanges et de Marson, by his wife Marie-Françoise, daughter of
Louis-Théandre Chartier de Lotbinière. They lived at
Château Vaudreuil, which was built in 1723 by Chaussegros de Léry, but was eventually destroyed by a fire in 1803. In 1723, he was recorded as owning an enslaved
Meskwaki woman, Marguerite-Genevieve. Their son,
Pierre François de Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil-Cavagnal, served as the last
Governor General of New France before the
British Conquest of New France from 1755 to 1760 during the
French and Indian War. Several of his other sons went on to distinguished careers in the French army and navy. His grandson
Louis-Philippe de Vaudreuil defeated a
British naval force at the
Battle of the Chesapeake 1781 on the
Sceptre, and was protecting
George Washington's army in 1782 in
Boston aboard the
Triomphant. His grandson also brought back the victorious French army of
Rochambeau, back to France after the
Siege of Yorktown. Rigaud de Vaudreuil was one of three governors-general of Canada known to have owned
enslaved people. During his tenure, he owned 11 people, seven of whom were from First Nations and four from Africa. ==Legacy==