Vincelotte River

The Vincelotte river takes its source at the confluence of the Bélanger and Caouette streams. This spring is located in an agricultural zone to the northwest of the Canadian National railway line in the municipality of Saint-Eugène, at 2.5 kilometres (1.6 mi) east of the south shore of the middle estuary of the St. Lawrence, at 5.6 kilometres (3.5 mi) west of the center of the village of Saint-Eugène and at 5.7 kilometres (3.5 mi) east of the village of L'Islet.^[1]

From its source, the Vincelotte river flows over 5.1 kilometres (3.2 mi), divided into the following segments:

• 1.8 kilometres (1.1 mi) towards the southwest, in Saint-Eugène, to the limit of Cap-Saint-Ignace;
• 8.8 kilometres (5.5 mi) towards the southwest in an agricultural zone, until its confluence.^[1]

At the end of its course, the Vincelotte river flows onto the long shore (at low tide) of Anse du Cap, on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River. This confluence is located 2.9 kilometres (1.8 mi) north of the village of Cap-Saint-Ignace and south-west of the village of L'Islet-sur-Mer.^[1]

The toponym Rivière Vincelotte evokes Charles-Joseph Amiot (Amyot) de Vincelotte (born on March 23, 1665, in Quebec - died on May 9, 1735, in Quebec). He was a navigator, a lieutenant in the navy, a militia commander, a lord. Charles Amiot de Vincelotte had married, on February 19, 1691, in Montreal, Marie-Gabrielle Philippe de Hautmesnil; 13 children came from this union.

After his primary studies at the Jesuit college in Quebec, he studied navigation. In 1680, he received from his mother the stronghold of Vincelotte (Cap-Saint-Ignace) that Talon had assigned to him in 1672. In 1684, at the age of 19, Charles-Joseph enlisted in the militia. He initialed a will the same year, before leaving “to travel and go to war for the service of the King and the Iroquois”. In 1693, he presented a request - which was to be approved - to Louis de Buade de Frontenac and Jean Bochart de Champigny in order to enlarge his fief, wishing, he wrote, "to contribute with all his to be able to increase this colony and to work hard to establish itself there ”.

In 1703–1704, Amiot took part in some expeditions to the coasts of Newfoundland. In 1706 he was chosen to race the coast of New England as a lieutenant, under the command of Louis Denys de La Ronde. In particular, they had to fight a hard battle against March who besieged Port-Royal (Acadia) (Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia) on May 26, 1707. Having achieved the victory, they bring the news to the king of France; they then asked for help with an expedition against the city of Boston. Despite the approval of the project, the French government cannot assign them other vessels than the Venus; a rather poor frigate, on which they nevertheless sailed for two years, taking numerous catches. The last reference of his activity in this field is in 1727, when he was appointed commander of the militias of the south coast.^[2]

The toponym Rivière Vincelotte was formalized on December 5, 1968, at the Commission de toponymie du Québec.^[3]