FARIBAULT, George Bartholomew, Canadian antiquarian, born in Quebec, 3 December 1789; died there, 21 December 1866. He studied law, and was admitted to the Quebec bar in 1811. During the war of 181'2'1.5 he served as lieutenant in the Canadian militia. In 1822 he was appointed secretary of committees and French translator to the legislature of Lower Canada, and in 1832 promoted to the post of assistant secretary. On the union of the two Canadas in 1841 he was named assistant secretary of the legislative assembly, which office he held until 1855. While fulfilling the duties of these offices he found leisure for the formation of a collection of works and documents relating to the history of Canada. This collection, amounting to 16,000 volumes, was lost in the fire that destroyed the legislative buildings in Montreal in 1849.

Faribault at once began to form a second collection, and was sent by the legislature to examine the libraries of Europe. At first he received every aid from the French ministers in his investigations; but the events of 2 December 1852, interfered with his researches, and the death of his wife decided him to return to Canada. He then devoted himself to the formation of the new national library, which had reached 20,000 volumes when the legislative buildings of Quebec were burned, 1 February 1854, and although 13,000 volumes were saved, the 7,000 that were lost comprised publications of the 16th and 17th centuries that never could be replaced. His health was injured by this calamity, and the legislature voted him a pension of $2,000. The principal work of the close of his life was the execution of the monument that the French troops' had resolved to raise in 1761 to the memory of Montcalm in the Church of the Ursulines of Quebec.

He was one of the founders of the Historical society of Quebec. He wrote a "Catalogue raisonn6 d'ouvrages sur l'histoire de l'Amdrique" (1837), which is still considered an indispensable guide for the historian, His collection of manuscripts and old works, which he left to Laval University, comprises about 400 manuscripts, half of which are original, or copies collated of very old documents (1626, 1636, and the years following'). Among these the most precious is the "Journal des Jesuites" (1645'88, the only part discovered so far). There are about 1,000 printed volumes, some of which are very rare and important, such as "Lescarbot" (160§); "Champlain" (1613); " Les voyages aventureux de Jean Alphonse"; "Relations des Jesuites" ; and an album containing plans, maps, views, and portraits, all relating to the history of the country, and several of them of great importance.