Joseph-Antoine de La Barre

Joseph-Antoine le Fèbvre de La Barre (1622–1688) was the Governor of New France from 1682 to 1685. He had previously been Governor of Auvergne and of the French Antilles (1666 and 1667, then temporarily until 1669).

He was originally an administrator, who then became an officer in the French Navy.

Having replaced the frustrated Comte de Frontenac, La Barre set out to permanently establish the fur trade in the west (in and around what is now Kingston, Ontario). In 1683 he, along with a few hundred soldiers (Troupes de la marine), made camp at the future site of Oswego, New York to wait for the Iroquois attack. After a while, over a hundred of La Barre's men fell ill and supplies ran out. La Barre and his men elected to return to Montreal and abandon the west. They left Oswego and Fort Frontenac (Kingston) to the Iroquois. As punishment, the French government handed La Barre's governorship to Jacques-René de Brisay, Marquis de Denonville, a tough, pious cavalry officer.