Jean-Baptiste-René Hertel de Rouville was born 20 June 1789 in Montreal, son of Jean-Baptiste-Melchior Hertel de Rouville and Marie-Anne Hervieux. His military career began at the age of 18 as a lieutenant in the militia. In April 1812 he became a captain of the Canadian Voltigeurs, the infantry unit raised under Lieutenant Colonel Charles de Salaberry to fight during the War of 1812. While serving he participated in the Battle of the Châteauguay on 26 October 1813. In 1816, he married Charlotte de Labroquerie, the daughter of Joseph Boucher de La Broquerie and Charlotte Boucher de Niverville de Montizambert. Hertel de Rouville received his inheritance of the seigneury of Rouville and part of the seigneury of Chambly in 1819 upon the death of his mother. In 1824, he was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada for the riding of Bedford and then reelected in 1827. During this second mandate, he was one of the signers of a petition denouncing abuses by the government of George Ramsay, Lord Dalhousie, Governor General of British North America. Consequently, Hertel de Rouville, along with four other signatories, was stripped of his military rank. He was reelected to office in 1830 in the new riding of Bedford and was part of the Legislative Council from 1837 until the Constitution was suspended following the Lower Canada Rebellion in 1838. During the years of 1838 and 1839 he attempted to recoup financial losses due to the rebellions and to claim payment for his service during the War of 1812. He was also under attack, during this time, by the priest of the parish of Saint-Jean-Baptiste-de Rouville, Louis Nau. Nau made a claim in 1838 that Hertel de Rouville had abetted and provided financial support to rebels in the region. Nau was joined by police magistrate William Foster Coffin in testifying to Hertel de Rouville's disloyalty before the the Rebellion Losses Commissioners in 1839. Ill and impoverished, Hertel de Rouville sold the seigneury of Rouville in 1844. He died on 3 January 1859 in Boucherville, Lower Canada.