He was born in Verchères, Quebec, the son of Nicolas-Antoine Coulon de Villiers and Angelique Jarret de Verchères. In 1744, he was the first commandant of Fort de Cavagnal on the bluffs above the Missouri River, in what was then known as the Illinois country of upper Louisiana, near modern-day Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. It was the furthest west of the French forts in Louisiana (New France).
