The following article appeared in the LE FORUM magazine, Volume 32, #1 & 2, Printemps/Spring 2006 - Été/Summer 2006, page 6. It is reprinted here with permission from the author, Denise Rajotte Larson, and the Managing Editor, Lisa Michaud. Merci bien.
As we celebrate Mother’s Day, let us remember the pioneering women of French Canada who nurtured a new culture in a strange new world called North America.
Arriving in 1617 to a rough, remote trading post on the banks of the St. Lawrence River, the women of the Hebert family, Marie Rollet and her daughters Guillemette and Anne, had to rely on their strength and ingenuity to make a home for themselves and her husband, Louis, and son, Guillaume.
Luckily, the men at Quebec helped Louis and Guillaume construct a large stone house on the promontory overlooking the river. The Hebert’s home became a gathering place for the clerks and craftsmen who ran the fur trading post. Samuel de Champlain, who founded the settlement in 1608 and continued his support throughout his life, frequented the Hebert’s house. In his reports to the king about Quebec and his voyages, Champlain commended Mme Hebert for establishing a school in her home for orphans of the native people they had encountered and befriended. The fifty-some Europeans who lived in Quebec went to the Hebert’s house for aid, comfort, and socializing. In the spring of 1627, while waiting for supply ships to arrive from France, everyone at the post met at Marie’s to pool what foodstuffs they had for a true potluck dinner. She used her great brewing cauldron to cook the feast for the day.
Two years later the mood was not so festive. Marie, now a widow, had to make a very hard decision. The Kirke brothers, David, Louis, and Thomas, had illegally seized Quebec for the English crown, and all the French inhabitants were given the choice of returning to France or staying under the rule of the Kirkes. Marie knew that she had nothing in France to return to and nothing to take there should she go. All her energy had gone into the care of her family, home, and the tiny post community.
After consulting with Champlain, Marie decided to remain in Quebec, as did her daughter Guillemette and son-in-law, Guillaume Couillard. This was a brave thing to do. Though the Kirkes were working for the English, their mother had been from the French city of Dieppe and their father was a Scot. Champlain, who had negotiated the truce, felt that the conduct and manners of Louis Kirke, the leader, were so like a French gentleman’s that Louis could be trusted not to harm the settlers.
The Kirkes were true to their word and allowed the few remaining families to farm their land in safety, but the French were happy to see Champlain return a few years later with the news that Quebec was to be released back to him by order of the English king. The Kirkes said their adieu, and life at the post returned to normal.
“Normal” was life on a few acres of land carved from the forest, a few dozen people to rely on, a couple of stout buildings. They knew an incessant wariness, a watchfulness for any signs of the approach of hostile Iroquois toward the post to attack it or take captive one of its inhabitants for ransom or worse. They would also keep an eye out for the supply ships from France that would supplement their garden produce.
Eventually the colony grew. Marie’s granddaughter Francoise became a “sage-femme,” a midwife, and was well respected in the settlement for her community spirit and wisdom. Marie’s daughter-in-law Helen Desportes also served as a midwife.
Life went on. Babies were born and the colony grew, with both native Canadians and new arrivals from France, who joined the intrepid women who had faced an uncertain future and founded a country.
Source: “Introduction to New France” by Marcel Trudel, Quintin Publications, 1997.
Denise Rajotte Larson is a freelance writer whose "Companions of Champlain," a story of life in early Quebec, will be published by LeForum (www.francoamerican.org.) in 2007.
This article also appeared in the online magazine Késsinnimek - Roots - Racines, the January 2007 Issue
