Marie-Madeleine Raclos was born about 1655, a daughter of Idebon Raclos, écuyer — a member of the lesser nobility — and Marie Viennot of Paris.¹
In 1671 she came to Canada with her father and her sisters Françoise and Marie. She is listed among the filles du roi, the young women whose passage to New France was paid by the king in order to promote marriage and permanent settlement in the colony.²
A marriage contract was drawn before the notary Claude Larue on 11 November 1671 for her marriage to Nicolas Perrault, and the couple was married at Cap-de-la-Madeleine.¹ Nicolas Perrault was an interpreter, fur trader, and officer who later served as commandant in the pays d’en haut — literally the “upper country,” meaning the interior beyond Montréal reached by traveling up the St. Lawrence and Ottawa River routes into the Great Lakes and western fur-trade region of New France.³
The parish registers record the baptisms of their children at Champlain, Cap-de-la-Madeleine, Québec, Nicolet, and Montréal:
- François (1672–1745)
- Nicolas (1674–1725)
- Clémence (1676–1776)
- Michel (1677–1723)
- Marie-Françoise (1678–1744)
- Marie-Anne (1680–1745)
- Claude (1684–1741)
- Jean-Baptiste (1688–1705)
- Jean (1690–1773)⁴
Through Nicolas Perrault’s work in the western trade, the family was connected to the network of alliances, travel routes, and military posts that linked the St. Lawrence valley to the Great Lakes and Mississippi regions.³
Nicolas Perrault died 13 August 1717 and was buried the following day at Bécancour.³
Marie-Madeleine Raclos was buried 8 July 1724 at Trois-Rivières after several years during which the burial record notes that she had lived “dans la démence la plus complète,” indicating a state of complete mental decline.¹
Her life is documented in the notarial record of her marriage, in the parish registers where her children were baptized and buried, and in the demographic lists of the filles du roi.
Sources
- Peter J. Gagné, King’s Daughters and Founding Mothers: The Filles du Roi, 1663–1673, vol. 2 (Pawtucket, R.I.: Quintin Publications, 2000), 198–99, Marie-Madeleine Raclos.
- Yves Landry, Les Filles du roi au XVIIe siècle (Montréal: Leméac, 1992), entry for Marie-Madeleine Raclos.
- Peter J. Gagné, King’s Daughters and Founding Mothers, biography of Nicolas Perrault.
- Québec (Canada), Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621–1968, baptisms of the Perrault children and burial of Marie-Madeleine Raclos; Cyprien Tanguay, Dictionnaire généalogique des familles canadiennes, s.v. “Perrault.”
- Canadian Genealogy Index, 1600s–1900s.
- Canada, Find a Grave Index, 1600s–Current.
- Passenger and Immigration Lists Index, 1500s–1900s.