Category: Marriageable women

Marguerite Charlot

On By NancyIn Ancestor Profile, Fille a Marier, Marriageable womenLeave a comment

Marguerite Charlot was born about 1632 in the parish of Saint-Jean-en-Grève in Paris, the daughter of François Charlot and Barbe Girardeau.¹ She came to Canada in 1647, most likely in the company of Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve on his return to Montréal.¹

She married Louis Loisel at Montréal on 13 January 1648.² No marriage contract has been found for the couple. Marguerite was unable to sign her name, while her husband could.¹

Louis Loisel, a master locksmith, had been born about 1617 at Saint-Germain-le-Blanc-Herbe in Normandy, the son of Louis Loisel and Jeanne Le Terrier.¹

The parish registers of Montréal record the baptisms and burials of their children:

  • Jeanne, baptized 24 July 1649
  • Françoise, baptized 26 February 1652
  • Joseph, baptized 25 November 1654
  • Charles, baptized 2 June and buried 28 June 1658
  • Marie-Marthe, baptized and buried 15 August 1659
  • Charles, baptized 5 October and buried 7 November 1661
  • Barbe, baptized 30 August 1663
  • Louis, baptized 14 August and buried 5 September 1667²

Jeanne, their eldest child, is regarded as the first child born at Montréal to survive. In November 1653 Marguerite Bourgeoys wrote that Monsieur de Maisonneuve had given her Jeanne to raise, and both Jeanne and Françoise were among the first pupils in the school established by Bourgeoys in the stable at Montréal.¹

Louis Loisel was buried at Montréal on 4 September 1691.²

Marguerite Charlot died at Pointe-aux-Trembles and was buried there 3 October 1706.² The notarial records of the Montréal district place members of the extended Loiselle family in that seigneurial community in the last decades of the seventeenth century.³

Her life is documented in the earliest parish registers of Montréal from the foundation generation of the settlement through her burial at Pointe-aux-Trembles in 1706.

Sources

  1. Peter J. Gagné, Before the King’s Daughters: The Filles à marier, 1634–1662 (Pawtucket, R.I.: Quintin Publications, 2002), 86–87, Marguerite Charlot.
  2. Québec (Canada), Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), marriage of Marguerite Charlot and Louis Loisel, 13 Jan 1648, Montréal; baptisms and burials of their children; burial of Louis Loisel, 4 Sept 1691, Montréal; burial of Marguerite Charlot, 3 Oct 1706, Pointe-aux-Trembles; see also Cyprien Tanguay, Dictionnaire généalogique des familles canadiennes, s.v. “Loisel.”
  3. Montréal notarial records, inventory of the property of Urbain Tessier dit Lavigne and subsequent partition, 28 July 1690, demonstrating the presence of the Loiselle family network at Pointe-aux-Trembles.

Filles du Roi and filles à marier

On By NancyIn Ancestor Profile, Fille a Marier, Filles du Roi, King's Daughters, Marriageable womenLeave a comment

Filles du Roi and filles à marier

As the research moves back into the earliest French-Canadian generations, a number of the women in these families are identified in parish records and in modern compiled sources as either filles à marier or Filles du Roi. Those are historical terms, and they describe two different waves of female immigration to New France.

Understanding the difference helps place these marriages in their proper historical setting.

Filles à marier

The phrase fille à marier simply means “a marriageable woman.” In a genealogical context it is used for women who came to New France before 1663, prior to the royal immigration program.

These women were not sent by the Crown. Their passage might be paid by relatives already in the colony, by an employer, by a religious community, or through a private arrangement. What they have in common is that they arrived unmarried and married soon after their arrival.

They are found in the earliest parish registers of Québec and Montréal, at a time when the European population of the colony was still very small and the establishment of families was essential to permanent settlement.

When a woman in these early generations is described as a fille à marier, it is not a title that appears in the original parish record. It is a modern research designation based on her date of arrival, her marital status at that time, and the historical context in which the marriage took place.

Filles du Roi

The Filles du Roi — the “King’s Daughters” — came later, between 1663 and 1673.

By that time the French government had decided to actively promote population growth in the colony. The Crown paid for the passage of approximately 800 women and provided each of them with a dowry. In many cases they were also given a trousseau — a small outfit of clothing and household linens — so that they could establish a household after marriage.

Unlike the earlier filles à marier, these women are often documented as part of a specific immigration program. Their status can be confirmed through a combination of sources: parish registers, notarial marriage contracts, royal accounts, and later compiled studies that identify the participants in the program.

Most married within a short time of their arrival, and their marriages are concentrated in the parishes along the St. Lawrence River during that ten-year period.

Why these designations appear in this research

The population of early New France was small, and a large proportion of later French-Canadian families descend from these women — often multiple times.

As a result, it is not unusual to encounter both filles à marier and Filles du Roi in the same ancestral lines. Their identification in these posts is not a general historical label; it is based on the available documentation for each individual woman.

In practical terms, the designation tells us something important for the timeline:

  • a fille à marier indicates a marriage in the colony before 1663
  • a Fille du Roi places the arrival and marriage within the royal program of 1663–1673

That information helps explain when a particular couple first appears in the parish records and places the family in the early development of the colony.

I have a combined 17 ancestors who were either filles à marier or Filles du Roi. They are:

  • Marie Jeanne Oudin
  • Anne Talbot
  • Suzanne Betfer (Betford)
  • Jeanne Françoise Petit
  • Louise Bercier
  • Marguerite Charlot
  • Marie Lorgueil
  • Perrine Lapierre
  • Marie Madeleine Raclos
  • Antoinette DeLiercourt
  • Marie Marguerite Jourdain
  • Catherine Charles
  • Françoise Marthe Barton
  • Françoise Cure
  • Madeleine Chrétien
  • Catherine Forestier
  • Marthe Arnu