Madeleine Chrétien was born about 1646 in the parish of Saint-Eustache in Paris, the daughter of Toussaint Chrétien and Françoise Bertault.¹ Both of her parents died in 1670, the same year she left France for Canada.² She was about twenty-four years old.
After her arrival in Montréal, she was lodged at the Maison Saint-Gabriel, the reception house established for the filles du roi while they awaited marriage.³
On 20 October 1670 Madeleine married Pierre Chicoine in Montréal.⁴ The marriage contract had been drawn five days earlier, on 15 October, and is notable because Madeleine signed the document while her husband could not — an indication that she was literate.³ The contract was witnessed by Madeleine-Thérèse Salé and Françoise Goubiliau, with Gabriel Souart also present.³
Pierre Chicoine was born about 1641 at Channay-sur-Lathan in Anjou, the son of Gilles Chicoine and Perrine Boisaubert.³ At the time of the 1667 census he was a servant in Montréal in the household of Mathurin Langevin.³
The couple first settled at Longueuil, where their eldest daughter, Marie-Madeleine, was baptized on 11 March 1672.³ They later moved to land above Verchères when Pierre acquired a concession in the seigneurie of Bellevue in 1678, becoming known as seigneur de Bellevue.³ From there the family established themselves at Contrecœur, where several of their children were born and where they spent the remainder of their lives.
Their children included Marie-Madeleine (1672–1745), Marguerite (1674–1717), Pierre (1676–1736), François (1678–1708), Agnès (1681–1746), Marie-Madeleine (1684–1687), Angélique (1686–1687), Marie-Thérèse (1688–1764), and Paul (1691–1743).³
Two of their young daughters were buried in December 1687, most likely victims of the smallpox epidemic that struck the colony that year.³
Pierre Chicoine died at Verchères between 25 March and 31 May 1698.³
On 19 June 1702 at Contrecœur, Madeleine married Louis-Odet de Piercot, sieur de Baillieu, an officer in the troupes de la Marine and a chevalier of the Order of Saint-Louis.³ They had no children together.
Madeleine died at Contrecœur on 25 February 1709 and was buried there two days later.³
Sources
- Peter J. Gagné, King’s Daughters and Founding Mothers: The Filles du Roi, 1663–1673 (Pawtucket, RI: Quintin Publications, 2000), 150.
- Ibid.
- Ibid., 150–151.
- Québec, Registre paroissial de Notre-Dame de Montréal, 20 octobre 1670, mariage de Pierre Chicoine et Madeleine Chrétien (Drouin Collection).
- Cyprien Tanguay, Dictionnaire généalogique des familles canadiennes, vol. 2 (Montréal: Eusèbe Sénécal, 1871), sub Chicoine.
- Programme de recherche en démographie historique (PRDH), fiche familiale Pierre Chicoine – Madeleine Chrétien.
- Yves Landry, Les Filles du roi au XVIIe siècle (Montréal: Leméac, 1992).