King's Daughters

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This article is about the 17th-century immigrants to New France. For the movie, see The King's Daughters.
"Les filles du roi" redirects here. For the roller derby team, see Montreal Roller Derby.
Jean Talon, Bishop François de Laval and several settlers welcome the King's Daughters upon their arrival. Painting by Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale

The King's Daughters (French: filles du roi; filles du roy) is a term used to refer to the approximately 800 young French women who immigrated to New France between 1663 and 1673 as part of a program sponsored by Louis XIV. The program was designed to boost Canada's population both by encouraging male immigrants to settle there, and by promoting marriage, family formation and the birth of children. While women and girls certainly emigrated to New France both before and after this time period, they were not considered to be filles du roi, as the term refers to women and girls who were actively recruited by the government and whose travel to the colony was paid for by the king.[1] They were also occasionally known as the King's Wards, where "wards" meant those under the guardianship of another.

Contents

Origins [edit]

The great majority of the 'filles' were young women aged between 16 and 25

In the mid-17th century, there was a severe imbalance between single men and women in New France. The small number of female immigrants had to pay their own passage, and few single women wanted to leave their familiar places to move and settle in the harsh climate and conditions of New France. The growth of population in the English colonies awakened concern among some officials. To increase population and the number of families, the Intendant of New France, Jean Talon, proposed that the king sponsor passage of at least 500 women. The king agreed, and eventually nearly twice the number were recruited. They were predominately between the ages of 12 and 25, and many had to supply a letter of reference from their parish priest before they would be chosen for emigration to New France.

Marguerite Bourgeoys was the first person to use the expression "filles du roi" in her writings.[2] A distinction was made between King's Daughters who were transported to New France at the king's expense and were given a dowry and women who came here of their own volition and using their own money.[3] Other historians used chronological frameworks to determine who could be called a Fille du Roi.[4] Research by the historical demographer Yves Landry reveals that there were in total about 770 to 850 Filles du Roi[5] established themselves in New France between 1663 and 1673.[6]

The title "King's Daughters" was meant to imply state patronage, not royal or even noble parentage. Most of these women were commoners of humble birth. The Filles du Roi received the King’s support in different manners. The King started by paying one hundred livres to the East India Company for the woman’s crossing, as well as furnishing them with a trousseau.[7] He also paid their dowry, which was originally supposed to be four hundred livres, but as the Treasury could not spare such an expense, many were actually paid in kind.[8] As was the case for most immigrants who came from France to New France, 80% of the Filles du Roi were from the Paris, Normandy and Western regions.[9] The Hopital-Général de Paris and the St-Sulpice parish were big contributors of women for the new colony.[10] As such, most of the Filles du roi were from urban areas.[11] A few women came from other European countries, including Germany, England, and Portugal.[12] Those who were chosen to be among the filles du roi and allowed to emigrate to New France were held to scrupulous standards, which centred around their "moral calibre" and whether they were physically fit enough to survive the hard work demanded by life as a colonist. In fact, several of the filles du roi were sent back to France because they were judged not to satisfy the standards set out by the King and the intendant of New France.[13]

Almost half of the filles du roy were from the Paris area, 16% from Normandy and 13% from western France. Many were orphans with very meager personal possessions, and their level of literacy was relatively low.[14] Socially, the young women came from different social backgrounds, but were all very poor. They might have been from an elite family that had lost its fortune, or from a large family with children to spare.[15] Those women of higher birth were usually matched with officers or gentlemen living in the colony,[16] sometimes in the hopes that they would marry nobles living in Canada and thereby encourage the nobles to stay in the colony rather than return to France.

Integration into New French society [edit]

Year Arrivals[17]
1663 36
1664 1
1665 80-100
1666 0
1667 109
1668 80
1669 149
1670 c. 165
1671 150
1672 0
1673 60
Total 832-852

The women disembarked in Quebec City, Trois-Rivières, and Montreal. When the women arrived in New France, the amount of time it took them to find husbands varied greatly. For some, it was as short as a few months, while others took two or three years before finding an appropriate husband.[18] When it came to choosing a husband, and the actual marriage, most couples would officially get engaged in church, with their priest and witnesses present.[19] Then, some couples went in front of the notary, to sign a marriage contract.[20] Marriages were then celebrated by the priest, usually in the woman’s parish of residence.[21] While the marriage banns usually had to be published three times before the wedding could take place, the colony’s need for women to marry quickly led to very few Filles du roi actually having marriage banns announced.[22] We know that 737 of these Filles du roi were married in New France.[23][page needed]

The marriage contracts represented a protection for the women, both in terms of financial security if anything were to happen to them or their husband, and in terms of having the liberty to annul the promise of marriage if the man they had chosen proved incompatible.[24] It seems that a substantial number of the Filles du roi who arrived in New France between 1669 and 1671 cancelled marriage contracts; perhaps the dowry they had received made them disinclined to stick with a fiance they found themselves dissatisfied with.[25]

An early problem in recruitment was the women's adjustment to the new agricultural life. As Marie de L'Incarnation wrote, the filles du roi were mostly town girls, and only a few knew how to do manual farm work. This problem remained, but in later years, more rural girls were recruited.

There were approximately 300 more recruits who did not marry in New France. Some had changes of heart before embarking from the ports of Normandy, some died during the journey, some returned to France to marry, and a few never did marry.

Integration in Ville-Marie [edit]

The women who immigrated to Ville-Marie, otherwise known as Montreal, before the arrival of the King's Daughters had been recruited by the Société Notre-Dame de Montréal founded in 1641 in Paris.[26] Amongst these women were Jeanne Mance and Marguerite Bourgeoys.[27] When the first filles du roi arrived in Montreal, they were taken in by Marguerite Bourgeoys.[28] Initially, there no comfortable lodgings to receive them, but in 1668 Marguerite Bourgeoys procured a large farmhouse to house them outside the town: the Maison Saint-Gabriel.[29]

End of recruitment [edit]

By the end of 1671, Talon suggested that it would not be necessary to sponsor the passage of girls for the next year, and the king accepted his advice.[17] The migration briefly resumed in 1673, when the king sent 60 more girls at the request of Buade de Frontenac, the new governor, but no more girls would be sponsored afterwards.[17] By 1672, the population of New France had risen to 6,700, from 3,200 in 1663.[30] Out of the approximately 835 marriages of immigrants in the colony during this period, 774 involved a fille du roi.[30]

Rumours and legends [edit]

The Arrival of the French Girls at Quebec, 1667. Watercolour by Charles William Jefferys

The idea that the filles du roi were prostitutes has been an insidious rumor ever since the inception of the program in the 17th century. It seems to have arisen from a couple of misconceptions, both contemporary and modern, about immigration to French colonies in the New World. The first of these, which took root long before the first fille du roi emigrated, was that Canada was a penal colony. While there were two campaigns in the mid-16th century that involved the immigration of French criminals to Canada in exchange for their record being expunged, they were both short-lived, and resulted in little more than establishing a precedent for viewing Canada as a place where those "of questionable morality" could be sent for one reason or another.[31]

The popularization of the idea that the filles du roi in particular were prostitutes can be traced to an account by Baron La Hontan of his time in New France, although there were several sources predating La Hontan making the same contention, including Saint-Amant, Tallement des Réaux, and Paul LeJeune. In La Hontan's account, he refers to the filles du roi as being "of middling virtue", and that they had emigrated in the hopes of religious absolution.[32] However, his description was rejected as early as 1738 by Claude Le Beau and 1744 by Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix in their respective accounts of their journeys to New France.[33]

According to the author Peter Gagné, there is no record of any of the Caribbean women having gone to Canada. Out of nearly 800 filles du roi, only one, Catherine Guichelin, was charged with prostitution while living in Canada.[34] She appeared before the Sovereign Council of New France under the charge of carrying out "a scandalous life and prostitution" on 19 August 1675. Her two children were 'adopted' by friends, and she was banished from Quebec City. She was reported to have turned to prostitution after her husband, Nichols Buteau, abandoned the family and returned to France. She later gave birth to many children out of wedlock. Guichelin had at least two marriage contracts cancelled. She also wed twice more after returning to Sorel, Quebec, then Montreal, Quebec.[35]

Notable descendants [edit]

See also [edit]

Portal icon New France portal

Notes [edit]

  1. ^ Lanctot 1952, pp. 9, 102.
  2. ^ Landry 1992, p. 19.
  3. ^ Landry 1992, p. 20.
  4. ^ Landry 1992, p. 21.
  5. ^ Landry 1992, p. 44.
  6. ^ Landry 1992, p. 33.
  7. ^ Landry 1992, pp. 73-74.
  8. ^ Landry 1992, p. 75.
  9. ^ Landry 1992, p. 54.
  10. ^ Landry 1992, pp. 57-58.
  11. ^ Landry 1992, p. 108.
  12. ^ Lanctot 1952, pp. 22,103,115,117,126.
  13. ^ Lanctot 1952, p. 212.
  14. ^ Marshall, Bill. France and the Americas: culture, politics, and history : a ..., Volume 2. p. 439. 
  15. ^ Landry 1992, p. 51.
  16. ^ Landry 1992, p. 68.
  17. ^ a b c Trudel, Marcel. La seigneurie de la Compagnie des Indes occidentales, 1663-1674. 
  18. ^ Landry 1992, p. 131.
  19. ^ Landry 1992, p. 145.
  20. ^ Landry 1992, p. 146.
  21. ^ Landry 1992, p. 140.
  22. ^ Landry 1992, p. 149.
  23. ^ Landry, Yves (1992). Orphelines en France pionnières au Canada: Les filles du roi au XVIIe siècle. Montreal: Leméac Éditeur Inc. 
  24. ^ Landry 1992, p. 150.
  25. ^ Landry 1992, p. 152.
  26. ^ Beaudoin & Sévigny 1996, p. 8.
  27. ^ Beaudoin & Sévigny 1996, p. 12.
  28. ^ Beaudoin & Sévigny 1996, p. 60.
  29. ^ Beaudoin & Sévigny 1996, p. 61.
  30. ^ a b "Le peuplement d'un pays". Musée de la civilisation. 1998. 
  31. ^ Lanctot 1952, pp. 20.
  32. ^ Lanctot 1952, pp. 159.
  33. ^ Lanctot 1952, pp. 25,33,192,195.
  34. ^ "King's Daughters, Casket Girls, Prostitutes". Library of Congress. Retrieved 2007-11-02. 
  35. ^ Les Filles du Roy, Section 3
  36. ^ "Frère André - Alfred Bessette, 1845 - 1936". 
  37. ^ "Hillary Rodham Clinton’s French-Canadian Ancestry". 
  38. ^ "Ascendance d'Angelina Jolie". 
  39. ^ "Madonna and Lady Gaga". 
  40. ^ Geoffrion Family Genealogy
  41. ^ Officers of the British Forces in Canada during the War of 1812-15
  42. ^ Bytown or Bust
  43. ^ Généalogie du Québec

References [edit]

  • Landry, Yves (1992), Orphelines en France pionnières au Canada: Les filles du roi au XVIIe siècle, Montreal: Leméac Éditeur Inc. 
  • Lanctot, Gustave (1952), Filles de joie ou filles du roi, Montreal: Les Éditions Chantecler Ltée 
  • Beaudoin, Marie-Louise; Sévigny, Jeannine (1996), Les premières et les filles du roi à Ville-Marie, Montreal: Maison Saint-Gabriel 

Further reading [edit]

  • King's Daughters and Founding Mothers: The Filles du Roi, 1663-1673, Peter J. Gagné, 2 volumes, Quintin, 2000
  • Les Filles du roi au xvii'ème siècle, Yves Landry (Leméac, 1992)
  • King's Daughters, The, Joy Reisinger and Elmer Courteau (Sparta, 1988)
  • Alone in an Untamed Land: The Filles du Roi Diary of Hélène St.Onge, Maxine Trottier (fiction)
  • Bride of New France, Suzanne Desrochers (fiction)

External links [edit]

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