A Woman of Firsts in Canada — Marie Rollet

B. about 1580 in Paris, France
M. (1) before 1601
Husband: François Defeu
M. (2) 19 Feb 1601 in Paris, France
Husband: Louis Hébert
M. 16 May 1629 in Quebec City, New France
Husband: Guillaume Hubou
D. May 1649 in Quebec City, New France

Marie Rollet was the first European woman to migrate to New France, the first woman to farm there, plus she was the colony’s first teacher. Her life has been noted in history books, and she has been honored in Quebec City with a prominent statue.

Marie’s life began in about 1580, born to Jehan Rollet and Anne Cohu in Paris. She was said to have a brother named Claude, but nothing else is known of her family. Marie’s father was a “gunner to the king,” and had enough wealth to see that his daughter was educated at a convent. When Marie was perhaps 20-years-old, she was married to a merchant named François Defeu, who died before 1601, leaving her a widow. Then she made the decision that shaped the rest of her life: she married a man named Louis Hébert.

Marie and Louis’ marriage took place on February 19, 1601 at the Saint-Sulpice church in Paris. Louis ran a Paris shop selling drugs and spices, plus he grew his own herbs. During the early years of their marriage, he associated with men who were interested in starting a French colony in America, and in 1606, he became part of one of their missions that had founded a settlement in Acadia. Over the next ten years, he made several trips to the all-male colony, taking him away from Marie for long periods of time.

During these years, Marie had to manage their household in Paris on her own. Before he left in 1606, Louis signed power-of-attorney over to Marie so she could sign documents involving their finances during his absence. There were only three known children born to Marie and Louis. The two oldest children, both girls, were born before Louis’ first trip to America, and the third child, son Guillaume, was born in about 1614.

By the time Louis returned to Paris in 1613, he had developed a relationship with Samuel de Champlain, who was planning for a new French colony on the St. Lawrence River. Champlain offered Louis money to bring Marie and the children to the settlement, and he agreed to it, so in 1617, the Héberts became the first European family in what would become Canada. The ship that took them to New France left on March 11th and arrived in the middle of June.

Marie and her family landed at present-day Quebec City where Champlain had a small wooden fortress near the water. The Héberts' new home was on 10 acres of land outside the enclosure, and this would become the first farm of the colony. Here Louis cleared the land and constructed a house made of wood, which was replaced a couple of years later with a stone house. Marie likely did some of the farm labor, perhaps helping to plant crops and take care of the garden. Their efforts supplied the other habitants with food during the colony’s earliest years.

Marie’s oldest daughter married soon after they were settled at Quebec, but sadly died in childbirth in 1619. The child was stillborn and so wasn’t the earliest birth in New France; that happened the following year with the birth of Hélène Desportes, an event Marie is thought to have attended as a midwife. More women had joined the settlement by that time, but they were only a small group, and they supported each other for things such as childbirth.

On January 25, 1627, Louis died after a bad fall on some ice. This left Marie to run the farm with the help of her son-in-law, Guillaume Couillard, and her own son, Guillaume, who was about 13-years-old. Two years later, on May 16, 1629, Marie remarried to a man named Guillaume Hubou. Just two months later, the colony was forcibly taken over by the English. The settlers were offered passage back to France, but about 20 people chose to stay, including Marie and her family. For the next few years, they were cut off from any contact with France as they maintained their farm among about 100 English soldiers.

In 1632, England and France agreed that Quebec be put back under the control of France. Some former settlers returned, including young Hélène Desportes, who would marry Marie’s son Guillaume in 1634. There was also a wave of new immigrants, as the colony became more permanent. Marie took on the role of teacher to Native American girls who were to be converted to Catholicism. She developed a warm relationship with indigenous people, and took girls into her home, adopting them while they learned French.

Marie continued to care for Native American children in her home into her later years. She died in Quebec in May of 1649, and was buried there on the 27th. Three hundred years after her arrival in New France, a monument was built in Quebec honoring Marie, her husband Louis and her son-in-law Guillaume Couillard. Marie’s statue depicts her with the children who she taught in her home.

Children (all by Louis Hébert):
1. Anne Hébert – B. about 1602, Paris, France; D. 1619, Quebec; M. Etenne Jonquet, 1617, Quebec

2. Marie-Guillemette Hébert – B. 1604, Paris, France; D. 20 Oct 1684, Quebec City, Quebec; M. Guillaume Couillard (1588-1663), 26 Aug 1621, Quebec

3. Guillaume Hébert – B. about 1614, Paris, France; D. 23 Sep 1639, Quebec City, Quebec; M. Hélène Desportes (1620-1675), 1 Oct 1634, Quebec City, Quebec

Sources:
Généalogie du Quebec et d’Amérique française (website)

Hélène’s World: Hélène Desportes of Seventeenth Century Quebec, Susan McNelley, 2014

“Le mariage de Louis Hébert et Marie Rollet démystifié après 400 ans,” Radio-Canada (website), 1 Mar 2017 
Find-a-Grave.com
Wikitree
Dictionary of Canadian Biography
“Marie Rollet,” The Canadian Encyclopedia (website), Josiane Lavallée, 2018