FRENCH-CANADIAN WOMEN IN OUR ANCESTRY

In a nutshell, most relevant to us — Jacques was looking for love, and fortunately, Jacques’ king had his back.

OK, I admit, that really doesn’t explain much at all. In fact, it probably only confuses things, but I couldn’t resist using it on this Valentine’s weekend. Here’s a better explanation for this grouping:

In the 17^th century, King Louis XIV of France was facing a bit of a problem in his colony of New France (Canada): it had been determined that the colony faced the real danger of not being able to sustain itself — (initially population-wise). The ratio of unmarried men to unmarried women was wildly unbalanced with some estimates indicating the ratio being 12:1. The follow-on ramifications of this scenario were broad, but economic and defense impacts were at the fore. The solution: SEND WOMEN.

Send women they did. Between 1663 and 1673, King Louis XIV sponsored nearly 800 women in passage, dowries, and pre-marriage housing and care. The women arrived in New France with the specific intentions of arranging marriage contracts, securing a marriage, and… populating!

So, remember Jacques? Well, he was a real person, and he was fortunate enough to have one* of these women choose him for a husband. If your bloodline traces back through the Lussier/Cummiskey/Hillman line, you’re a descendent of King’s Daughter/Fille du roi CATHERINE Clerice and her husband Jacques Lussier. The couple married on October 12, 1671, in Québec.

Catherine arrived in Québec from St. Sulpice, Paris, Île-de-France, in August 1671.

Here’s the Jacques and Catherine family
lineage down to the Cummiskey/Hillman family:

CHURCH MARRIAGE RECORD OF JACQUES LUCIER (LUSSIER)
AND CATHERINE CLERICE – NOTRE-DAME, QUEBEC, 1671.
I’M UNSURE WHEN THE SPELLING OF “LUCIER” CHANGED TO “LUSSIER”

I had never heard of the King’s Daughters/Filles du roi until last year, or if I had, I did not know of any connection/lineage. I was astounded when Michaela provided me details. In addition, Michaela indicated she had learned of the Filles du roi in a high school history class. I know this never came up in any high school history class I attended. I have a 1989 family genealogy report compiled by a descendant of one of Flo’s brothers and while Catherine Clerice and Jacques Lussier are included, there is no mention of Catherine being a King’s Daughter.

I have a couple thoughts on this: one, the advent of the internet really opened up the ability to do genealogical research; the 1989 compilation was done within a much more restrictive research and access environment. La Societe des Filles du roi has a website serving as a portal to a wealth of resources and information but it did not come into existence until 1994. Second, for many years the prevailing notion was that these women were of questionable reputation, so omission of affiliation with the Filles du roi (if known) may have been intentional.

Recent research leans towards debunking that particular myth. In fact, the crown’s vetting included, at the very least, testimony of virtue from local parish clergy. In addition to evaluation of virtue, general health assessments were done with a focus on the probability of surviving the weeks of sea voyage required to reach New France as well as the candidate’s ability to withstand the tough farming lifestyle and harsh climate Québec held in store.

Most of the women had never been married, some were orphans, others came from families with daughters “to spare” – lessening that family’s financial burden. Though fewer in number, there were some widows among the Filles du roi, they traveled either alone or with children in tow. Women considered to be of higher societal standing often matched with military or government officials. The women ranged in age (according to one source) from 12 to 25. I haven’t read anything that indicates women traveled to New France without their own consent, but I have to believe some went as a last resort and honestly, that age range includes a lot of “women” that were still children. I will add that I did find another source that lists the age range to be between 16 and 40 — so while the actual range remains unclear, it’s probably safe to assume it was wide. Records show that Catherine Clerice was 18 when she married.

The French crown paid the travel fare for each of the women, and each arrived with a crown-sponsored dowry comprised of either cash, a trousseau of clothing and linens, or livestock, or some combination of the three. The value of the dowry varied based on birth status. I’ve read conflicting information on what this range was but La Societe des Filles du roi website indicates the range to be between 50 and 100 livres/pounds.

Perhaps the discrepancy I see is due to comparing coin value and collective (total) value: France had a vested interest in increasing the population but also didn’t want to deplete cash/coin reserves on dowries. Instead, as indicated earlier, dowries were often a combination of coin, trousseau, and livestock, the latter two options being less of a cash outlay for the crown. Also worth noting; the program was in place for ten years, so economic factors would have to be considered fluid. I’ve read that at some point during this time, the livre in New France was worth roughly half that of its value in (old) France. Any formula for dowry computation and distribution gets muddled quickly between the various sources and possible formulation factors.

Despite the murkiness of actual numbers, the bottom line is that these dowries were substantial with at least one website indicating the value equating that of a laborer’s yearly earnings. The same website establishes the buying power of the livre at the time; 50 livres would get you a cow, 500 livres would buy you 20 acres of farmland.

WATERCOLOR BY ELEANOR FORTESCUE-BRICKDALE, 1667 (LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA) – TWO OF THE MEN ARE IDENTIFIED AS LEADERS OF THE colony. NONE OF THE WOMEN ARE SPECIFICALLY IDENTIFIED. WHILE EXPERTLY CRAFTED, THE PAINTING HAS BEEN CRITICIZED AS BEING AN OVERLY ROMANTICIZED DEPICTION OF AN ARRIVAL SCENE.

I mention that some women probably opted to go to New France as a last resort, but it is also true that the women, once safely arrived in Québec, enjoyed advantages that would have been unusual for women of that time. Marriage contracts protected the women from the sudden or untimely death of a suitor and the women were allowed to break contracts should they have a change of heart regarding a choice in a husband – in essence, the bride picked the groom. That Farmer in the Dell song I sang as a kid clearly wasn’t the French-Canadian version. Additionally, the prospect of a women’s dowry often led to farmers dedicating time and resources to property improvements in hopes of increasing their value in the marriage market.

It is understood that while these women left France facing many unknowns and perils, they were going to what France considered to be their own territory, so cultural and language barriers were reduced. Moreover, chances of a sustainable future were improved — better than what staying in France apparently held. However, I remain fascinated by the give and take dynamics of the dowry values and property values of the women and men respectively as well as the range of potential challenges and outcomes these women experienced.

This has been a long post and thus far you’ve read a lot about these women in general and about the family lineage going back to Jacques Lussier and Catherine Clerice but remember there are four names in the group. Note that I placed generation numbers in the lineage text: going back to Generation 4 you’ll find one of the many Jacques Lussiers and his wife Madeleine Chagnon. Madeleine was the great-granddaughter of Fille du roi CATHERINE Pratte. (Apologies for the boxes in this section not lining up – I tried everything I could to get them to, but nothing seemed to make them stick).

There is a similar tie-back in Generation 2 — Christophe Lussier and Catherine Gauithier. Catherine was the granddaughter of MARIE Francoise Pomponnelle, but Marie was not a Fille du roi. So why is she included here? Marie belongs to another group of women that generally pre-date the Filles du roi in their arrival in New France. This group is known as the Filles à marier or “girls to marry.” The major difference between the Filles à marier and the Filles du roi groups is that the former group came about as a result of grassroots efforts, if you will, characterized by sponsorship by individuals or small organizations to bring women to New France to be wedded (very much a mail-order bride vibe to me — even more so than the Filles du roi). These women did not have the luxuries or advantages of sponsorship of the king. If they were lucky, their passage was paid for, but they had no crown-sponsored dowries and marriage contracts were usually signed before leaving France. If there was no marriage contract in place, the women were signed on as servants for a number of years with the expectation that marriage would follow the completion of that contracted time.

*So that’s three names for the grouping of four — to complete the grouping, I will tell you that Jacques was actually fortunate enough to have TWO women chose him as husband. Catherine Clerice was his second wife. His first wife, CHARLOTTE De La Marche, has also been identified as a Fille du roi. Sadly, she died a few weeks after giving birth in 1671. Charlotte has no bloodline connection to us, but I feel she is part of our story, so I wanted to honor her memory by including her here. Charlotte’s child survived — a daughter named Marie, who soon became Catherine Clerice’s stepdaughter.

Here are a few websites I’ve looked at while learning about these women. Some take a seriously deep dive into the numbers. I think this information would make an interesting data visualization project.

https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/fr/article/filles-du-roi
I particularly enjoyed the paragraph here dedicated to the box
of personal accessories provided upon departure from France.

https://fillesduroi.org

https://www.tfcg.ca/filles-du-roi

YOUTUBE VIDEO DEDICATED TO FILLE DU ROI CATHERINE CLERICE

Mathias Lussier (seated on the left) is the last Lussier in our Filles du roi/Filles à marier bloodline before the switch to Cummiskey/Hillman/etc. He was born in Canada in 1870, moved to Ware, MA sometime around 1887 and eventually made the move to Rhode Island around 1900/01 (1900 census records him in Ware, MA — daughter Eva was born in West Warwick, RI in 1901). He had just one sibling, a half-sister, Rosanna Lussier. Mathias died in 1948.

So, there you go — to recap: CATHERINE Clerice, MARIE Francoise Pomponnelle, CATHERINE Pratte, and CHARLOTTE De La Marche are four women identified as Filles du roi/Filles à marier with connection to the Lussier/Cummiskey/Hillman lineage.