Anne Gasnier

Entry by Julie Roy, 2005

Eldest daughter of Claude Gasnier, a bourgeoise from Paris, and Marie Chaunay (Chauvoy), Anne Gasnier was born in Paris in 1611. Married in 1625 to Jean Clément Du Vault et de Monceaux, Knight of Saint-Louis and colonel in a light-horse brigade, she was widowed a few years later. On 15 June 1649, she made her will in La Rochelle and sailed for New France. She joined her only daughter, Claire-Françoise, and her son-in-law, Denis Joseph Ruette d'Auteuil, Butler to the King and prosecutor to the sovereign in Quebec. Upon her arrival in September, she bought the old hospital run by the nuns in Sillery, near Quebec, and the Compagnie des Cent Associés granted her the ownership of the Jacques-Cartier River in northern Quebec. She moved there a few months after her arrival, leaving the house in Sillery to her son-in-law and daughter. In the autumn of 1650, Anne went to France, accompanied by her son-in-law, to settle some administrative affairs. During his absence, her daughter Claire-Françoise eloped with another man. Colonial authorities ordered her surveillance until the return of the husband and her mother. The following autumn, she moved back to the family home. Anne Gasnier became a friend of Barbe de Boulogne, wife of Louis d’Ailleboust de Coulonge, former governor of New France, and dedicated herself to charitable works in the colony. The two women assisted the needy, visited prisoners and took care to give them a proper burial. Although she initially decided not to remarry, Anne married Jean Bourdon de St. Francis et de St. John, an engineer and surveyor for the king and barrister for the community of residents in Quebec on 21st August 1655,. Recently widowed, he was alone with seven minor children. Anne saw this union as a way to continue her good works. The marriage contract stipulated that Anne Gasnier and Jean Bourdon would live as brother and sister and the wife would remain free, by mutual consent, to attend to her other occupations. In April 1657, Bourdon signed a power of attorney that allowed Anne to manage and administer the family business during his many absences. The same year, her own daughter separated from her husband and returned to live in France. It was on this ship that was taking her back to France that she gave birth to her sixth child, François-Madeleine-Fortune, the only one to reach adulthood. In 1660, during a second trip to France, Anne Gasnier tries to convince her daughter to return to Canada without success. However she took back her grandson, who was aged three. After the death of Jean Bourdon, on January 12th, 1668, when all the Bourdon children had reached adulthood, Anne Gasnier invested even more energy in the pursuit of good works. Since 1663, she had been hosting the King's Daughters in a house in the Lower Town in Quebec. These young women received a dowry from the King and the price of their journey, in exchange for which they undertook to raise families in the colony. Without proper supervision, recruitment was random at first, and most of the French city girls who had been recruited did not adapt easily to the rough life of the colony. In 1668, Intendant Jean Talon designated Anne Gasnier as responsible for the recruits of 1669 and engaged her to go to France. While in 1668 the recruitment took seventy-eight girls to marry, the 1669 for which Anne Gasnier was responsible took in twice that number. She made the trip annually until 1673. Between 1669 and 1671, four hundred girls entered into the country and from 1663 to 1673, she signed over three hundred matrimonial agreements. She seemed a wise counsellor and was respected by both families and colonial administrators who consulted her regularly. She also negotiated with the parents of some of the King’s Daughters, particularly on inheritance issues. Anne Gasnier was buried in Quebec on June 27th, 1698. Today, the name of Anne Gasnier often disappears behind the imposing symbol of French colonization: the King's Daughters. However, this devout widow embodied an important link in the settlement of New France, to which she contributed her talents as a manager. A plaque commemorating the arrival of the King's Daughters was affixed at 29 rue Saint-Pierre in 1999, without however acknowledging the name of the woman who received them.

(translated by Julie Robertson)

Selected bibliography

- Dumas, Sylvio, Les Filles du roi en Nouvelle-France. Étude historique avec répertoire biographique, Québec, Société historique de Québec, 1972.
- Landry, Yves, Les Filles du roi au XVIIe siècle: orphelines en France, pionnières au Canada, Montréal, Leméac, 1992.

Weblinks

- Musée de la civilisation, «Il était une fois... des filles venues de France»[1]
- Dictionnaire biographique du Canada en ligne (fiche Jean Bourdon par Jean Hamelin)[2]
- Index des lieux de mémoire de la Nouvelle-France (fiche Plaque commémorative Les Filles du roy)[http://132.203.146.139:8080/inventaire/oneLieu.do?refLieu=1373&sortPropRepere=auteur&

Reception

- «Cette dame est un exemple de piété et de charité dans tout le pays. Elle et Mme. D'Ailleboust, sont liées ensemble pour visiter les prisonniers, assister les criminels et les porter même en terre sur un brancard. Celle dont je vous parle, comme la plus agissante et la plus portative, est continuellement occupée à ces bonnes oeuvres, et à quêter pour les pauvres, ce qu'elle fait avec succès. Enfin, elle est la mère des misérables, et l'exemple de toutes sortes de bonnes oeuvres. Avant de passer en Canada où elle n'est venue que par un principe de piété et de dévotion, elle était veuve de M, de Monceaux, gentilhomme de qualité. Quelque temps après son arrivée, M. Bourdon demeura veuf avec sept enfants, dont aucun n'était capable d'avoir soin de soi-même ni de son père. Elle eut un puissant mouvement d'assister cette famille, et, pour cet effet, elle résolut d'épouser M. Bourdon, dont la vertu lui était assez connue, mais à condition, qu'ils vivraient ensemble comme frère et soeur; cela s,est fait et la condition a été exactement observée. Elle se ravala de condition, pour faire ce coup de charité, qui fut jugé en France où elle était fort connue, tant à Paris qu'à la campagne, comme une action de légèreté, eu égard à la vie qu'on lui avait vu mener. Mais l'on a bien changé de pensée, quand on a appris tout le bien qui a résulté de cette généreuse action; car elle a élevé tous les enfants de M, Bourdon avec une débonnaireté non pareille» (cité dans Mère de Sainte-Marie et mère de Saint-Thomas, Histoire des Ursulines de Québec depuis leur établissement jusqu'à nos jours, t. 1, Québec, 1864, p.225-226).