| In the fall of 1658, Jeanne Mance and
Marguerite Bourgeoys left Montréal for France to raise some financing and get new
recruits for Montréal.
In France during the following winter, the Associés
de Montréal provided funds to contract a few soldiers and brides-to-be for some of the
settlers, Jeanne Mance with the financing of Madame de Bullion recruited three nurse-nuns
for her Hôtel-Dieu hospital in Montréal, a few brides-to-be and some families most from
the village of Marans in Aunis, and the Séminaire de Saint-Sulpice of Paris contracted
some labourers, artisans and future brides.
A list of the people recruited for Montréal
was prepared, maybe by Jeanne Mance herself, before or after the trip,and has been kept
until today as document 31 at the archives de l'Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal. Hôtel-Dieu,
still in existence today, is the hospital founded by Jeanne Mance. This is the list
reproduced here.
There are 111 entries on the list. Of these 9 had
been to Canada before and were returning from business trips to France. These are: Jeanne
Mance Marguerite Bourgeoys Claude Robutel de Saint-André Claude Fezeret his wife his son
Michel Bouvier Urbain Graveline abbé Vignal, mentioned twice.
Two persons on the list, Bouret and Condar did not make
the trip; notes in the margin say:"il s'est caché" (he hid). Eight died at sea
and others might have died shortly after landing at Québec. There were also passengers
for the Québec area on the Saint-André, new setllers and brides-to-be, but these were
not on the list.
The list is reproduced as written with the funny
spelling.
For further details on the list, the ship, the events
surrounding its crossing and good biographical details on the passengers, with
reproduction of many engagement contracts found in France, I suggest you read the
excellent research book written by P.Archange Godbout, "LES PASSAGERS DU
SAINT-ANDRÉ", published by Société Généalogique Canadienne-Française,
Montréal, 1964, 163 pages. Still in stock.
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