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View Tree for Mathurine GoardMathurine Goard (b. Abt. 1650, d. December 9, 1720)

Mathurine Goard (daughter of Gilles Goard and Catherine Leger) was born Abt. 1650 in St-Sulpice, faubourg St-Germain-des-Pres, Paris, and died December 9, 1720 in Montreal, Canada. She married Louis Ste.Marie on May 31, 1667 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, son of Louis Ste.Marie and Marguerite Peigne.

 Includes NotesNotes for Mathurine Goard:
Goard also known as "Gouard"

The Kings Daughters

One of the more interesting periods in history as far as the French-Canadians are concerned, is the story of the "filles du roi", (daughters of the King). French Canadian historians generally, but not always, limited the women called, daughters of the King, to those who arrived in New France during the years 1663 through 1673, inclusive. Women who arrived before the year 1663 were known as "filles des marier", (marriageable daughters), and in general paid their own transport or made their own arrangements.

Elmer Courteau of South St. Paul, Minnesota, wrote a series of articles on the Kings Daughters for the publication, "Lost in Canada?", and all information on the subject written here, are direct quotes from his article. I felt this story would be of great interest to our family members. I have found many of our ancestors named in his article and they are listed after the story.

"It is almost impossible to be of French-Canadian decent and not have among one's ancestresses at least one with the somewhat mysterious notation that she was a "Fille du Roi", a daughter of the King. This was the title given the women immigrents from France who agreed to travel to the new lands in North America and marry a settler there in exchange for a dowry from the French King. If the women married a settler or a common soldier, the dowry was 50 pounds. If she married a officer, it went up to 100 pounds.

In attempting to get the atmosphere of a period of history in which one's forefathers lived, the family historian should always try to obtain as much knowledge as he or she can about every condition of life in that era. Only then can the forces that motivated our ancestors have real life. A dowry in the period in which New France was being settled was of Crucial importance to a girl or women in France. Women needed a dowry, no matter how small, to enter a convent as a nun, or to bring to a marriage. In a period when positions in life were bought & sold, the size of a girls dowry generally determined her future position in life. Without a dowry a widow or an orphaned girl of this age had only the dreariest of lives to look forward to. There can be little doubt that the offer of a dowry from the King awakened a wild hope and even wilder dreams in the hearts and minds of many of our ancestresses in mid-17th Century France. The story of that dream was often shattered on arrival in the wilderness by the blow of a tomahawk. Records have the names of over 800 women who are thought to have left France for the New World with the promise of the King's bounty, the background of the girls, their ages, places of origins and other bits of history that are not available in Tanguay or Drouin.

Agreements to marry were made by the Kings Daughters before they left France for the New World, and marriage contracts signed soon after arrival. These were not binding marriages for Catholics and could be annulled. The bachelors in New France wanted wives and the women arriving had agreed in advance to marry. Love in that day and age, was always something our ancestors expected would come after marriage, if it was to be. It is amazing the large numbers of formal agreements to marry, made before a notary, that were annulled. There were even a number of civil marriages contracted, annulled, new partners obtained, another annullment, and the earlier partner back again, this time for the all important church ceremony. These civil agreements on the terms of the marriage were not lightly arrived at. The decision to seek an annullment had to be studied and couldn't have been made quickly. The annullments were always possible of course because it was the church ceremony that made the marriage official, and it was a real rarity when the civil agreement was drawn up following the church ceremony although it was not unknown.

The above from Lost In Canada?
by Elmer Courteau.

From Lines of Papineau, Dontigny, Gaudin, Gagne - Compiled by Dorothy Chandler, Minneapolis, MN

More About Mathurine Goard and Louis Ste.Marie:
Marriage: May 31, 1667, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Children of Mathurine Goard and Louis Ste.Marie are:
  1. +Marie Catherine Ste.Marie, b. February 5, 1670, Montreal, Quebec Pr., Canada, d. June 9, 1703, La Prairie, QC, Canada.
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