Catherine Daubigeon

Biography

Catherine Daubigeon was baptized at Montréal, on the St. Lawrence River in present-day Québec, Canada, on November 25, 1653, soon after her parents, Julien Daubigeon and Perrine Meunier, arrived with the Grande Recrue. Her godparents were Paul de Chomedey de Maisonneuve and Jeanne Mance. Her father died in 1655, and her mother later married François Roinay. A local historical study places Catherine among the early pupils of Marguerite Bourgeoys’s school in 1658.

In November 1670 she married Pierre Gagné at La Prairie, across the river from Montréal. Their family eventually included thirteen children. Catherine’s signature survives, a particularly personal trace alongside the parish entries that record the family’s births and marriages.

The inventory prepared after her death reveals something of the material household she and Pierre had shared. Among its contents were pewter plates and spoons, nine steel forks, a pine cupboard lacking its lock and key, an old folding table and a bread chest. A tin cheese mould sat within the same domestic economy as stores of butter and grease.

Catherine died on May 13, 1712 and was buried the following day inside La Prairie’s church. The estate inventory followed in September.