Francoise Delabarre

Biography

Françoise Delabarre's marriage to Michel Desorcy began in the household where she worked. In January 1656 their marriage contract was made at the home of François Peron, a merchant in La Rochelle on France’s Atlantic coast, whose family she had served for four years. Françoise was already a widow. The agreement joined her to a man who would represent Peron's business across the Atlantic.

She came from Saint-Martin at Courant and was the daughter of Jean Delabarre and Andrée Bretin, whose name also appears as Bertin. Her first marriage, to Jean Ayrault or Hérault, had taken place at Saint-Barthélemy in La Rochelle on June 18, 1645. Both of her parents were already dead when the preceding marriage contract was drawn up.

Françoise and Michel married in the same La Rochelle parish on February 28, 1656. Their son Michel was born there in November; another son, Charles, was born at Québec city, on the St. Lawrence River in present-day Canada, in June 1661. The two children's records locate her family on opposite sides of the Atlantic within five years.

Her life in Canada was short. Published research places her death between June 1661 and September 1662, before Michel contracted his next marriage. The precise day is unknown. Her sons' records and the two La Rochelle marriage agreements preserve a life that included widowhood, household service, remarriage, and migration.