Perrine Mallet

Biography

Perrine Mallet appears in the history of the Boucher family as both a migrant and a participant in the arrangements that established the next generation on the land. Originally from Courgeoût in the Perche, a historic region west of Paris in France, she married the widower Marin Boucher in France. Their sons Louis-Marin and Galleran were baptized there before the family settled in New France in the mid-1630s. More children were born after the migration, including Françoise, who later married Jean Plante.

The Bouchers’ settlement history led from the vicinity of the Saint-Charles River at Québec city to Château-Richer, downstream on the St. Lawrence’s north bank. Marin worked as a mason and cultivated land, but the documents concerning the family’s property also preserve Perrine’s own name. In April 1656, she joined him in two gifts recorded by the notary Claude Auber. On April 25 they granted land to Jean Plante and Françoise Boucher; five days later they made another grant to their son Galleran. Each indexed act describes a frontage of two arpents taken from the parents’ concession.

These transactions show the practical means by which children’s households became established near their parents.

Marin died in March 1671. Perrine survived him for more than sixteen years, remaining part of the Château-Richer community into old age. She died on August 24, 1687 and was buried the following day. The published transcription of her burial entry names Jean Plante and Charles Godin, her sons-in-law, among those present, bringing the record of her life back to the family whose settlement she had helped support.

The burial listing places Perrine Mallet at Cimetière Visitation de Notre-Dame, Château-Richer, Capitale-Nationale Region, Québec, Canada.