Marie Perrot

Biography

Marie Perrot’s life at Verchères extended across marriage, war, widowhood and the ownership of land. On September 17, 1669, she married François Jarret in the parish of Sainte-Famille on Île d’Orléans, the island in the Saint Lawrence just downstream from Québec City. Its historic centre is on the island’s northern side, in today’s Sainte-Famille-de-l’Île-d’Orléans. They had twelve children, including Madeleine. Their home stood within the fortified settlement her husband established beside the Saint Lawrence, at present-day Verchères on the river’s south shore, northeast and downstream of Montréal, Québec. Sainte-Famille location; Québec biographical notice.

A later account credits Marie with defending the fort in 1690 while François was absent. In that telling, she fired on attackers attempting to climb the palisade—the enclosure of upright wooden stakes—and the defenders held out for two days. The story gives Madeleine’s celebrated defense, two years later, a striking family precedent, although its details may have grown in the retelling. Dickerson, printed page 22.

After François died in February 1700, Marie took steps to protect the interests of their younger children. Genealogist Michel Langlois identifies a guardianship act dated April 27, 1700, drawn up following her request. Guardianship gave legal responsibility for protecting the children’s interests, including their inheritance, after their father’s death. Langlois, “Les actes de tutelle : une mine d’or,” printed page 270.

Historian Christina Dickerson identifies Marie as the children’s guardian and cites a later record, from 1708, concerning her ownership of the seigneury. Widowhood therefore brought responsibilities that extended beyond the household into the administration of family property. Her life continued in the legal and economic affairs of Verchères long after the defense that made her daughter famous. Dickerson, printed page 17, notes 37–39.

Her connection to the community also survived in its church. Québec’s Commission de toponymie credits the widowed Marie with giving the land on which the church was built. The gift links her to the settlement’s religious and communal life as well as to its defense. She died in 1728. Church-land account; biographical notice.