Fearless Friday
Filles du Roi Charlotte-Catherine Jolivet
1648-1689
An artists rendition of filles du roi immigrants.
"Les Filles du Roi" by Charles Vinh
Charlotte-Catherine
Jolivet was born to Louis Jolivet and Louise Bellemaniere in St.
Germaine d'Andresy, Paris, Ile-de-France in 1648. Not much is known
about her early childhood years although it could be reasonably assumed
that her upbringing was urban because of Ile-de-France's location in the
middle of the bustling city of Paris. At the age of twenty-three
Charlotte made a very fearless decision that would change her life forever,
taking her from her parents and everything and everyone that she had
ever known in a bid to create a better life for herself. That year an unmarried Charlotte became a Filles du Roi
(translation "Daughter of the King"). The Filles du Roi were single women
who, for the price of a dowry from the French crown, agreed to travel by ship from France to
Quebec and populate France's "New France" colony by marrying its
inhabitants. In 1671, the year of Charlotte's arrival in Quebec, this
was no small undertaking. Travel to Canada from France by ship was
dangerous and often fatal. One in ten women who attempted this trip
died during the transatlantic crossing. The accommodations aboard these
vessels were nothing more than holds in the bottom of cargo ships.
Scurvy, dysentery and other contagious diseases were common as were unsanitary conditions and poor food. Charlotte, of course, survived the
trip. Upon arriving in Canada Charlotte was bound by accepting
her 300 livre dowry from the French crown to go through with the process
of finding a husband. For Filles du Roi this process had nothing to do
with love or even courting for that matter. Large assemblages of
single men would gather when the ships docked in Quebec to view the
available women in what has been described in journals and first hand accounts from that time as something akin to a
"cattle call". The men would "bid" for the women and away they
went with their "bride". Leonard Girardin, a twenty-six year old
laborer and homesteader originally from St. Pierrre, Poitiers, Vienne,
France was Charlotte's lucky groom. The newlyweds settled near Lachine
in what was then New France's wild and rustic frontier. Attacks and
massacres of homesteaders by the Iroquois were a common occurrence in
Lachine during this time period. Life as the wife of a homesteader was most likely
brutally exhausting and inherently dangerous compared to Charlotte's urban upbringing in Paris. Despite the harsh realities of pioneering in the Canadian wilds, Charlotte gave birth to her first child two years later and went on
to have six more children. Her children were named Anne, Hillarie,
Leonard, Catherine, Joseph, Michel and Louis. The family thrived.
Suddenly the unthinkable happened. At the age of 42 Charlotte's husband
Leonard died. With seven children all under the age of 14 Charlotte had
no choice but to re-marry and fast! Within months Charlotte started
over again as she moved with her children and new husband Simon Trillaud
to Riviere-des-Prairies. Charlotte and her second husband Simon did not have any children from their marriage. Charlotte lived to the age of 41 and passed away in Lachine, Quebec, Canada.
The fearless Filles-du-Roi Charlotte-Catherine Jolivet is my Paternal 8th Great Grandmother.
From that same paternal ancestry I have a total of 32 Filles du Roi Grandmothers.
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