Pierre Boucher and New France

Portrait and signature of P. Boucher (from 662:3.c.95.10).

Pierre Boucher was born in Mortagne-au-Perche, France in 1622. When he was twelve, his family left to settle in New France (Canada). His father, Gaspard, worked for the Jesuits in Notre-Dame-des-Anges (Quebec) and they took care of the education of the children, especially Pierre. He was interested in the life of the native peoples and he became interpreter of Iroquoian languages, particularly Huron. He was a missionary assistant to the Jesuits in Huronia from 1637 to 1641.

Pierre Boucher, like New France pioneers Samuel de Champlain and Jean Talon, believed in miscegenation with the native peoples. Pierre married Marie-Madeleine Chrestienne (or Marie Ouebadinskoue) a Huron girl educated by the Ursulines, who later died in childbirth (1649) along with their child. In 1652 he married Jeanne Crevier, with whom he had fifteen children. From 1645 to 1667, he lived in the little settlement of Trois-Rivières (see View 1 below), founded in 1634 and second permanent settlement in New France after Quebec City. Boucher was twice-governor of Trois-Rivières (1653-58, 1662-67).

The Queen in Québec

Québec City in 1744 – Maps.bb.821.75.1

In October 1964, Queen Elizabeth went to Québec as part of a visit to Canada (which took in PEI, Québec and Ottawa). Her reception there was not entirely welcoming. Riots met much of her visit to Québec, with anti-royalists and separatists greeting her with chants such as “Elizabeth stay at home” and “Vive le Québec libre!”. Her visit coincided with the growth of a nationalist and separatist movement that dominated the politics of Québec – and Canada in general – over the next 50 years. During her visit, the FLQ’s journal La Cognée dismissed the Queen “qui n’est qu’un symbole du colonialisme” (Fournier, F.L.Q., page 95).