Les filles du Roy

This commemorative plaque on the wall of the Barbel House pays tribute to the arrival of the Filles du Roy—the King’s Daughters—in New France. When Louis XIV ascended to the throne in 1661, the future of his American colony looked bleak. The British colonies were already home to around 80,000 settlers, while New France had barely 3,000 people across 460,000 square kilometres, even 130 years after Cartier’s first voyage. The Versailles council advised the King to abandon this distant colony, but he had other plans. The colony wasn’t growing because most settlers were fur traders and merchants, not families. The only women in the colony were nuns. If the population was to grow, more women had to be brought in. Unsurprisingly, convincing young women from respectable families to leave everything behind and venture into the unknown was no simple task. However, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, the King’s famous minister, came up with a different approach : recruit women from charitable institutions and impoverished communities across France, offer them the chance to start a new life, and pair them with settlers ready to marry. Between 1663 and 1673, about a thousand women agreed to make the journey. Historians believe that, for the most part, these women volunteered willingly. They were promised a dowry, a piece of land, the opportunity to start a new life, and a husband waiting for them. After a harsh two-month sea voyage, those who survived were taken in by the nuns, and taught housekeeping skills. In the end, birth rates soared, with couples averaging eight children. Though some critics spread rumours that these women were of questionable background, Quebec honours them as the mothers of the nation.