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« (...) About seventeen Filles du roi arrived and I went down to the water's edge to fetch them, thinking that I would have to open the door of the house of the Holy Virgin to all of them. Our house was small; we had made ready the little house bought from Saint-Ange and I stayed with them; and I was obliged to stay there because these were girls who came to found families. »
Marguerite Bourgeoys, personal notes on the year 1663. Marguerite Bourgeoys, one of the pioneers of Ville Marie (Montréal) is the author of this note written around 1700. This text contains the oldest mention of the expression used today to identify les Filles du roi. Marguerite Bourgeoys' contemporaries, however, do not seem to have used it when talking about these young women. Jean Talon, the intendant, who wrote letters and memoirs about them, or Marie de Incarnation, who looked after them in Québec, simply use the words « girls » and « young ladies ». Official documents of the period: Judgments and debates of the Conseil souverain, contracts and marriage documents in which these immigrants are identified or described, bear no trace of this phrase. It is likely that Marguerite Bourgeoys was recalling les Filles du roi from the contingent of 1663, of which some were destined for Montréal where the founder of the Congregation of Notre-Dame had settled. |
