♀Madeleine Girouard

Madeleine Girouard (born about 1654) was a daughter of Francois Girouard and Jeanne Aucoin of Port-Royal in Acadia who married the carpenter Thomas Cormier by 1671, lived with him at Beaubassin^W at Chignecto, and was a widow there by 1693. In 1685 Thomas and Madeleine gave evidence at the sorcery trial of Jean Campagna, a Beaubassin farmer tried at Quebec. She was still living in 1714. She was the eighth great-grandmother of Floyd Amatus Delahorne (1922–2014), through her son Pierre Cormier (born about 1682).

Port-Royal

Madeleine was a daughter of Francois Girouard and Jeanne Aucoin. No record of her baptism has been found. The census of Port-Royal taken in 1671 lists Thomas Cormier, a carpenter aged 35, with his wife Madeleine, 17, a daughter aged 2, seven cattle, seven sheep and 6 arpents^W of land. The couple were therefore married by 1671. Their marriage was probably about 1668 at Port-Royal, but no marriage record survives; the Port-Royal register begins only in 1702.

Beaubassin

By 1686 the family had moved to Beaubassin, the settlement at Chignecto. The census of that year lists Thomas, 55, and Madeleine, 37, with nine children at home, from Magdelaine, 18, down to two one-year-old twins, and with four guns, 40 arpents of land, 30 cattle, 10 sheep and 15 hogs. Compiled histories of the Acadians call Thomas one of the most prosperous settlers of Beaubassin.

Her daughter Claire was baptized at Beaubassin on 2 July 1684, and the register names Madeleine as her mother. Twin daughters, Agnès and Marie, were born on 12 May 1686 and baptized on 20 May; the register names Thomas Cormier and Madeleine Girouard as their parents. Agnès’s godfather was the seigneur of Beaubassin, Alexandre Le Neuf. The lord of the settlement stood for a farmer’s daughter, and the register does not say why he was chosen.

At the trial, Thomas gave his age as about fifty and Madeleine as about thirty-one. Both told of a day in 1678 when Campagna, called Campagnard in the depositions, offered at their house to bet a pistole that Pierre Mercier would not marry François Pellerin’s daughter on his return from Port-Royal; Madeleine wanted to take the bet.

Widowhood

Thomas Cormier was alive in 1686 and dead by 1693. The census of 1693 lists Madeleine, 39, as a widow at Beaubassin with seven children at home, from Alexis, 16, to Jeanne, 5, among them Pierre, 11, and with 26 cattle, 16 sheep, 4 hogs and 12 arpents. The census of 1698 still finds her there, a widow of 45, with six children at home, among them Pierre, 16.

The census of 1703 lists a “Veuve Cormier” with two girls, on the line of her son-in-law Michel Haché dit Galant. On 28 August 1714 the census of Beaubassin lists “la veuve de Cormier” in the household of Michel Haché and his wife Anne Cormier, probably her daughter, with their ten children. She was then still living. No record of her death has been found.

Notes

The entries for 1671, 1686, 1693, 1703 and 1714 are read on the manuscript census of Acadia at Library and Archives Canada. The 1698 entry is read from a transcription.

The 1686 twins

The census of 1686 lists the two youngest as twins aged one, named Marie and Jeanne. The baptism of 20 May 1686 names the twins as Agnès and Marie, born 12 May, and Judith Le Neuf stood with Alexandre Le Neuf for Agnès. The census of 1693 gives Agnès and Marie both as seven, and Jeanne as five. The records do not settle which names belong to the twins of 1686.

Marriage

Léopold Lanctôt’s Familles acadiennes (vol. 1, p. 275) gives the marriage as in 1668 at Port-Royal, and Bona Arsenault’s Histoire et généalogie des Acadiens (vol. 3, p. 909) gives “vers 1668”. Both are compiled, and neither cites an act. Lanctôt also gives her birth as 1655. The 1671 census, which lists a daughter aged two, is the earliest record of the couple together.

The 1693 figures

The census of 1693 reads 26 cattle, 16 sheep, 4 hogs and 12 arpents. An earlier transcription gives 16 cattle, 4 sheep and 12 hogs; it omits one figure and shifts the rest, so the census figures are followed here.

Her age

The censuses give her age as 17 in 1671, 37 in 1686, 39 in 1693 and 45 in 1698. The 1671 age places her birth about 1654, the 1693 and 1698 ages about 1653 to 1654, and the 1686 age about 1649.

Her death and the 1714 census

No death or burial record has been found. Lanctôt’s Familles acadiennes says that Madeleine and Thomas were dead at the census of 1714. The census entry for that year names her as the living widow “la veuve De Cormier”, so that statement does not hold for her.

The 1703 and 1714 entries

The 1703 entry gives no ages and names her only as “Veuve Cormier”, with two girls. The 1714 entry names the household head as Michel Haché, with his wife Anne Cormier, and calls the widow “la veuve De Cormier”; it does not call Anne her daughter. The 1693 census lists Michel Haché, 30, with a wife Anne Cormier, 19, in a separate household, and does not say she is Madeleine’s daughter. The link between Anne and Madeleine rests on the surname and the shared households, not on a stated relationship.

The 1707 roll

The Beaubassin roll of 1707 has no entry for her.

The 1671 roll

The same 1671 roll also lists a Marie-Magdeleine, aged 17, in her parents’ household. The two entries are read as one woman; the roll does not say so.

The 1685 sorcery trial

The account of the 1678 wager comes from the depositions in the trial file of Jean Campagna, held by Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec. The year 1685 comes from that file, and the depositions call him Campagnard.