Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve

French-born first governor of Montreal (1642-1665)

• Born: February 15, 1612 (baptized)
• Birthplace: Neuville-sur-Vannes, France
• Died: September 9, 1676
• Place of death: Paris, France

A soldier and deeply pious man, Sieur de Maisonneuve was the first governor and administrator of the Isle of Ville-Marie, now Montreal, Canada. Maisonneuve, whose intended goal was to Christianize the indigenous peoples of the area, led the colony for twenty-two years and helped it grow into a larger community of religious inhabitants and traders.

Early Life

Born in Neuville-sur-Vannes in Champagne to the noble Louis de Chomedey and Marie de Thomelin, Paul de Chomedey, later called Sieur de Maisonneuve (syehr deh mehz-oh-nehv), was baptized on February 15. Two years later, his father bought the seigneury of Maisonneuve. Although little is known of his childhood, some details can be surmised about his education. His father’s profession as a magistrate and the family’s noble status would have ensured a grounding in the basics needed to follow in the family tradition. His elegant handwriting, literary skills, and able administration of the colony of Montreal suggest an aristocratic education, which would have included religious instruction.

Consistent with his family’s social stature, Paul began his military career in 1625 at the age of thirteen. France was embroiled in the Thirty Years’ War, and Paul most likely served with the troops in Holland. By the age of nineteen, he was not happy with his advancement in the military, nor did he wish to follow in his father’s footsteps. His sister Louise, a member of the Congrégation of Nôtre-Dame at Troyes, who had become an avid reader of the periodical Jesuit Relations , encouraged her brother to consider a vocation in the French colonies. During one of his visits to Paris, he visited father Charles Lalement, who supervised Canadian recruitment work in the colonies. Lalement, impressed by Paul’s background and interests, approached Jérôme Le Royer de la Dauversière, the wealthy and pious founder of the Society of Gentlemen and Ladies of Nôtre-Dame of Montreal. When they met, Dauversière recognized that Paul de Chomedey was the right man to head the missionary enterprise and appointed him the first governor of Ville-Marie de Montreal. In December, 1640, the Company of New France granted the group the island of Montreal for its mission.

Life’s Work

As Dauversière’s “instrument of God,” Paul de Chomedey set out from La Rochelle on May 9, 1641, with several companions and a priest. A second ship carried philanthropist Jeanne Mance (1606-1673), who would be the founding mother of the colony and the first nurse in North America. The ships became separated and Mance and her companions arrived in Quebec in August, while the other ship was delayed by storms. Chomedey’s ship arrived before September 20, too late in the year to begin the foundation of Ville-Marie. The company had to winter in Quebec. There, the opposition to the new settlement was strong because of a great Iroquois threat and because the governor viewed the proposed new colony as a scattering of needed resources. The governor even offered the Île d’Orléans to dissuade Chomedey from the Montreal project. The latter responded that even if all the trees on the isle of Montreal were to turn into Iroquois, he would still settle there.

On May 17, 1642, Chomedey was given title to the island in the name of the Society. The early settlers built a log palisade to protect their huts, and they cleared enough land for cattle and sheep and some crops. More settlers and provisions arrived in summer. While the colony had a social hierarchy from the beginning, it was possible to become a landowner. Anyone who cleared four arpents of land and agreed to become a permanent settler was given more land, a stipend, and the title of habitant. Habitants were allowed to engage in what would later become the lucrative fur trade.

Floods threatened Ville-Marie during the first winter. While the colonists prayed, Chomedey set up a small cross near the river, asking God to save the colony. In return, he vowed he would carry a cross up Mount Royal, which he did on the Feast of the Epiphany.

Chomedey’s vision was to re-create an early apostolic community in Montreal. Chomedey, Mance, Madame de la Peltrie, and the Jesuits worked to construct a fort, hospital, communal house, and church. In spite of the dangers, missionary work began, and the first baptism, of an Algonquian boy, occurred in July, with Chomedey and Mance named godparents. Mance, a laywoman, had such political and financial acumen that she was able to save the colony on several occasions. Recognized from the beginning was her “partnership” with Maisonneuve as a leader of the community.

On March 26, 1644, Chomedey received his official appointment, with full judicial and administrative powers. Almost continuous Iroquois attacks followed, though, which took a great toll during the next twenty-five years. That same year, Chomedey’s father died, making Paul heir to the title sieur de Maisonneuve. Called back to France to settle family affairs, he had no sooner returned to New France when he was informed that his brother-in-law had been murdered and his mother was planning a disastrous remarriage. He was forced to return to France.

On his return, some expressed doubts about Maisonneuve’s military leadership, because of his attempts to prevent retaliations that could provoke further Iroquois attacks. On March 30, 1644, he led a sortie of thirty Frenchmen against two hundred attackers. Maisonneuve ordered his men to retreat, but he stayed behind. Realizing who he was, the Iroquois left him to be captured by their chief. However, Maisonneuve’s gunshot hit the Iroquois leader, helping Maisonneuve escape unscathed. His authority was secure.

Maisonneuve began developing a society that would respond to the unique circumstances of the colony. In charge of political, military, and judicial affairs, he was also given the power to grant land to those willing to settle on the island. Maisonneuve made the first land grants to colonists between 1648 and 1651, all the more necessary in view of the increasing Iroquois menace when few were willing to risk settlement outside the fort. In 1649, the colony seemed on the verge of collapse. Dauversière was seriously ill, but with Mance’s fundraising trip to France and some creative bookkeeping, the society was given a reprieve.

Iroquois attacks against French settlers and their Huron allies intensified in the 1650’s. Hurons fled to Ville-Marie for refuge, but the decimation of their nation led to direct Iroquois assaults against the French. In 1651, Maisonneuve left for France in the hope of recruiting men to defend the colony. For two years, he received pledges from future colonists and recruited more than one hundred men for his return trip. Also on the ship was Marguerite Bourgeoys, who would become the founder of the Congrégation de Nôtre-Dame and the colony’s first schoolteacher. In 1653, Maisonneuve gave Bourgeoys a stone house for her school. By the 1650’s, Montreal had expanded from a place resembling a monastery to a village. By 1654, more colonists were willing to assume the risks involved in becoming habitants.

By the 1660’s, although the colony had achieved a certain permanence, interference from France and a hostile governor and bishop in Quebec challenged the authority wielded by Maisonneuve. Because of the financial difficulties of the society, seigneurial power was transferred to the Sulpician order, which had been working in Montreal since 1659. Bishop François Laval named a judge, notary, and procurator for the village, effectively undermining the power structure Maisonneuve had been building since 1642. When King Louis XIV sent colonists to New France in 1663, only ten were sent to Montreal.

In the fall of 1665, Maisonneuve was forced back to France by the authorities in Quebec. Although he remained governor until 1668, he would never again set foot in New France. He returned to Paris, where he led a reclusive life. His will, dictated the day before his death on September 9, 1676, left substantial inheritances to Marguerite Bourgeoys and the Congrégation de Nôtre-Dame as well as the Hospitallers of St. Joseph.

Significance

Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve, as first governor of the colony of Ville-Marie, developed for Montreal, in the course of twenty-four years, a civil and military government, a hospital, churches, religious houses, a school, a court, and a land registry. He worked together with Jeanne Mance and Marguerite Bourgeoys to raise funds and recruit settlers in spite of the almost constant dangers from the Iroquois, the harsh Canadian winters, and the hostility of the leaders in Quebec. The small outpost of Ville-Marie, which would grow into one of the most important settlements of New France, owed its existence to the bravery, commitment, and determination of Maisonneuve and his colleagues.

Bibliography

Delâge, Denys. Bitter Feast: Amerindians and Europeans in the American Northeast, 1600-1664. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 1993. A native perspective on the history of French and Dutch colonization in northeastern North America.

Desrosiers, Léo-Paul. Paul Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve. Montreal: FIDES, 1967. The only available scholarly biography of Maisonneuve. In French. Extensive original source quotations.

Eccles, W. J. The French in North America, 1500-1783. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 1998. A general history of New France, with sections on the foundation of Montreal and Maisonneuve.

Moogk, Peter N. Le Nouvelle France: The Making of French Canada, a Cultural History. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2000. Moogk traces the roots of the current conflict between English- and French-speaking Canadians to the political and social developments that occurred in New France in the seventeenth century.

Simpson, Patricia. Marguerite Bourgeoys and Montreal, 1640-1665. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1997. Simpson provides significant information on Maisonneuve, who worked with Bourgeoys and other female lay and religious persons in the early decades of the colonization of Montreal. Extensive notes and bibliography.

Thwaites, Reuben Gold, ed. The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents: Travels and Explorations of the Jesuit Missionaries in New France. 73 vols. New York: Pageant Books, 1959. One of the most important collections of original sources for the early history of New France.