(1588 - 1649)

Marie was the young mother of three when in 1617 she left her home in Paris to accompany her husband, Louis Hébert, in his ambitious career as an apothecary and farmer in the New World. There, she became known for her tirelessness and generosity towards her fellow settlers. Her family also enjoyed unusually good relations with the local natives to whom Louis was a physician and she a teacher. Following her husband’s death, she resolved to remain in New France with her family. In 1632, when Quebec was returned to the French after a three-year occupation by the English, the Jesuits described hers as the only French family settled in Canada.