Folklore and Legends

Several of these articles are undocumented and were related to team member Caitrian MacNeil by persons from Louisbourg. Therefore, the stories outlined should not be taken as fact but as opinions or heresay.

Personal Appearance

In Louisbourg, the upper middle class, wealthy merchants, officers and their families would wear full face make-up on special occasions. The painted porcelain look was sought after.

The nobility in France would use white lead powder to help distinguish themselves from the common man who would have a tan from working outside. The noblemen were proud of the fact that they didn't work. They would often wear jackets with the seam running behind the shoulder combined with the weight of the tail of the coat in an attempt to round out the shoulders as opposed to being square and muscular like the working man. Large calves were also a positive feature; a result of a lot of dancing, so the men would stuff their socks with sawdust.

The people of Louisbourg wore make-up for a very different reason. Smallpox and chickenpox would often scar facial tissue so make-up was used in an effort to try and conceal these scars. The problem with this practice was that make-up contained either a lead base or a mercury base, and the make-up would get under the skin and leave dark lines or blemishes. Yet the French found a way around this problem. They would melt down bee's wax and rub it over the blemishes and apply the make-up over the coat of wax. The only problem was that a person couldn't stand too close to the fire or their face would literally melt.

Patches were worn on the face to conceal blemishes, small pox scars, and usually had a significant meaning behind them. They were cut from silk satin or silk taffeta. They were a necessity to any fashionable person.

Location of Patch	Significance
middle of forehead	dignified
corner of eye	passionate
middle of cheek	gallant
heart-shaped (left cheek)	engaged
heart-shaped (right cheek)	married
between mouth and chin	silent
on lower lip	discreet
beside the mouth	likes to kiss
on nasolabial fold	playful
on nose	saucy
near lip	tantalizing or flirtatious

Bathing

One of the major causes of illness and death in 18th-century Louisbourg was from poor personal hygiene. People usually bathed no more than once a year because they felt the oil their bodies produced protected them from disease, yet they washed their hands and face periodically. Louis XVI took a bath once in his life: the day he got married.

Sewers

Open sewers and outdoor latrines contributed to the unsanitary conditions especially when chamber pots were emptied onto the cobble stone sidewalks. Some of the town's wells collected this runoff in its water supply! The emptying of chamber pots out of windows was one of the reasons why the upper-class would walk in the middle of the street; they didn't want it dumped on their heads!

Wigs

Louis XIII went bald around the age of 18 and began wearing a wig. Wearing wigs caught on as a fashion trend in France by the middle of the reign of Louis XIV.

Red Tape

18th-century French Government documents were processed in at least two ways: they were sealed on the back with sealing wax with an official seal and they were bound with a pink ribbon - hence the creation of the term "Red Tape"!

The White Flag

France flew a white flag over its colonies in the 18th century. White was a symbol of purity and represented France's military power. When France conquered an adversary in battle they would fly the white flag, so for years to come ships would use the white flag as a sign of defeat. This practice would become a universal sign of surrender around the world.

The Wooden Horse

The wooden horse was used as a form of punishment for soldiers who were late, drunk or asleep on duty. A guilty soldier would be forced to mount the horse at the changing of the guard so that all his friends and townspeople would see him. His hands would be tied behind his back so that he couldn't support his weight and sometimes his feet would be weighted with muskets. It was excruciatingly painful, not to mention humiliating!

Gambling

Gambling was commonplace in the 1700s. Louisbourg had it's own pool hall and everyone gambled to pass the time in the cold winter months. But gambling was said to be immoral; François Bigot, the commissaire-ordinateur who was expected to promote morality and had passed laws against gambling, had gaming tables in his home!

The people of Louisbourg gambled on just about everything, even on the sex of unborn children. In 1737, a man approached a pregnant Marie Catherine Auger and bet her a pair of shoes that the child she carried was a boy. Well, he was wrong and when he refused to pay her the shoes, she took him to court and received her end of the bargain.

The Morbid

Burials were a somber public affair in 18th-century Louisbourg. During the funeral procession, mourners usually followed the remains from the deceased's home to the church and on to the graveyard to be buried on consecrated ground. Death from suicide, however, was a different matter altogether.

Suicide was a crime against church and state and, in accordance with the standard practice of the time, the remains of a suicide were severely punished, condemning his memory for eternity. This was exhibited in the case of a Louisbourg servant named Payen. He was found dead in his prison cell the evening after being accused of theft. An investigation into the reason of his death concluded in suicide. Payen's body was then dragged behind a cart through the streets of Louisbourg and hung upside down for twenty-four hours in a gallows erected in front of his master's home. His body was not buried on consecrated ground.

There were several customs and rituals that were practiced at the time of death. In some parts of France, a dying person's bed would be sprinkled with holy water. As soon as the person passed away, a special candle would be lit. One custom for a child's death would be to place a crown of flowers on the head or to adorn the body in herbs and rosemary, symbolizing remembrance. In other regions of France, practices involved stopping clocks at the time of death, covering mirrors or turning them towards a wall, and sprinkling holy water around the deceased's room. It was also believed that sweeping or dusting the room of a recently deceased person would expel their lingering soul.

One of Louisbourg's surgeons was Jean LaGrange. His typical day would include bleeding his patients with leaches, making herbal potions, dressing wounds and setting bones. But, the town surgeon was also the town barber!

Despite the provision of a house and an annual salary of 400 livres, the job of executioner remained empty for a long period of time. The administration finally took to hiring criminals for this position. In 1744, a slave from the West Indies, convicted of murder and awaiting execution, was relocated to Louisbourg to become its town executioner.

A Robbery

One night in 1741, a soldier who had once worked for M. de la Plagne decided to rob the de la Plagne house. De la Plagne was in France and his wife and brother were out visiting so he climbed the fence, picked a window, climbed inside and stole some Spanish coins. The next day the robbery was discovered by their slave. An investigation took place and eye witnesses said they saw the soldier spending money freely at a tavern. The money was discovered after the soldier's mattress was searched and he was arrested while working in the Governor's garden. While being escorted past the de la Plagne house, Mme. de la Plagne appeared. The soldier threw himself at her feet, but she showed no mercy. He was tried, found guilty, and hung.

On the Lighter Side

In February 1737, while a priest was saying mass, a young couple approached the alter holding hands. They knelt, said something and rose. The priest, being very alarmed by this behaviour, seized the chalice and hurried out of the Chapel and into the sacristy. The couple was arrested on the charge of scandal. It turned out that the couple couldn't get parental consent to marry and they felt that they had obeyed the law by marrying each other with a priest as a witness. The young man spent a month in the guardroom as a prisoner, while the girl was banished to the convent. They were eventually given a dispensation and were married in the Chapel the following summer.

Criminal Trials

One morning in 1754, a verger entered the Chapel to find the alter in disorder. The alter cloth was bloodstained, dirty with footprints and there were onion peels and bread scattered about. A crucifix was broken and there was blood on a picture frame above the alter. As it turned out, the culprit was a soldier and former school teacher who had ventured into the barracks at night to get an arithmetic book . As he passed the Chapel, he noticed that the door was open, and being quite drunk at the time, staggered in and climbed the stairs to the balcony. He jumped from the balcony to the floor to get closer to the alter to pray, but while doing so noticed that he didn't like the flower arrangement on the altar, so he climbed on the altar to move the bouquets, in the process of which he cut his face. While taking out his handkerchief to wipe the blood off, bread and onions fell out of his pocket and his bloodied hand left stains on the tabernacle and picture frame. He was arrested and the death penalty was sought but in the end he was ordered to march barefoot, wearing only a shirt, to the Chapel door to ask forgiveness of God and the King, while carrying a sign that read "profaner of sacred places." He was then banished from Ile Royale.

Michel Rodrigue, a local merchant allowed his ship to sail with 200 people aboard, although it was very unsafe. It arrived in Louisbourg literally falling apart. The captain was beaten along the length of the Quai.

Mme Grandchamp, a local innkeeper, had earned a reputation around town as an ill-tempered woman and a scandal involving her granddaughter did nothing to improve her name. M. Guyon, Grandchamp's neighbour, had a visitor who had the inclination to look over Grandchamp's fence and, much to her dismay, saw the little girl tied to a fence picket. The word soon spread and other people reported that they had heard the child screaming. One even saw Grandchamp with a pitchfork, poking the child, who was trapped in a barrel. The child had been orphaned when her parents, Grandchamps daughter and a Swiss sergeant, died. Grandchamp had become guardian with Guyon as sub-guardian. Guyon took Grandchamp to court on charges of child abuse, resulting in the child being sent to a convent school in Quebec at Grandchamp's expense.

Once, the neighbours of a wife-beater grew so enraged with his cruelty that they attacked him, put a pot over his head and proceeded to kick the pot.