Louis Hébert

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Statue of Louis Héberts in the city of Québec, by Alfred Laliberté (1918)

Louis Hébert (* around 1575 in Paris ; † January 25, 1627 in Québec , New France ) was a French pharmacist . He was the first French colonist in Canada and the first to farm after settling in what is now Québec with his family in 1617.

biography

Hébert was born on Rue Saint-Honoré in Paris and baptized in the Church of St-Germain-l'Auxerrois . Like his father before him, he learned the trade of pharmacist and spice dealer. In 1602 he married Marie Rollet, with whom he had three children. His wife's niece was married to the nobleman Jean de Poutrincourt , who was an acquaintance of the navigator and trader Pierre Dugua de Mons . This should explain Hébert's desire to get to know the New World . In 1606 he joined the second expeditions to Acadia organized by Dugua and led by Samuel de Champlain . Hébert took care of the health of the expedition members, carried out agricultural experiments and cultivated native plants that he had received from the Mi'kmaq . In 1607 the expedition returned to France after De Monts' trade monopoly had been revoked.

In 1610 Hébert set out with Poutrincourt to Port-Royal in Acadia and stayed there for the next three years, treating both French and indigenous people. In 1613 all colonists had to return to France after English privateers destroyed Port-Royal. Hébert then worked again as a pharmacist in Paris. In the winter of 1616/17, Champlain convinced him to move to Québec with his family . They left Honfleur in March 1617 and arrived thirteen weeks later. Hébert's medical knowledge and the wheat supplies he brought with him played a decisive role in ensuring the survival of the settlement. For several years he was the only resident who ran agriculture - the rest were either soldiers or fur traders - and had to endure some bureaucratic harassment from the trading company operating there.

After Champlain took full administrative control of Québec in 1620, he appointed Hébert Crown Attorney and thus entrusted him with the administration of the judiciary. Hébert also enjoyed the trust of the natives, as he did not see them as uncivilized savages, but as intelligent people who simply lacked education. In 1623 he became the first private landowner of the colony when he was awarded the Seigneurie Sault-au-Matelot (near what is now the Notre-Dame de Québec Cathedral ). At the end of 1626 he was seriously injured in a fall on the ice and died a few weeks later.

Hébert's family was the only one that remained in Québec between 1629 and 1632 after the colony was conquered by the fleet of the English adventurer David Kirke and all other residents temporarily moved away.

Aftermath

Rue Hébert in the upper town of Québec is named after Louis Hébert . In 1918, the artist Alfred Laliberté created a bronze statue on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of Hébert's arrival. It originally stood in the square in front of the town hall , but was moved to Parc Montmorency in 1971 . The statue shows Hébert stretching up a tuft of wheat ears; Minor characters at the foot of the base represent his wife, his three children and his brother-in-law Guillaume Couillard.

On the occasion of the 45th Congress of the International Pharmaceutical Federation , held in Montreal in 1985 , the Canadian Post issued a postage stamp in honor of Louis Hébert, Canada's first pharmacist.

According to a research program at the University of Montreal on historical demography, Louis Hébert and his wife Marie Rollet had a total of 4,592 named descendants in 1800.

literature

  • Francine Legare: Louis Hébert: Premier colon en Nouvelle-France . Éditions XYZ, Montreal 2005, ISBN 978-2-89261-412-1 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ethel MG Bennett: Marie Rollet . In: Dictionary of Canadian Biography . 24 volumes, 1966–2018. University of Toronto Press, Toronto ( English , French ).
  2. ^ Monument de Louis Hébert. Grand Québec, accessed October 1, 2014 (French).
  3. ↑ 1985 Louis Hébert: The Father of Canadian Pharmacy. Postal History Corner, October 12, 2013, accessed October 1, 2014 .
  4. ↑ Les Pionniers. In: Le Program de recherche en demographie historique. University of Montreal , accessed October 1, 2014 (French).
personal data
SURNAME Hébert, Louis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French pharmacist, first colonist in New France
DATE OF BIRTH around 1575
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris , France
DATE OF DEATH January 25, 1627
Place of death Québec , New France