An Agreeable By Do-Nothing Life

Jeanne D' Aprendestiguy De La Tour

Jeanne La Tour was the eldest daughter of Charles La Tour and his Mi'kmaq wife, Louise.  I have chosen to do a profile on Jeanne, since to me she represents an excellent example of the merging of cultures between the original Wapn'ki and the French Immigrants.

To many, she would simply be given the label of Metis, but that is far too broad a generalization, to sum up the life of this incredible woman.  If I had to choose just one word to her, it would be entrepeneur, but Jeanne d'Aprendestiguy de La Tour, Dame de Martignon; was so much more.

Her father, Charles Amador St. Etienne De La Tour; was one of the first Frenchmen to settle in the Acadia, the name given to Jeanne's homeland by a European explorer, Giovanni da Verrazzano, about a century before she was born.   However, the people of her grandfather's village, referred to it as the Land of the Anenaki, or 'Dawn Land', which then covered a large area of Eastern North America, including present day Maine, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, Nova Scotia and Quebec.  By the time that Jeanne was born, her father had been in the area for about 14 years, arriving with an early group of adventurers, to made friends and do business with the local people.  When their trading post  was burned down by an English privateer in 1613, her father and a small group of young men from his country, chose to stay in the region, to protect a business they hoped to expand.  The Fur Trade.

Her grandfather always spoke highly of him, respecting his thirst for knowledge and ability to learn their language and customs; and within a few years he rose to the rank of honorary sagamore or chief, with his own following of loyal warriors.   Together they hunted, trapped, fished and launched raids on English and Scottish settlers who had encroached on their land. To have achieved such a status, her father would have had to prove himself in a variety of  ways: his skill as a  hunter, his bravery as a warrior, his power as an orator, and his reputation for honesty, generosity and wisdom.  Of course the fact that he had many contacts in his homeland for their fish and furs, also made him a valuable member of the family, and all would reap the rewards.

Jeanne's early years were spent in her mother's village, where she and her younger sisters; Antoinette and Marie, learned the art of weaving baskets, sewing, cooking, gathering maple syrup, and planting crops.  They were also taught the valuable life lessons of sharing, generosity, and hospitality, which were essential since they often meant the difference between eating and going hungry.   The children of her village were never disciplined with spanking or striking in any way, but instead, through the use of  traditional stories, which were imbedded in their brain; grave admonitions, and the pressure of group dissapproval, they kept on the straight and narrow.

Though most of their clothing, which bordered on optional during the summer months, was made from animal skins and beaver pelts, they were usually decorated with embroidery, beading and quills, and often dyed.  On their feet they wore lightweight mocassins, which consisted of three pieces of deerskin, wrapped around the ankles, and in winter they were slipped into snowshoes.

Most of the homes in her village were traditional wigwams, cone shaped and covered with birch bark.  They had two doors, each one covered with deerskin, though one was usually left open to provide an adequate draft for smoke from the fire.  There were also several larger, sturdier and more permanent longhouses, where several generations resided, and root cellars were dug where they could store corn and dried meats for the winter months.

She would also spend a great deal of time at her father's fort on Cape Sable, where she first learned the ins and outs of the fur trade, and being fluent in most Algonkian dialects; as well as French; she would become invaluable as an interpretor. When Jeanne was about seven, things would begin to change for the family, marked by the death of her mother, and the return of the French to Acadia.  Since her father would become a man of some importance in the French business venture, there were demands on him to lose some of his acquired culture, and adopt the laws and customs of France. He also felt that it might be time for his girls to learn some French culture, and in 1632, the family paid a visit to his homeland.  Even at that age, Jeanne was aware of the stark contrast between her home and this, finding the buildings grotesque, the people rude and the land dirty and cluttered with trash.  How could he possibly want them to be raised in this fashion? She was also aware of the way that people stared at her father and uncles as walked the streets; in their traditional garments;  appearing much larger than life against the backdrop of meaningless French trappings.  She couldn't wait to get home, but would learn that she might be expected to reside there while she learned the customs of the land. As a matter of fact, her sisters would never leave.  When it was discovered that Antionette had the voice of angel, she was put away and made perform for the 'elite members of French society', and they were always getting news that this 'Prince' or that 'Queen'  were in attendance at her concerts, but it meant little to Jeanne, though she knew it made her father proud, and as such she was proud as well.  As for poor Marie, she was taken to a convent where the strict discipline and rigid lifestyle, was too much for the poor little thing, and she died soon after.  But not Jeanne.  She wanted to go back to Acadia and her beloved fur trade, something she understood and was good at.  Life didn't change much over the next several years , though her father was becoming increasingly interested in French politics.  However, his fur trade went on as before, and he was enjoying his new position of authority with the French traders.

His daughter was becoming invaluable to him in the day to day operation of his business; allowing him more time to do the things he enjoyed.  Balancing her own time between her father's tradings posts and her mother's village, life couldn't be better; but how could she know that evil lurked, and they were about to be visited by a demon far worse than any in the stories she'd heard as a child?  This demon went by the name of Charles Menou D'Aulnay, and for the next several years, he would turn her world upside down,  as he tried to destroy her father and his new wife, Francoise-Marie Jacquemin. Though her grandfather would have preferred that he take another Mi'kmaq bride, he was beginning to understand the politics, and the strategy of marrying from within his own Nation.   Besides, Jeanne liked the spunk of Francoise, not unlike that of her own mother, and enjoyed the time spent at their home.  When her stepbrother, Etienne was born, she absolutely doted on the boy, eager to teach him the proper Mi'kmaq ways.  But, when alas the villain D'Aulnay abducted the young boy and caused the death of her stepmother, her father became a broken man, and it was up to Jeanne to see him through this difficult time. He was in a lot of trouble, and she knew it, though he couldn't be kept down long.  Soon they were back in business and enjoying the fruits of their labour.  By now, she was a savvy businesswoman and well known throughout the area for fair and honest dealing.  Her father had remarried; this time to the unfortunate widow of the scoundrel D'Aulnay; not unfortunate for her that he died, only that she had to live with him in the first place.

In 1656, Jeanne was married to Martin d'Aprendistiguy, a Basque associate of her father's, and they made their home along the St. John River, across from her father's former post. They had a daughter Marie-Anne, born in 1662, whom Jeanne taught not only the Mi'kmaq skills and customs, she had learned from her own mother; but also the financial aspects of trade; that she had learned from her father and grandfather.

In 1672, as a reward for their continued service and loyalty to France, the family was granted a seigneury, and given the titles of Sieur and Madame D'Martignon D'Apprendistiguy, though they continued to live by the fur trade; hunting and fishing, and keeping close contact with Jeanne's Native roots.  When the French Governor Perrot visited them in 1686, he described it as "an agreeable by do-nothing life".  That was the same year that their 24 year old daughter Marie-Anne or Marianne, as it is sometimes seen; married a Port Royal settler, by the name of Guillaume Bourgeois, who just happened to be the brother of my G-g-g-g-g-g-grandmother; Marie.  Guillaume and Marianne would run a mercantile establishment at Port Royal for many years, and would have one daughter, whom they named Jeanne, after Marianne's mother.  Jeanne would grow up to marry Jean LeBlanc, the son of French-Acadians; Andre LeBlanc and Marie-Jeanne Dugas; and many of their descendants would be sent to England during the Grand Expulsion. Martin and Jeanne D'Apprendestiguy would spend the remainder of their days at their post, and later the small community that grew up around it on the St. John River, was given the name Martinon, in their honour.

Jeanne de La Tour's European Ancestry

Guyon Etienne Turgis b: 1540 in Paris, France d: April 5, 1609 at St. Eustache Parish, Paris, France m: 1555 St. Eustache Parish

Claude Turgis La Tour b: 1560 Champagene, France d: Abt. 1640 at Cape Sable m: 1590 in Champagne, France

Marie Condon b: 1540 Paris, France d: 1626 Paris, France

Charles Amador de La Tour b: 1593 Haute-Marne, Paris, France d: 1666 Cape Sable, New France m: 1623 Abenaki Village, Acadia

Hector Salazar b: 1540 Chmpagne, France d: Unknown m: 1626 Paris, France

Marie Salazar b: 1565 Haute-Marne, Champagne, France d: Abt. 1625 Haute-Marne, Champagne, France

Antionette De Coucelles b: 1540 Champagne, France d: Unknown

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