(1615-1663)
D'Aulnay and Jeanne Motin, appeared to be a good match and their relationship was described as cordial. She may not have been as adventurous and daring as Lady La Tour, but adjusted well to her life on the frontier, assuming a traditional position as was prescribed at the time, in a French Catholic family, and her husband would refer to her as a "devout and modest little servant of God."
The settlers in the small community treated her with kindness, but she knew that they pitied her for the lot she was having to bear.
Amoung other things, her husband was a womanizer; constantly making improper advances toward the ladies, and it was even rumoured that he had entered into a "country marriage" (name given to unions between Native women and European men) in New England.
As a matter of fact, there is a Doney family in Maine, who claim to be his descendants, the name a derivitive of 'Monsiuer Donny', as he was known to the Puritan settlers.
Watching the men and women in the fields, and the never ending catch of codfish drying on the roofs, was comforting, and the sound of a rooster, the bells of the oxen, or laughter of the small children, was in direct contrast to the constant bloodshed and endless rantings, as a result of the ongoing feud between D'Aulnay and his nemesis La Tour.
She would spend a great deal of time in the chapel, taking spiritual guidance from the resident priests, and since she and Charles would have eight children; four boys and four girls, she was never without something to do. Even with hired help, they were a handful, and since their father was a strict disciplinarian, no doubt she gave them a freer rein when he wasn't about.
He would maintian a monopoly for the next five years, until on May 24, 1650; he drowned while inspecting some property. The story goes that he had fallen from his canoe after standing to get a closer look, and the local Mi'kmaq nearby, turned their back and refused to help (they did rescue his servant however, obviously the better man). Seems fair.
However, more bad news would soon follow when she realized that his estate owed more than 300,000 livres to several creditors. One of them, Emmanuel Le Borgne, went so far as raiding and looting her property to collect his debt, while others , took advantage of the situation and occupied posts at Cape Breton, on land that supposedly belonged to the D'Aulnay estate. (Probably only because he said so)
In a desperate effort she sent her steward to France in the summer of 1651, to act on her behalf. He was able to make arrangements with the Duc de Vendome, under which Vendome assumed half the debt in return for half the D'Aulnay properties and a share of the fur trade. This was of little help since she still had eight young children to raise and a French colony that needed leadership.
With this in mind, she presented an offer to Charles de La Tour, that I’m sure both amused and intriqued him greatly, but would give them both something they wanted. After D'Aulnay's untimely death, La Tour had sought and won royal absolution from France, and was once again named Governor of French interests in Acadia; so she would get the money required to maintain her children, in exchange for her share of the land and trading rights that he had long coveted.
So, in a marriage of convenience, she wed Charles de Saint-Etienne De Latour in July, 1653 for the "peace and tranquillity of the country, and concord and union between the two families." They would have five children; Jacques (m. Anne Melanson), Charles, Marie (m. Alexandre LeBorgne), Marguerite (m. Abraham Mius de Plemazais), and Anne (m. Jacques Mius of Pubnico).
Jeanne died on March 2, 1663; and Charles followed three years later. As for her children from her marriage with D'Aulnay: Their four sons; Joseph, Charles, Rene and Paul, joined the Royal Navy, like their father, and all were killed at the Siege of Luxembourg. As for the girls; Anne, Renee, Marie and Jeanne; they all went back to France where they became Ursuline nuns, so fortunately there were no descendants.
