Hillary Clinton's French Ancestry
Descent is from Quebec’s First Settlers in 1600s
Dec 1, 2008 Rosemary E. Bachelor
Quebec celebrated its 400th anniversary in 2008. The first inhabitants were soldiers, fur traders and missionaries. Within 15 years, entire families arrived. Hillary Clinton’s ancestors were among the earliest of them. More of her ancestors continued to come to Quebec from France.
Here are mini biographies of some of Hillary’s French Canadian ancestors:
- Nicholas Gode came from France to Quebec and in 1642 was head of one of Montreal’s founding families; he was killed by Indians, but wife Francoise Gadois lived to be 100.
- Jean-Baptiste Baudry/Beaudry through his father, mother and wife belonged to three of the most important families of ironwork craftsmen in Canada. As a gunsmith, he made numerous trips between Quebec and Fort Detroit, where he acquired land in 1735.
- Jean Soullard was chosen in 1683 to make the dies for stamping coinage with the fleur de lys and a Roman numeral related to its weight.
- Urbain Brossard, master mason, who came from France in 1653. Signed sketches exist of houses he built in the Montreal area, revealing details of the half-timbered field-stone construction of the earliest homes.
- Martin Boutet de Saint-Martin, musician and mathematician, came from France to Quebec ca. 1645 to tutor sons of the well-to-do, founded a choir school then was engaged by the Jesuits to teach surveying and navigation. A license to survey required his approval.
- Mathurin Gagnon, a progressive farmer in summer and Quebec businessman in winter, Mathurin was a church warden. He married in 1647 Francoise Goudeau, 13. They had 16 children, thus founding one of Quebec’s largest families.
- Guillaume Couillard (ca.1591-1663) and Louis Hebert were among the first permanent Quebec City inhabitants, have streets named for them within the old walled city and are depicted in statues near the city hall.. Couillard excelled at all he undertook and accumulated land, including the site of the seminary and adjacent cathedral.
- Louis Hebert, a Paris apothecary, had explored coastline in the New World as early as 1606 with Champlain. In 1617, with wife Marie Rolet, and their three children, he came to Champlain’s settlement at Quebec. There he was the earliest farmer, a landholder with one or more servants, and, eventually, the settlement’s first officer of justice. His wife and daughter Guillemette (who wed Guillaume Couillard) were benefactors of the Indians and renowned for other charitable work.
Hillary shares ancestors with former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, writer Jack Kerouac and singer Shania Twain, among others. A separate article details her shared ancestry with Madonna, Celine Dion, Angelina Jolie and Camilla Shand, wife of England’s Prince Charles.
A companion article covers her Welsh, English and Scottish ancestry.
Sources:
Moreau-DesHarnais, Gail F. and Sheppard, Diane W., "Hillary Rodham Clinton’s French-Canadian Ancestry:
Detroit and Michigan Connection," Michigan's Habitant Heritage Vol. 28, No. 4 (October 2007) and Vol. 29, No. 1 (January 2008);
Programme de recherche en démographie historique (Research Program in Historical Demography), Université de Montréal; "Au Perche des Canadiens Français," brochure éditée par les Pays d'accueil Perche, France, Juillet, 1991.
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