Background
Francoise Marie Jacquelin was born in 1602. She was the daughter of a doctor by the name of Jacques Jacquelinand was born in Nogent-le-Rotrou.
Francoise Marie Jacquelin was born in 1602. She was the daughter of a doctor by the name of Jacques Jacquelinand was born in Nogent-le-Rotrou.
A male contemporary referred to Francoise Marie as "a remarkable woman or an uncommon man." Life was prosperous until the ambitious Jesuit Seigneur d'Aulnay Charnise became aggressive in his designs on Fort La Tour. During the increasing hostilities that arose between the inhabitants of Fort La Tour and Charise, Madame de La Tour assumed the role of a military commander in her husband's absence. In one engagement she commanded a portion of their fleet of three ships and numerous small craft, chasing Charnise from the mouth of the St. John River. Her forces valiantly defended the fort with cannons, blowing Charnise's ship out of the water and throwing his soldiers from their scaling ropes and ladders. Meanwhile, her husband was outlawed and forced into hiding. Madame de La Tour's defense of the fort had been so successful that Charnise's hatred was now transferred to her with increasing venom. Four months later he renewed his attack upon the fort. For four days she led the defense of the fort with forty-five soldiers but was defeated. Following her capture, Madame de La Tour was forced into a halter that held her head rigid, and she was forced to watch as her soldiers were hung one by one.
Francoise Marie Jacquelin had spent but five years in Acadia, yet her position in the history of this country is assured. Hers was the distinction of being the first European woman to have lived, to have made a home, and to have raised a family in New Brunswick. Neither the perils of the sea, the dangers of war nor the horrors of a long siege could still her courage. She was the most remarkable woman in Acadia’s early history.
Jacquelin assumed command of the garrison there, refused to surrender, and led a pitched three-day battle to defend the fort.
A woman far ahead of her time, Francoise Marie Jacquelin helped her father negotiate her marriage contract, secured a dowry from her husband, and did not take Charles de Saint Etienne de La Tour’s name when she married him. When she married Charles La Tour, Francois Marie Jacquelin became his fierce defender and in 1645, she defended Fort La Tour to her death against her husband’s rival Charles de Menou d’Aulnay de Charnizay, cousin of Cardinal Richelieu, France’s chief minister and a clever and capable although relentless aristocrat.
Francoise Marie Jacquelin chose to follow the French custom of her time and not take her husband, Charles La Tour’s last name, so history doesn’t know her as Francoise Marie Jacquelin La Tour. Instead, she signed the name Francoise Marie Jacquelin to personal and business documents.
She was known as an excellent hunter, skilled with firearms, who frequently traveled throughout the New World to advance her husband's trading business and to secure supplies and recruit soldiers.
In 1625 she traveled to Nova Scotia, where she married Charles de Saint-Étienne de la Tour and assisted in the establishment of Fort La Tour.
