Born: 3 March 1678, Canada
Died: 8 August 1747
Country most active: Canada
Also known as: Marie-Madeleine Jarret
The following is excerpted from “400 Outstanding Women of the World and the Costumology of Their Time” by Minna Moscherosch Schmidt, published in 1933.
A Canadian heroine, daughter of J. de V., Captain Regiment Carignan and his wife Marie Perrot. She was born April 17, 1678. When fourteen years of age she defended her father’s Fort, at that time garrisoned by a single sentry, against an attack of the Iroquois. After eight days, relief arrived and the Iroquois were driven off. A statue to her memory has been erected at Vercheres Point, near the site of the Fort, on the bank of the St. Lawrence. She was married in 1706, to P. T. T. Lenaudiere, Seigneur St. Ann de la Perade. She died at St. Anne in 1747. She is known as the “Joan of Arc” of Canada.
The following is excerpted from The Makers of Canada: Index and Dictionary of Canadian History, published in 1912 and edited by Lawrence J. Burpee and Sir Arthur G. Doughty.
Verchères, Marie-Madeleine Jarret. Born in 1678 in the fort on her father’s seigniory on the St. Lawrence River, twenty miles below Montreal. In 1692 she heroically defended this fort, with the assistance of her two young brothers, two soldiers, and an old man of eighty. When the settlers were working in the fields, a band of Iroquois suddenly appeared and began their work of slaughter. Madeleine had barely time to reach the fort. She found everyone, including the two soldiers, demoralized, and, taking command, she ordered the little band to keep up constant firing. The Iroquois beseiged the fort for two days, but finally retired discomfited; and relief came from Montreal in another week. In 1706 she married Thomas Tarien de la Naudière; and in 1722 De la Perrade. In her later years she received a pension for life. The date of her death is not known.