LOUIS HÉBERT... was born around 1575 in the Mortier d'Or, a house near the Louvre in Paris, France.
The son of an apothecary and a court physician, Louis Hébert would take up the same profession. He also had a fascination with gardening and medicinal plants, as well.
In 1602, Louis Hébert married MARIE ROLLET. Their three children, Guillaume, Anne and Marie-Guillemette were born soon after, all in Paris.
Hébert became interested in the early settlements in Acadia (now Nova Scotia) through a cousin-in-law, Jean de Biencourt de Poutrincourt, a member of the French nobility and part of group, including Champlain, who were exploring the area as far down as the shores of southern New England for suitable settlement sites.
Louis Hébert would spend much time in Acadia in 1606, and again in 1610 where he stayed until 1613. During this time he became acquainted with Champlain and sailed with him on some of his exploring endeavors. Hébert, like Champlain before him, fell in love with the wild beauty of North America. However, where Champlain's attraction had profits attached to it, Hébert's did not. A plot of land to farm, a home, decent people to live among was all Hébert sought. Peace of mind from the intrigues of Paris politics and the horrors of the War of Religions. A new society.
In the winter of 1616-17, Hébert renewed acquaintance with Champlain who was in Paris seeking support for his colony at Québec.
The following excerpt is taken from the book: The Canadian Frontier 1534-1760 by W. J. Eccles, published by the University of New Mexico Press, p. 24.
In 1617 Champlain induced Louis Hébert, a one-time Paris apothecary of an adventurous disposition who had been at Port Royal (Acadia) for a time, to settle at Quebec. The company (a French Trading company of shareholders organized by Champlain) directors were induced to promise to support him and his family for two years and to pay him 200 crowns a year for three years. But when Hébert, having sold his assets, arrived at Honfleur to take ship for Canada, he was informed that he would be paid only 100 crowns and would have to serve the company as directed; only in his spare time would he be allowed to work his own land, and he had to sell any crops he raised to the company at current French prices. Hébert, having burned his bridges, had to accept.
Hébert was told that Champlain had exceeded his authority. Confused, the Hébert family pressed on and away from a France which seemed to have lost its soul. The Héberts and Champlain would arrive in Canada in July of 1617 after an arduous four-month journey.
Another excerpt from a book entitled The White and the Gold, by Thomas B. Costain, published by Doubleday & Co., p.91
...Up the steep pathway he (Hébert) led his family to inspect the ten acres which had been allotted to him on the crest. There they spent the first night under a tree...
Louis Hébert soon demonstrated that he was of the true pioneering breed. No repining for him over the lost ease of his comfortable shop on a fashionable street in Paris, no sulking over the bad faith of the company. He set to work at once and cleared a considerable stretch of the land. The temporary house he set up for his small family and the one domestic who had followed them out was soon replaced by a permanent one, a substantial structure of stone. All that is known of this first real house to be reared on Canadian soil was that it was of one story, the length thirty-eight feet, the width nineteen feet.
For the most part life was good for Louis Hébert from here on after, except for the death of his daughter Anne who had married in 1618 and had died in childbirth in 1620. In the long run, Hébert's tenacity paid off and he remained friends with Champlain despite the early misunderstanding.
In the winter of 1626, Hébert had a fall on the ice which proved fatal. He was buried in the Recollet cemetery in January, 1627.
Fortunately, Louis Hébert did not live to witness the death of his only son, Guillaume Hébert. killed and burned by the Iroquois in 1639. Undoubtedly, this young man worked shoulder to shoulder with his parents in the creation of the first settlement in New France.
Nor did Louis Hébert know that a grandson born in 1636, Joseph Hébert (son of Guillaume), would meet the same fate around 1662.
MARIE ROLLET... was born about 1580 in Paris. She worked tirelessly along side her husband, Louis Hébert until his death. Her name appears often as godmother at the baptisms of native children. She was at one with her husband.
Two years after Hébert's death, she married Guillaume Huboust. Her son, Guillaume would have been about 15 years old at the time, her daughter, Marie-Guillemette married to Guillaume Couillard.
Marie Rollet and her family did not return to France during the English occupation from 1629 to 1632. Instead, they and another family remained in their homes while David Kirke and British soldiers and merchants took possession of Champlain's Habitation.
In May of 1649, Marie Rollet died in Quebec.
The first colonist and his family would leave many descendants...
One of many descendants of Louis Hébert and Marie Rollet pointing to the inscription which reads: Marie Rollet et ses enfants 1617 - 1649.
Considering that Louis Hébert and Marie Rollet had 4592 descendents before the year 1800, it is safe to say the little girl above is one of well over 50,000. Included in that great number would be the singer, Céline Dion.
.............................................................
These ancestors are the Cameron line.
LOUIS HÉBERT and MARIE ROLLET m. 1-13-1602 in Paris, France
Guillaume HÉBERT and Hélène DesPORTES m. 10-1-1634 in Québec
Françoise HÉBERT and Guillaume FOURNIER m. 11-20-1651 in Québec
Charles FOURNIER and Elisabeth Agnes BOUCHARD m. 7-13-1699 at Cap St. Ignace, PQ
Joseph FOURNIER and Marguerite JOUANNE m. 9-30-1734 in Montmagny, PQ
Jean-Baptiste FOURNIER and Marie Louise GRENIER m. 4-7-1777 in St. Laurent, Ile d'Orleans, PQ
François FOURNIER and Josephte GABOURIAULT m. 9-13-1819 at Ste. Marie de Monnoir, Rouville, PQ
Louis FOURNIER and Marie DORÉ m. 1-18-1853 at Ste. Marie de Monnoir, Rouville, PQ
Mathilde FOURNIER and Ernest CAMIRAND m. 11-24-1885 in Attleboro, MA
Wilfred CAMERON and Delia DARGIE m. 10-11-1910 in Attleboro, MA
Rhea CAMERON and Edward LIZOTTE m. 6-20-1936 in Attleboro, MA