JACQUES HERTEL dit DE LA FRESNIÈRE was born in Fécamp, Normandy around 1603.
He arrived in New France with Samuel de Champlain in 1615 where he was to be assigned to a native tribe for a year or two to learn the language and customs. Champlain did this with many young boys who appeared promising. Often times there was an student exchange whereas Champlain would reciprocate by taking a young native boy and insure he was taught French and French ways.
Jacques Hertel was an interpreter until 1629 when New France fell to the Kirk brothers. Then he and the other interpreters, notably Jean Nicolet and Thomas Godefroy (brother of Jean Godefroy) fled to the woods and to the natives tribes they were comforable with. When New France was returned to the French in 1633, Hertel was granted a 200-acre tract of land at Trois-Rivières by the Company of 100 Associates as a show of gratitude for his loyalty to New France.
In the summer of 1641, Jacques Hertel married Marie Marguerie, who had recently arrived from Rouen in 1639. She had come out to Canada at the wish of her brother, François Marguerie, an explorer and companion to Champlain who had become an interpreter of Indian dialects. François Marguerie was staying in the town of Three Rivers where his sister came to join him. Jacques Hertel and Marie Marguerie would have three children before his death in 1651. Their only son, François Hertel, born in 1642 was considered one of Canada's most brilliant heroes. François Hertel had for godfather, his uncle and interpreter François Marguerie and godmother, Marguerite Couillard, the wife of the renowned interpreter and explorer, Jean Nicolet.
Their other children, both daughters were ancestor Madeleine born in 1645 and Marguerite born in 1649.
Jacques Hertel was primarily an interpreter and fur trader, but he also worked an as interpreter for the Jesuits at Trois-Rivières. With ancestor, Jean Godefroy de Lintot, he was the first settler there before the official founding of that post.
(Source: Biography Canada -- www.biographi.ca)
In 1644, Hertel obtained a concession at Cap de la Madeleine at a place called "L'arbre-à-la-croix" on which there was already a small house.
On the 24th of November, 1648, he signed the marriage contract of Antoine DesRosiers and Anne LeNeuf who became his tenants.
Jacques Hertel died suddenly in the summer of 1651 at the home of Antoine DesRosiers.
The genealogy of it...
Jacques HERTEL and Marie MARGUERIE, m. 8-23-1641 in Trois-Rivières, PQ
Marie-Madeleine HERTEL and Louis PINARD, m. 10-29-1658 in Trois-Rivières, PQ
Marie-Françoise PINARD nad Martin GIGUERRE, m. 5-7-1682 in PQ
Antoine GIGUERRE and Françoise JUTRAS, m. 7-22-1726 at St. François du Lac, PQ
Jeanne GIGUERRE and André ALLARD, m. 10-20-1749 at St. François du Lac, PQ
Joseph ALLARD and Marie-Ursule JANELLE, m. 7-8-1776 at Baie-du-Febvre, PQ
Genevieve ALLARD and Gabriel LaFOND, m. 10-21-1816 at Baie-du-Febvre, PQ
Hélène LaFOND and Antoine DARGIE, m. 9-1-1844 at Granby, PQ
Napoléon DARGIE and Léonise TURCOTTE, m. 10-15-1883 in Lewiston, ME
Delia DARGIS (Dargie) and Wilfred CAMERON, m. 10-11-1910 in Attleboro, MA
Rhea CAMERON and Edward LIZOTTE, m. 6-20-1936 in Attleboro, MA
