“On the third day of November 1647, Françoise Fafard married Mathurin Meunier in the little chapel inside the fort. Françoise was the first of many women to come to Ville-Marie intending to marry and settle in the colony. Perhaps it was a decision made easier because her older brother Bertrand had come to New France ten years earlier, in 1637, and had established himself at Trois-Rivières.[ 102] The community celebrated another wedding that fall, two weeks after the first. Jean Desroches married Françoise Godé, daughter of Nicolas Godé and Françoise Gadois, on November 18, 1647. Governor Maisonneuve honored both couples with his presence at their weddings.”

— The Women of Ville-Marie: Pioneers of Seventeenth-Century Montréal by Susan McNelley15



On Saturday, March 9, 1715, Nicolas and Jean Desroches buried their mother, Françoise Godé, in holy ground on Montréal Island. In recording the interment in the parish records, the curé referred to her as “la bonne femme” and “around one hundred years” of age. Her death sparked little interest beyond her family and a few friends who knew and loved her. It is doubtful anyone realized she was the last to die of the small group that settled the island in 1642.

McNelley, Susan. The Women of Ville-Marie: Pioneers of Seventeenth-Century Montréal . Etta Heritage Press. Kindle Edition. 15