Vercheres 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, in
luding 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 Naudiere; and in 1722 De
la Perrade. In her later years she received a pension for life. The date
of her death is not known. =Index=: (Count Frontenac era) Defends fort against Iroquois,
319. =Bib.=: Parkman, Frontenac; Richard, Supplement to Report on
Canadian Archives, 1899.