Médard des Groseilliers

Médard Chouart was born in Charly-sur-Marne, Champagne province, France, to Médard Chouart, his father and Marie Poirier. He also had a cousin named Médard Chouart. He later called himself Sieur des Groseilliers after a farm his parents managed in Bassevelle. He was reported to have immigrated to New France in 1641 at age 23, but according to historian Grace Lee Nute, this has never been proven. He became a donné or lay helper at the Jesuit missions in the Wendat region near present-day Simcoe County, Ontario. Here he learned the skills of a coureur des bois. In 1646, Groseilliers fought with the Wendat against the Haudenosaunee.

On 3 September 1647 Groseilliers married the widowed Helène Martin, the daughter of Abraham Martin, whose land surrounding Quebec City later became famous as the Plains of Abraham. Their first child died in 1648. Their second child, also named Médard, was born in 1651, the same year Helène died. After the Haudenosaunee destroyed the Wendat missions and forced the people to move further west in the late 1640s, Groseilliers worked to re-establish trade, especially in the Lake Superior region.

In 1653, Groseilliers travelled to Acadia to meet with Claude de la Tour and returned to New France in July and established himself at Trois-Rivières. There he married his second wife, Marguérite Hayet, (sometimes spelled Hayot) the widowed step-sister of Pierre-Esprit Radisson and from whom he inherited his lands in Trois-Rivières. Two sons from her first marriage became troublesome. In 1654, Groseilliers petitioned the governor of New France to find the boys another guardian, which was accepted. His first child by Marguérite, Jean Baptiste, was baptized on 5 July 1654. His second child by Marguérite, also named Marguérite, was baptized on 15 April 1659 and his third child, Marie-Antoinette, was baptized on 8 June 1661.