The Quebec Settlement:
A Page of Historical
Archaeology
by
Françoise Niellon
The Settlement From 1613 to 1632:
A New Settlement Soon Destroyed
Champlain was no longer working for the companies that managed the
fur trade in New France and had agreed to develop a permanent settlement
there. However, the companies financed everything and even paid his salary,
so, relatively speaking, Champlain still depended on them.
In 1628, France and England were at war. Having received a patent
from the King of Great Britain, Charles I, David Kirke blocked the fleet of
the Company of One Hundred Associates on the Saint Lawrence, effectively
cutting off supplies to Quebec. In July 1629, having exhausted all his
resources, Champlain was forced to surrender the settlement and the fort to
the Kirke brothers, who spent three years there. During that time, the
settlement was consumed by fire; in 1632, it lay in ruins.
Accounts Given by Champlain
and His Contemporaries
In 1614, work was done on the Quebec settlement. Champlain noted in
1616:
". . . we enlarged our said settlement by a third at least
with additional fortified buildings, because it was not sufficiently roomy
. . . and we built the whole solidly with lime and sand, having found some
of very good quality . . .". The building material used was stone, with
a mortar of lime and sand.
When the Récollets arrived in 1615, a small chapel/dwelling
was built for them outside the settlement but on the same shoulder that had
been cleared. Later, in 1619, a forge-bakery was built because it could no
be "accommodated in the precinct of the dwellings".
Despite all the work, in 1620 Champlain noted that the settlement was in a
terrible state: one of the dwellings had crumbled and "the store-house was
on the point of tumbling down". As it turns out, the storehouse was the
stone building Champlain had mentioned four years earlier, but it remained
unfinished. It was completed only the following year.
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| Fig. 6 - The structure planned
in 1623, a plausible representation
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Despite the constant repairs, and the fact that the courtyard had
recently been paved and the storehouse was finally completed, the person who
owned the settlement in 1623, Guillaume de Caën, considered it old. He
decided "to build a new one . . .pulling down the whole of the old except
the warehouse". Champlain set out to build a dwelling that would be 18
toises long and have two ells, each measuring 10 toises, and a small tower
"at the four corners of the structure]" (Fig. 6). The only mention made of
the storehouse is that it was to be "adjoining it"; otherwise, its location
was not specified. The new structure was also to have "a ravelin in front,
commanding the river, the whole encircled by ditches and a drawbridge".
Pitcher from Bouffioux
Object damaged by fire
Photos: Ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec,
Archaological Collection
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Construction began on May 1, 1624. When Champlain decided to go to
France in mid-August, he seemed satisfied with the progress of the work.
Twenty-six toises of 14-foot walls had been built, so the walls just had to
be raised another seven or eight feet.
Upon his return to Quebec in July 1626, Champlain noted: "After
having inspected the settlement, and what had been done about the dwelling
quarters since my departure, I did not find the work so far advanced as I
had expected". He therefore "gave orders to cover in half the quarters of
the settlement that I had had begun before I left for France, and to carry
out some other necessary improvements".
Neck of a
square bottle
Object damaged by fire
Photos: Ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec,
Archaological Collection
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Besides this emergency work, he decided to enlarge the small fort that had
been hastily built a few years earlier on "the mountain" (Cap Diamant). He
also had a farm built at Cap Tourmente to provide for the needs of the
settlement’s residents.
In the summer of 1628, having received news that the farm had been
sacked by the Kirkes’ men, Champlain quickly "set all hands to work to make
entrenchments around the settlement, and barricades on the ramparts of the
fort which were not completed . . . These things having been accomplished in
all haste". Everyone was placed on alert, but their fears never
materialized; no battle took place that year, nor the following.
Petit
pot à conserve
Object damaged by fire
Photos: Ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec,
Archaological Collection
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The Kirke brothers lived at the fort, and maintained and improved its
defences. They used the settlement as a warehouse, but it caught fire.
Exactly when and how is not certain. When the French returned, there were
only ruins. According to Emery de Caën, the
settlement had burned to the ground. The Jesuits noted:
". . . poor settlement of which nothing is to be seen but the ruins of its
stone walls"
(Note)..
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Asian
amphora
Object damaged by fire
Photos: Ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec,
Archaological Collection
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Champlain himself wrote:
"The settlement was in such a poor state that
it was difficult to find a spot to put our flour and other goods under
cover, since there was only the cellar and a lean-to over it, and the hut of
the plank sawyers. Only part of the walls of the stone house was
left . . ." (Note).
The Field Work
The excavations made it possible to clarify, to a certain extent, and
sometimes supplement, the information Champlain provided on the progressive
replacement of the structure built in 1608. The objects found on the floors
of the structure built in 1624, in the inner courtyard of the settlement and
outside the north side indicate that the site was occupied at the time. As
for the destruction by fire and the crumbling of the walls when the
settlement was occupied by the English, they were identified by the
calcination of the floors and the objects that had been placed there.
On the whole, the vestiges found at the site - a main dwelling with
two ells - correspond to the structure planned in 1623. The south wing
consists of the storehouse that was begun in 1614 and completed in 1621. In
1624, the main dwelling was built at right angles to the storehouse, whose
west section was integrated into it. However, the building that was to
constitute the north wing does not seem to have been built at that time. As
they now stand, the north wing and the central dwelling have no structural
link, and their north walls are not really aligned.
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Fig. 8 - The vestiges of the
northwest angle of the main dwelling
Looking west
Photo: Archives nationales du
Québec à Québec, 764-160
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Instead of the 18 toises that had been planned in 1623, the central
dwelling has only 16, that is 4 m less. If we take into account the
integration of the storehouse, the 26 toises built in 1624 were in fact
enough for the new building. But that does not include the towers, which
must have been added later. Did this make it necessary to add the two
interior buttresses found near the northwest turret (Fig. 8)?
The walls built in 1624 are of black shale, the local stone that was
known as "pierre du Cap" (Cap stone). They are about two feet (65 cm)
thick, and in some areas there are about 3 m of masonry (Fig. 9). The floors
of the section excavated are of white pine. As for the roofing, Champlain
had 1,800 planks sawn before he left in 1624, and in 1626 there was no
question of using another material. Given the shape of the turrets, they
were probably topped with wood shingles. However, fragments of flat tiles
found here and there indicate that this material was used to cover at least
part of the buildings at the time.
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Fig. 9 - The vestiges of the
northwest angle of the main dwelling
Looking north
Photo: Ministère de la
Culture et des Communications du Québec, 1976-R12:19
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The defences built in 1608, at least on the north side, must have
been covered by the structure of the second settlement. Traces of a ditch
found under Place Royale may indicate that a new line was built on that
side, but that probably happened only in 1628, under the threat of danger.
Continued . . .
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