Étienne Brûlé (abt.1588-abt.1633) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree

Étienne Brûlé

Born about 1588 in Champigny-sur-Marne, Île-de-France, France

Son of Spire Brusle and Marguerite Guerin

[sibling(s) unknown]

Husband of Alizon Coiffier — married 1604 in Champigny-sur-Marne, Ile-de-France, France

[children unknown]

Died about 1633 at about age 45 in Territoire des Hurons, Amérique du Nord

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Étienne Brûlé lived in Canada, New France, now Québec, Canada.
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1 Biography
2 Notes
- 2.1 Fichier Origine
3 Sources

Biography

Étienne Brûlé is Notable.

BRÛLÉ, ÉTIENNE, interpreter of the Huron language, probably the first white man to make his way into the Huron country and Pennsylvania

Symposium on the life of Etienne Brûlé: a Campinois explorer who left for Quebec

Colloque sur la vie d'Etienne Brûlé : un explorateur campinois parti au Québec

Ville de Champigny-sur-Marne; Jun 19, 2023

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JiOArQDMpA&t=1127s

This conference took place on Wednesday June 14 at the Town Hall. It was broadcast by videoconference to allow many Canadians to follow it live. This meeting was a presentation of the research work of the Champigny Historical Society on the life of Etienne Brûlé, a Campinois who left to explore New France in 1610.

Ce colloque s'est déroulé le mercredi 14 juin à l'Hôtel de Ville. Il a été retransmis en visioconférence afin de permettre à de nombreux Canadiens de le suivre en direct. Cette rencontre était une présentation du travail de recherche de la Société d'Histoire de Champigny sur la vie d'Etienne Brûlé, un Campinois parti explorer la Nouvelle-France en 1610.

According to the "The Toronto Historical Society; La Société D'Histoire De Toronto" in June 2023 a discovered older document shows that he was married to Alizon Coiffier from 1604, and not 1626 as established until now.^[1]

Étienne Engaged as an Interpreter

The Explorers --- Étienne Brûlé (during 1615-1621)

The life story of Étienne (Stephen) Brûlé, interpreter and explorer, contains an element of mystery. He was born about 1591, at Champigny-sur-Marne near Paris. He is believed to have made the voyage to Quebec in the company of Samuel de Champlain in 1608. It was the decisive move in his career. He was to become an interpreter, or dragoman (truchement in French), between the French and their Amerindian allies. But he was above all a pathfinder and a scout. He played an essential role in the first documented journeys of exploration in New France by going ahead of Samuel de Champlain, Gabriel Sagard, Jean Nicolet, Nicolas Perrot and others of their ilk along the route to the Great Lakes. He appears to have been the first European to set eyes on the Ottawa Valley, Georgian Bay, Pennsylvania and four of the Great Lakes, and to give at least an oral description of them.

A Frenchman named Eitienne Brule, in 1615 or 1618, did travel through the Susquehanna river valley. An account of this may be found in a note, page 291 of Vol. 5, of the Jesuit .Relations, that splendid history of seventy-two volumes made up of the diaries and doings of the Jesuits as they wrote them on the spot. It is there stated that Brule was with Champlain and that Champlain sent him among the Hurons, and that the Hurons in turn sent him among their relatives, the Susquehannocks. Brule told Champlain that he explored what is the Susquehanna valley to the sea, which Slafter says meant to the Bay of Chesapeake. This is the earliest visit of a white man to our great Susquehanna river valley (of Pennsylvania) that is known. It will be a matter of curious interest to us, I trust, to know that nearly half a century before William Penn appeared practically the whole of what is now Lancaster county was sold by the natives—first in 1637 to the English Indian trader, Clayborne, and next to the Swedes, in 1638, which latter sale they confirmed in 1646. The sale to Clayborne is set forth as including the land from the source to the mouth of the Susquehanna river and twelve leagues on each side, which is about forty miles on each side. The grantors were the King and the "Great Men" of the Susquehannocks (were Iroquoian-speaking Native Americans); and a writing was drawn up in the nature of a deed. All this may be found in Vol.3, of Maryland Archives, p. 66. The next sale, that to the Swedes, is set forth in Campanius, p. 23, and it included the lands from the Delaware to the Susquehanna, from the mouth of the latter river up to the falls. But these titles both gave way to later English titles, etc. Smith's Historie of Virginia, vol. 1, pp. 118, 119, 121, 183. (4) Smith's Historie of Virginia, vol.1, p. 1S2.

Getting to Know the Country and its Peoples

In 1610, Champlain, the founder of the colony of New France, had already explored the Richelieu River as far as Lake Champlain. He now turned his attention further inland, aware that any discovery must start west of Sault St. Louis (the Lachine Rapids). At the end of June that year, he entrusted Étienne Brûlé with the task of finding a route: “I had with me a youth who had already spent two winters at Quebec and wanted to go among the Algoumequins [Algonquins] to master their language … learn about their country, see the great lake, take note of the rivers and the peoples living along them; and discover any mines, along with the most curious things about those places and peoples, so that we might, upon his return, be informed truthfully about them.” On the thirteenth of June, 1611, Champlain succeeded in navigating the Lachine Rapids. He stated that “no other Christian other than him, my lad” had previously made the attempt. Either below or above the rapids he met up with Brûlé: “I saw too my lad come dressed in the manner of the savages, mightily pleased with the treatment which the savages had accorded him, according to the custom of their country, and he related to me all that he had seen during his winter among them and had learned from said savages. … My lad … had learned their language very well.”

Deep into Huronia

Brûlé left again immediately, taking the direction of the country of the Hurons. Their territory was located on the peninsula between Lake Ontario and Lake Huron. To reach it he must have travelled up the Ottawa and the Mattawa rivers, then crossed Lake Nipissing, and followed French River down to Georgian Bay. On the first of August, 1615, Champlain “discovered” Lake Huron, where he met his intrepid interpreter and gave him permission to go among the Andastes, to the south of the Iroquois country, “since it was his own desire to do so and by that means he might see their country and come to know well the peoples living there.” And so, on the eighth of September, 1615, Brûlé departed from Lake Simcoe with his Huron guides. He made his way to the site of the present-day city of Buffalo, at the junction of Lakes Erie and Ontario. Then he went on as far as the Susquehanna River “which empties [into the sea] on the Florida side [of the continent] where there is a multitude of powerful and warlike nations.” In the spring of 1616, our explorer left the Andastes country and made his way northwards again, only to be taken prisoner by the Iroquois. According to his own account, he was tortured and his life was threatened. He literally saved his skin by bluffing, won his captors’ respect, and held himself out to be an influential negotiator, even promising “to bring them into agreement with the French, & their foes, & to make them swear friendship to one another.” In July, 1618, Brûlé arrived back in the colony after an absence of thirty-four months. By his own account he was the first European to explore what is now the State of Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania and Lake Superior

By 1618, Brûlé wanted to press forward to Lake Superior. Champlain commissioned him to accomplish his desire, “which he promised me to persist in, and to carry it out in a short space of time, by God’s grace, and to conduct me thither.” From then until 1621, Brûlé made a winding journey that led him to Sault Ste. Marie at the junction of Lakes Superior and Huron. Here is the evidence from the writings of the Récollet (Franciscan) missionary Gabriel Sagard: “The interpreter Bruslé [sic] with several Savages assured us that beyond the Freshwater Sea [Lake Huron] there was another very large lake which empties into it by a waterfall, which has been called ‘Saut de Gaston’ [Gaston Falls, i.e., Sault Ste. Marie].”

Betrayal

It was Gabriel Sagard who, in 1624, discredited Brûlé in Champlain’s eyes. The Récollet friar denounced the wandering adventurer’s loose morals, and disclosed moreover that Brûlé was playing a double game: he was working at the same time for the administration of New France and for the fur merchants, who were opponents of Champlain. Brûlé’s reputation was blackened forever in 1629. Champlain had capitulated to the Kirke brothers, and most of the French in the colony had returned to their homeland. At Tadoussac, Brûlé and his fellow interpreter Nicolas Marsolet admitted it was their intention to remain in New France. “We have been taken by force,” was their excuse to Champlain, “and we know very well that if we were held in France we would be hung.” Brûlé was killed by the Hurons while the colony was still under the English. The news reached Champlain when he returned to Quebec in 1633.

Étienne Brûlé (c. 1592 – c. June 1633) was the first European explorer to journey beyond the St. Lawrence River in what is today Canada. Taking the lifestyle of the First Nations peoples, particularly the Hurons, Brûlé became an interpreter and guide for Samuel de Champlain, who later sent Brûlé on a number of exploratory missions.^[2]

Etienne Brule is believed to be the first European to view the Great Lakes and Niagara Falls. He was born in Champigny-sur-Marne, France. His last name was actually Brusle. His father was Spire Brusle and mother was Marguerite Guerin, married in 1574. He was the fourth child in his family. Etienne Brule was paid well as an interpreter in New France and returned to France at least twice, where he was involved as a merchant in Paris. He owned a house in Paris and another in his birth city. He married Alizon Coiffier in either 1626 or 1627. He was murdered by the Huron natives. His wife remarried Jean Tridat, a Paris merchant.

Quebec City, Canada was founded on July 3, 1608. According to the French Canadian historian N.E. Dionne, "Champlain was accompanied by 30 men amongst whom was named .... Etienne Brule.... specifically recorded".

"There were 12 native interpreters who came to Quebec between 1608 and 1625... They were Nicolas Marsolet, ...ETIENNE BRULE ...Nicolas du Vignau,... Jacque Hertel,... Thomas Godefroy, ...Jean Manet..., Jean Nicolet, ...Du Vernet,.... LeBaillif, ....Olivier LeTardif,... Jean-Paul Godefroy,.... and Jacque Couillard. Their services to the authorities, both civil and religious, were therefore at certain periods exceedingly valuable. It is among these men that we may fittingly seek for the founders of the Canadian race."

Truchement Étienne Brûlé fait partie de cette catégorie d'interprètes de la Nouvelle-France de l'époque de Champlain, les «truchements» comme on les désignaient alors. (Personne ou chose qui explique ou fait comprendre ce que l'on veut (par le truchement de...)).^[3]^[4]

Notes

Fichier Origine

BRÛLÉ, Étienne - Fichier 410009^[4]

Date de naissance - Vers 1592
Lieu d'origine - Champigny-sur-Marne (St-Saturnin) (Val-de-Marne) 94017
Parents: - Spire BRÛLÉ et Marguerite Guérin
Date de mariage des parents - 24-01-1574
Lieu de mariage des parents - Champigny-sur-Marne (St-Saturnin) (94017)
Première mention au pays: 1608
Occupation à l'arrivée - Interprète et explorateur
Date de mariage - 1627
Lieu du mariage - Champigny-sur-Marne (St-Saturnin)
Conjointe - Alexon (Alizon) Coiffier
Décès ou inhumation - Huronie, 1633
Remarques - Son épouse Alexon Coiffier est baptisée à Champigny-sur-Marne le 14-10-1587 de l'union de Jean Coiffier et Alexon Godart. Deux frères et une soeur sont baptisés à Champigny-sur-Marne - Loïs, le 24-10-1574 ; Antoinette, le 23-01-1577 et Rochle 16-08-1581, décédé le 13-09-1652. Étienne Brûlé est à Paris de l'automne 1626 au printemps 1628. Le 26-01-1627, il est parrain de Marguerite Bruneau à Champigny-sur-Marne. Le 08-04-1628, dans un acte passé chez le notaire Guy Remond de Paris, il est fait mention d'un gage fait par André Ferru, marchand pelletier à Paris, à Étienne Brûlé, truchement pour le roi en Nouvelle-France, à la suite de livraison de pelleteries d'une valeur de 1600 livres. L'acte fait aussi référence à une procuration du 09-04-1628 passée chez le notaire Jean Chapelain de Paris par Étienne Brûlé à François Macqueron, secrétaire de la chambre du roi, pour représenter les intérêts d'Étienne Brûlé en 1635 lors d'un accord entre Alexon Coiffier, veuve d'Étienne Brûlé, et Roch Brûlé frère d'Étienne. D'autre part lors de son séjour à Paris, pendant l'hiver 1627-1628, Étienne Brûlé avait prêté de l'argent à plusieurs personnes de Champigny-sur-Marne.
Identification - DGFQ (Jetté), p. 178
Chercheur(s) - Jean-Paul Macouin
Référence - DBC, vol. 1, p. 34
Date de modification - 2012-11-07