School was not begun in Montreal till 1657, when the first schoolmistress, Marguerite Bourgeoys, assisted by Sœur Pacaud, opened her school in a stable given by M. de Maisonneuve. Till that date there had been no children of school age, and Marguerite had remained four years after her arrival in charge of the governor's domestic affairs, waiting to fulfill the mission of teaching she had come upon. The first school certainly was a mixed one of boys and girls. Later, the Sulpicians taught the boys about 1661 at the earliest date. In the autumn of 1658 she went to France to obtain other teachers, and in the meantime handed over her work to two of the "Hospitalières de Québec" sisters, de la Nativité and St. Paul, who came to take charge of the hospital during the absence of Jeanne Mance, who was accompanied by Marguerite Bourgeoys. The three new workers for the schools of Montreal were Sisters Chatel, Crolo and Raisin. On May 21, 1669, permission was given by Bishop Laval to the teachers to instruct children throughout his diocese. The beginning of the Congregation of Notre Dame as a teaching order now must be noticed. In 1670 the foundress visited France again and obtained letters patent for her congregation from the king, dated May, 1671, and registered at the parliament on June 24th following. It was not till August 6, 1676, that Laval formally approved of the congregation. On June 24th following the sisters of the mother house accepted the rules drawn up for them by Bishop de St. Vallier and on August 4th following the missionary sisters, established at the Island of Orleans and of Château Richer, accepted the same community rules.
A regulation of 1686 to the missionary sisters states that "Although the sisters ought to teach the children gratuitously, they may, however, take twenty sols a year from them to furnish the Latin and French books necessary, for which they shall pay each year on entrance. The children shall furnish, also, the wood to maintain the school fires. The origin of boarding schools may be traced to the same date, for in consideration of their great poverty the sisters could take pensionnaires if they could find suitable accommodations which would give them a more easy means of livelihood." Mgr. de Laval wrote in 1676 that the sisters were teaching in Montreal and other places. Faillon interprets this as including the parishes of Champlain and Batiscan. The house at Champlain was burned in 1676. The school of Pointe aux Trembles was established about 1693. Lachine had its school about 1680, the Ile d'Orleans, in 1685.
Another form of education undertaken was through the formation of the "congregation of extern girls" beyond school age, who met on Sundays for religious instruction. In 1686 on the occasion of a visit to Montreal of Bishop de St. Vallier the sisters were then teaching more than twenty older girls in domestic arts, to enable them to earn their living in service. This may be accounted the origin of the "écoles ménagères" or schools of domestic economy. In this same year the governor of New France, Denonville, recommended to the minister in France that the sisters could commence some manufactures "if you would have the goodness to make them some subsidy."
The origin of the normal school for girls may be traced to the novitiate which was now preparing future teachers for Montreal and the rural districts of the province. To aid the community in their work, Bishop de St. Vallier gave a perpetual grant on September 7, 1693, of 600 livres of France, or 800 of this country, to aid the communities to furnish teachers in the other parishes. This was followed by additional grants. In 1691 the sisters were called by St. Vallier to Quebec where, besides managing a house of charity, they established a free school in the Lower Town to supplement the education given by the Ursulines, working, however, outside the class at female occupations to support themselves. The sisters remained in Quebec till 1659, when the siege forced them to return to Montreal. Their convent in Lower Town was burned and it was not till 1769 that they returned to Lower Town.
SCHOOLS FOR BOYS
The date of origin of the schools for boys in Montreal is in some doubt. The Sulpicians came in 1657. But the Abbé Faillon in his "Histoire de la Colonie Française au Canada" says that Marguerite Bourgeoys taught the boys at her school till about 1666. It is almost certain that the Abbé Souart was what he loved to sign himself, "superior of the Seminary of Montreal, first curé of the town and the first schoolmaster of this country," doubtless meaning Montreal District, for already the Jesuits had been schoolmasters in Quebec since 1635. The good abbé was superior of the seminary from 1661 to 1668, he was curé from 1657 to 1677 and the manuscript of the seminary cited by Jacques Viger bears out that "M. Souart during his superiority, made several foundations, among others the steps for the commencement of the establishment of les petites écoles." In an act of 1686 he is spoken of as the former curé of Notre Dame of this town, "who formed (a fait) the first schools of this place." Let him, therefore, have the credit of the first schoolmaster of Montreal under the French régime. He was, however, assisted in the formation of the schools by two Sulpicians, MM. Guillaume Bailly and Mathieu Ranuyer, who arrived after some time. M. Bailly was charged with the Mountain Mission. Six years later, in 1672, M. Rémy, a subdeacon, came from France to teach. M. Barthélemy, a priest, also helped for a time. M. Certin arrived in 1683, M. de la Faye in 1684, and both taught in the school. About 1685 there was talk of a boarding school for scholars from afar. M. Certin, who died in 1687, seems to have been the director, urging this with M. Tronson, the superior in Paris. In 1686 there was the first attempt at a new school commission, which was to carry on the existing schools or others if judged convenient, through the formation of an Association of Citizens of Ville Marie. The associates were Mathurin Rouiller, Nicholas Barbier, Philibert Roy, an ecclesiastical student, and Jacob Thomolet. The object was favoured by the Sulpicians, who seemed to have desired to found schools to be taught by others than themselves. Hence it was that in the act of September 15th we find M. Souart giving 1,000 livres, and M. de la Faye a half arpent of land with a house on it (in fact, his own schoolhouse and grounds on Notre Dame Street opposite the seminary) to Sieur Mathurin Rouiller, a devoted and pious man of exemplary life, and his associates, who would all seem to have acted as schoolmasters. This association did not succeed longer than seven years, for by October 9, 1693, all the school grounds, properties and furnishings were returned to the Gentlemen of St. Sulpice. The Abbé Chaigneau now took the direction. M. Antoine Forget, a simple tonsured cleric, who arrived in July, 1701, and left for France in 1715, taught during these fourteen years. He was followed in 1716 by M. Jean Jacques Talbot, a cleric in minor orders, who taught for about forty years. M. Jean Girard, a simple tonsured cleric, arrived in 1724 and died here February 25, 1765. During this forty years, besides teaching he was the parish organist and choirmaster. Besides these teachers named there were others, either simple clerics or laymen, who furthered the work of the director of the petites écoles. The schools were opened gratuitously, but the public were invited to give voluntary subscriptions, and for the purpose the syndic, accompanied by the clerk of justice, made a canvass of private persons each year. If it was not successful the seminary supplied the deficit. (Faillon, "Histoire de la Colonie Française," Vol. III, page 265.)
Since there was no printing press in Canada, the books used in the schoolrooms were brought over from France, such as the "Petit Alphabet," the "Grand Alphabet;" then the Psalter and the "Pensées Chretiennes," the "Introduction to a Devout Life;" for the more advanced, books on pedagogy, politeness, and deciphering of manuscripts and contracts. The last two were important branches of a finished education in the days when printing was undeveloped. A note found in the papers of the late Abbé Verreau tells us that in 1740 and 1742 the gentlemen of the seminary received from France alphabets, psalters, and offices of the Blessed Virgin and numerous copies of "L'Instruction de la Jeunesse" and "L'Instruction Chretienne" for the girls. On the list of 1742 for M. Talbot, schoolmaster at Montreal, there were twelve copies "l'Ecole Paroissiale." This was a handbook on pedagogy for teachers. While some of these may have been for the sisters of the congregation, it was likely that others were for his assistant teachers or the masters of branch schools for boys which were doubtless being established in the rural parishes, following the example of Lachine, which already had its schools before 1686. Probably there was a little school at Contrecœur, Boucherville, Longueuil, or Pointe aux Trembles, served by the Sulpicians, which needed a guide book for the school, in the curé's presbytery, taught by himself or by a pious layman. The education was of a simple character, with religion playing a dominant part in it.
LATIN SCHOOLS
In addition to the primary education of the petites écoles, there were Latin schools. These classes were started by the Jesuits in Quebec about 1637 and were introduced by them into Montreal about 1694, at least after they had taken up their residence in 1692. About 1695 the Sulpicians were anxious also to undertake the work, but as the Jesuits were already in the field, such work being in their institute, the project of regular Latin classes was abandoned. Yet the teaching of Latin was in time included in their courses. Gervais Lefebre, a young man of eighteen years, entered the Seminary of Quebec in 1703, after having made his course of humanities and a year of philosophy with the Gentlemen of the Seminary of Montreal. The account books of the Seminary of Quebec for 1730 show that this year six "rudiments," four "methods," six "Phèdre" and a dozen "Despanticière" were sent to the Seminary of Montreal. In 1742 the latter in obtaining from France its own books received the letters of Cicero, a dozen rudiments, six "Imitation of Christ" in Latin. The Latin teachers in the beginning were probably the clerics who taught the primary schools, such as M. Léonard Chaigneau, François Vachon de Belmont, Mathieu Ranuyer, Pierre Rémy, Antoine Forget, Jean Jacques Talbot, and Jean Girard. Later the Latin class was intrusted to the priests, among whom were Guillaume Chambon, Jean Claude Methevet, Mathieu Guillon, Charles de Metry Creitte, and Jean Baptiste Curatteau. [192]
The Jesuits had been permitted by Bishop de St. Vallier to found on August 22, 1692, a residence in Montreal. It was their ambition to reproduce here their successful college courses started so humbly in 1635. In 1694, as we learn from two letters of the Jesuit, Père Claude de la Chauchetière, written from Montreal, in the months of August and September, there was an attempt to found a classical college. Already, at least for a year, school had been kept by him for fifteen scholars and some grown-up young officers of the troops. But funds were scarce and he needed teachers, for he says that he himself expected to be necessary for the missions and might be called away any time. At this time there were only two or three Jesuits available for the church, residence, and the care of transient Indians, as well as for the direction of the first congregation of men erected canonically in their church under the title of the Assumption of Our Lady. [193] Father de la Chauchetière's letter of September 20, 1694, tells us: "I am here like a bird on a branch, ready to fly on the first opportunity.... We have a kind of college here which is not founded. I have some scholars who are good cinquiesmes, but I have others who have beards on their chins, to whom I teach marine and fortification, and other mathematical subjects. One of my scholars is a pilot in the fleet going north. [194] We are very badly housed as far as the buildings are concerned, but we have a very good view, on an arpent of land outside the town. Our church is about half an arpent distant from us. The garden is between us and to get to the church we are exposed to the rain, the wind and the snow, because we have no means of building. We ask our reverend superior only for a little building of twenty feet at the end of the church, but he has no means of helping us."