Date Published:
March 2005

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

Médard Chouart des Groseilliers

Chouart des Groseilliers, Médard (fl. 1625-1684), explorer and fur-trader, was born about 1621, or possibly in 1625, in France. He came to Canada in 1642 from Charly-Saint-Cyr, near Meaux; and for several years served as a donné in the Jesuit missions among the Hurons. He became a fur-trader, and between 1654 and 1660, or less probably between 1658 and 1663, he made, in company with his brother-in-law, Pierre Esprit Radisson, two journeys to the North West. Whether, as has been maintained, he reached the Mississippi river, on the first of these journeys, and Hudson bay, on the second, is extremely doubtful; but there is no doubt that he was one of the first white men, with Radisson, to visit the Old North West. In 1665, he went, with Radisson to England , and in 16689 he accompanied an English expedition to Hudson bay. The outcome of this expedition was the formation in 1670 of the Hudson's Bay Company; and in the service of this company Chouart remained until 1676. He then returned to Canada, and in 1682 he accompanied Radisson on his expedition against the English on Hudson bay. In 1684 he was in Paris, and presented a memorial of his grievances to the king's minister. Thereafter he disappears from view; and he seems to have died before 1690. He married (1) Hélène, the daughter of Abraham Martin, of Quebec, and (2) about 1652 Marguerite, daughter of Sebastien Hayet, of St. Malo, and halfsister of Pierre Esprit Radisson. See N. V. Dionne, Chouart and Radisson (Quebec, 1910), and W. Upham, Groseilliers and Radisson (Minnesota Historical Collections, 1905).

Source  : W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. II, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 411p., pp. 55-56.