Jean Talon, Count d'Orsainville was a French colonial administrator who served as the first Intendant of New France. Talon was appointed by King Louis XIV and his minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to serve as the Intendant of Justice, Public Order and Finances in Canada, Acadia and Newfoundland for two terms: 1665 to 1668 and 1670 to 1672.
Portrait by Claude François, 1671
Jean Talon, statue in front of the Quebec Parliament Building
The King's Daughters is a term used to refer to the approximately 800 young French women who immigrated to New France between 1663 and 1673 as part of a program sponsored by King Louis XIV. The program was designed to boost New France's population both by encouraging Frenchmen to move to the New World, and by promoting marriage, family formation, and the birth of French children in the colony. The term refers to those women and girls who were recruited by the government and whose travel to the colony was paid for by the king. They were also occasionally known as the King's Wards.
Sign in Dieppe, France, commemorating the departure of many filles du roi from that port.
The Arrival of the French Girls at Quebec, 1667. Watercolour by Charles William Jefferys