Guillaume Couture

Guillaume Couture (January 14, 1618 – April 4, 1701) was a citizen of New France. During his life he was a lay missionary with the Jesuits, a survivor of torture, a member of an Iroquois council, a translator, a diplomat, a militia captain, and a lay leader among the colonists of the Pointe-Lévy (now named Lévis city) in the Seigneury of Lauzon, a district of New France located on the South Side of Quebec City.

Couture was born in Rouen in 1618, the political center of Normandy, a province in Northern France, the son of Guillaume Couture Sr. and Madeleine Mallet. Guillaume Sr. was a carpenter in the St. Godard district and young Guillaume was trained in the same occupation. However, by 1640 he was recruited by Jesuits to be a donné in New France to help convert the natives of New France to Roman Catholicism. Couture had to take a vow of celibacy and give up his inheritance, transferring it to his relatives in Rouen.

Arriving in New France in 1640, Couture went to work among the Hurons. By 1642, Couture was working with the Jesuit leader Isaac Jogues. During this period, Couture learned several major native languages, which increased his stature, for he could now work as a translator for the Jesuits. Couture also learned much about native culture and ways during this period.

In 1642, Couture set out with Father Jogues, another lay missionary, René Goupil, and several Huron converts for Quebec City. On their way back to the Huron missions, an Iroquois war party ambushed the group. Right before the attack, Couture saw the Hurons, who realized what was about to happen, take off into the woods; Couture followed them as Jogues and Goupil were captured. However, according to Relations des Jésuites de la Nouvelle-France (the official reports sent by the Jesuits to their leaders in France) reported that Couture soon began to regret what he did. The Relations reported that:

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