Surrender of Quebec

The surrender of Quebec in 1629 was the taking of Quebec, without battle, by English privateers led by David Kirke during the Thirty Years' War.

It began in 1627 with David Kirke's father when several London merchants formed the Company of Adventurers to Canada to develop trade and settlement for profit on the St. Lawrence River. Made up of private investors, it was chartered by the Crown as a means of extending English influence in exploration and colonial development. When the 30 Years War broke out later that year, the Company financed an expedition, which was commissioned by Charles I of England, to displace the French from “Canida.” The French had settlements along the Saint Lawrence River.

Accompanied by his brothers Lewis, Thomas, John, and James (sometimes recorded as Jarvis), David Kirke set off with three ships, probably in company with a fleet bringing settlers to Sir William Alexander’s colonisation project at Charlesfort in Acadia. Kirke may have stopped at Ferryland, the colony of George Calvert, 1st Baron Baltimore on the east coast of Newfoundland on the Avalon Peninsula. The force sailed up the Saint Lawrence River to Tadoussac.

Kirke seized a supply ship going to Quebec City and sent Basque fishermen as emissaries to the leader Samuel de Champlain to demand the surrender of the fortress town. Champlain rejected the demand because he was expecting relief from France, and Kirke decided against an attack. Kirke's ships turned back for England, but en-route they encountered the French supply fleet of four vessels under Admiral Claude Roquemont de Brison. The English captured the French ships after a short engagement. As the Kirke brothers were born and raised in France, their actions were considered treason there. The Kirke brothers were burned in effigy in Paris when the news of the French defeat reached the capital. In England the Kirke brothers were granted a canton as an augmentation to their existing coats of arms (each properly differenced) by Clarenceux King of Arms on 1 December 1631. The design of the canton was based on the arms of the defeated Admiral Roquemont.

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