The Cap Tourmente Farm
by Jacques Guimont


photo: Harry Foster; CMC S96-25076
The Cap Tourmente farm, 1627
Illustration by Francis Back
Collection of the Canadian Museum of Civilization

In 1626, Samuel de Champlain and Guillaume de Caën decided to build a farm to raise livestock for the residents of the Quebec settlement. The Cap Tourmente lowlands seemed to be the ideal location for such a farm because Champlain had had fodder harvested there since 1623.

When he first visited the Saint Lawrence Valley, Champlain noticed that there was an abundance of good-quality fodder on the lowlands surrounding Cap Tourmente, just a few leagues upstream from the Quebec settlement. He quickly saw the advantages of establishing a livestock farm there to meet the needs of the residents of the settlement, where space was becoming limited because of the arrival of newcomers. In 1626, his plan became a reality.

Champlain had two dwellings measuring 15 by 18 French feet (4.87 m by 5.85 m) built on the site, as well as a barn-stable measuring 60 feet by 20 feet (19.5 m by 6.5 m). He also built an ice house, a vegetable cellar that was partly underground, and probably a woodshed. A vegetable garden was established near the dwellings, on the west side. The Récollets may have also built a chapel near the farm buildings in 1628. The farm, which was fortified, was operated until July 1628, when the Kirke brothers set fire to it, a year before Quebec surrendered.
images
Hatchet, 17th century
Iron

Found at the site of the first farm built at Cap Tourmente
Canadian Wildlife Service, Parks Canada
Photo: Alain Côté, Parks Canada

The Construction of the Farm Buildings

The main farm buildings, that is, the dwellings and the barn-stable, were built of wood and clay. The construction technique adopted was one that had been in use in Normandy since the Middle Ages, as Champlain himself mentions:

. . . Here therefore I resolved to build as soon as possible. Although we were then in July, I nevertheless had the greater part of the workmen employed in making the dwelling, the stable - sixty feet long by twenty wide - and two other dwellings, each eighteen feet by fifteen, constructed of wood and clay after the fashion of those that are built in the villages of Normandy . . . (Note)

Remnants of at least two of the buildings mentioned by Champlain were found - most likely the two dwellings - but no trace of the barn-stable, which housed forty or fifty horned animals (Note). This made it possible to understand the construction technique used by Champlain’s men. Champlain uses the word "soil" when referring to clay. Indeed, clay is the natural soil of the Cap Tourmente lowlands and is very abundant there. It was found at the site and was easily accessible.

The use of clay as a construction material ". . . dates back to antiquity and did not require skilled labour, which allowed people in rural areas to build walls with material taken, most of the time, from their own land. Clay was used to make pisé and cob. Pisé is usually made with raw clay to which nothing has been added, whereas vegetable or animal matter is added to cob. " (Note)

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Cob Fragment,
17th century
Clay and vegetable or animal matter

Found at the site of the first farm built at Cap Tourmente
Canadian Wildlife Service, Parks Canada
Photo: Alain Côté, Parks Canada

The walls of the dwellings were made of raw clay (pisé) and erected on raw-clay foundations set into narrow trenches that had been dug right into the ground. The micromorphological analysis of the clay used in the foundations showed that it was indeed raw clay to which nothing had been added (Note). It revealed something of utmost importance when it came to understanding the construction technique used by Champlain’s men. The natural clay used has all the characteristics of a local clay, but we know for a fact that it is not. Its stratification is similar to that of natural clay, meaning that "its soil characteristics are almost intact" (Note).

This leads us to conclude that the clay was removed in compact blocks that were subsequently set in the foundation trenches. This was likely done on purpose. The clay found immediately below the old layer of humus had been reworked by ground water to a greater extent, making it less suitable for waterproofing the foundations, so a purer clay was used because it would protect the walls and floors of the dwellings better.

The walls of the buildings were supported by piles set about a metre apart. Unlike cob, which is meant to be supported by a wooden trellis, pisé or rough masonry made of raw clay needs only piles for support (Note). The piles and the rough masonry made of raw clay confirm the use of a very old half-timber construction technique (dating to the neolithic period) consisting of studs or vertical structural members that may be 0.2 to 0.6 m apart, sometimes more, as is the case on Champlain’s farm (1 m). The space may be filled with rough masonry made of clay, as in the buildings in question. This medieval technique is very characteristic of northern France, and becomes less and less common towards the east and south of the country. But it is also found in other regions, namely Belgium, England, Germany and Sweden.

The walls were erected as follows:

the withes of the walls were raised by compacting the clay in formwork serving as a template, which was raised and refilled until the required height of wall was reached. To be really stable, walls made of pisé needed a slight overhang, that is, the top had to be narrower than the base. (Note)

The exterior walls of the dwellings built by Champlain were no more than 30 cm thick, but they must have been about 1.7 to 1.75 m high. The interior partitions, made of the same material, were thinner (only 15 to 20 cm). The walls seem relatively narrow. The exterior walls of buildings of the same type in Normandy are generally 60 cm thick and are usually supported by masonry foundations. For some reason, that is not the case at Cap Tourmente.

The buildings had thatch roofs. Thatch consists of bundles of reeds fastened together and placed on wood laths that were 10 to 20 cm apart, as was done in Normandy. The reeds were sometimes replaced by small tree branches (Note). To make the roof more waterproof, cob was applied to the ridge. Cob is a mixture of clay, a bit of water, and organic, vegetable or animal matter such as straw, rye or horsehair. The fragments of cob found at the site could therefore be from the roofs of the buildings. A thick layer of cob was also frequently applied to ceilings to ensure good insulation.

images
Knife, 17th century
Bone and iron

Found at the site of the first farm built at Cap Tourmente
Canadian Wildlife Service, Parks Canada
Photo: Steven Darby, Canadian Museum of Civilization


The Dwellings

As previously mentioned, the vestiges of the two dwellings were found at the site. The first had three rooms measuring 2 m by 5 m. The central room, which had a pinewood floor, was probably intended for Nicolas Pivert’s family, who lived on site.

(Click on objects)
Found at the site of the first farm built at Cap Tourmente
Canadian Wildlife Service, Parks Canada
Photo: Alain Côté, Parks Canada


The other two rooms had dirt floors. A Normandy stoneware jar was found in one of these rooms. It contained broad beans (also known as tick beans) that were charred when the Kirke brothers set fire to the buildings in 1628. This room must have been used in part to store food. We do not know what the third room was used for. The building presumed to be the second dwelling, of which very little has been found, was located northeast of the first. It apparently had only two rooms.


There was no trace of the barn-stable Champlain mentioned. However, we found structures that he never referred to: what seems to be a woodshed, an ice house or a cellar that was dug right into the ground, a vegetable garden linked to a drainage system, as well as elements that may be part of a palisade because it seems that the farm was fortified, at least according to Father LeClerq (cited by Benjamin Sulte).  
images
Bowl, 17th century
Glazed coarse earthenware
Found at the site of the first farm built at Cap Tourmente
Canadian Wildlife Service, Parks Canada
Photo: Steven Darby, Canadian Museum of Civilization

images
Square Bottle, 17th century
Blue greenish glass
Made in France
Found at the site of the first farm built at Cap Tourmente
Canadian Wildlife Service, Parks Canada
Photo: Alain Côté, Parks Canada

A Fortified Farm?

The farm may have been enclosed within a palisade, at least if we can go by what Father LeClerq wrote: "The product of the harvest went to a small mission formed at Cap Tourmente, seven leagues below Quebec, where an advanced fort had been built, not only for protection against the savages, but mainly against the enemies [who came] from Europe" (Note).

A portion of a trench and a pile provide the only indication that the farm may indeed have had a palisade. It is not certain that these vestiges are part of a palisade, although it seems plausible given their shape and location.

It should be noted that, contrary to the orientation of the current house (its long timber frame is oriented east-west, in relation to an arbitrary north), all the buildings and structures on Champlain’s farm were oriented northeast-southwest. In relation to the geographic north, the main façade of the buildings and structures faced east, towards the river.
Theoretically,

a southern exposure is the most suitable; that is, the main doors and windows should be on this side . . . . If the building cannot be built facing south, we believe . . . that the next best thing is to have it face east, that is, so the building will receive the morning sun (Note).

The choice of an eastern exposure, like the existence of a palisade, can no doubt be explained by the fear of an attack from the river. The buildings were positioned so as to allow an obstructed view of the main artery of communication. This fear was justified; in July 1628, the Kirke brothers did indeed attack the farm.


The Fire

Since the early seventeenth century, the fur trade had intensified the rivalry between the English and the French, and increased their greed. Unable to take Quebec by force because its defences were too strong, David Kirke decided to make it succumb through hunger. "To achieve this, he intercepted the supply ships" (Note). One of those ships was boarded at Tadoussac in the summer of 1626.

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Pike, 17th century
Iron and steel

Found at the site of the first farm built at Cap Tourmente
Canadian Wildlife Service, Parks Canada
Photo: Alain Côté, Parks Canada

It is in this sense that the destruction of Champlain’s farm is significant. We must bear in mind that the farm supplied the settlement, that is the whole colony, even if ". . . the Quebec settlement was at the heart of a community that had only about 72 inhabitants in the winter of 1627-1628 " (Note). On July 9, 1628, when about fifteen of Kirke’s soldiers, accompanied by a few Indians, landed at Cap Tourmente and sacked the farm, they thought they would force Quebec to surrender quickly, but they had to wait a year for that to happen.



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    Last Updated: September 1, 2009