Newly rediscovered letter from Jeanne Mance sheds light on life in early Montreal

A letter written by the hand of Jeanne Mance, the French nurse who co-founded Montreal, has been rediscovered in the Quebec City seminary's archives.Mance was the first secular nurse in Montreal and the founder of the first hospital there, Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal. She came to New France at the age of 34 and died in 1673 at the age of 67, leaving almost nothing behind in the way of journals or correspondence. Historical documents related to Mance are extremely rare as the Hôtel-Dieu, founded in 16