Memorable Manitobans: Suzanne Connolly “La Sauvagesse” (c1788-1862)

Fur-trade wife.

Born northwest of Lake Winnipeg around 1788, she was a young Cree who married North West Company fur trader William Connolly in 1803 “according to the custom of the country.” Twenty-eight years later, she was “turned off” by Connolly, who married his second cousin in a Catholic church. After many tribulations she entered the Grey Nuns convent in Red River in 1841. After her death in 1862, one of her sons sued the second wife for a share of the Connolly estate. The lower court found for the plaintiff, and so did the Court of Revision in 1869. The case was settled out of court before going to the Privy Council.

See also:

Suzanne Connolly, Dictionary of Canadian Biography IX, 149-51.

Sources:

Dictionary of Manitoba Biography by John M. “Jack” Bumsted, Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1999.

This page was prepared by Gordon Goldsborough.

Page revised: 4 November 2018

Memorable Manitobans

Memorable Manitobans

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