Enjoy the holidays with a merry Tea Time at the Morrin Centre! Warm up from the frosty winter chill with tea, treats, and traditional Victorian pastimes. Book tickets today to gift yourself a memorable experience!

This hour-long immersive and interactive experience will introduce you to tea history and etiquette, teach you some traditional Victorian games and activities, and (of course) allow you to taste several teas and sweet and savoury snacks.

Tickets must be purchased at least 72 hours in advance. If the minimum number of registrations (8) is not reached by the Thursday prior to the event, the activity will be cancelled, and all tickets will be refunded. The maximum number of registrations is 20. Please note that Teatime tickets are non-refundable and non-transferable.

Wednesday, December 18, 7 p.m.

A few lines in the margin of a manuscript can tell us a lot about the past. In this talk, the historian Mairi Cowan will show how a single marginal gloss can open new perspectives on how people in seventeenth-century Quebec thought about the wider world. Marie Hiroüin de la Conception, a nun at the Hôtel-Dieu hospital, was described as a “Scottish gentlewoman” in one of the community’s records. Further searching through the Hôtel-Dieu archives and documents from Scotland, France, and Italy provides clues about a family that had fled from Scotland to France during the Reformation.

Augustines at the Hôtel-Dieu in Quebec thought it was essential to emphasize Marie Hiroüin’s Scottishness and nobility, which raises questions that extend far beyond the small French settlement into what it meant to be “Scottish” so far from Scotland, how social status in exile could be relevant for a nursing order of nuns, and why people in New France described Mary Stewart – also known as Mary, Queen of Scots – as the Queen of England. Thinking through these questions helps us understand the Hôtel-Dieu in New France and the Scottish diaspora, the complexities of Tudor dynastic succession, and the far-reaching web of early modern spiritual geopolitics.

Presenter Biography

Mairi Cowan is an Associate Professor at the Department of Historical Studies, University of Toronto Mississauga. She has written about the tensions of international theology, national politics, and local tradition in twelfth-century Glasgow; experiences of childhood in the court of James IV, King of Scots; the connections between social discipline and the Catholic Reformation in Scotland; colonial efforts to “Frenchify” Indigenous people in seventeenth-century New France; and Jesuit missionaries’ beliefs about demons in Indigenous societies of North America.

Her most recent monograph, The Possession of Barbe Hallay: Diabolical Arts and Daily Life in Early Canada (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2022), is a microhistory of bewitchment in New France. She is also co-editor of the recent collection Gender in Scotland 1200-1800: Place, Faith and Politics (Edinburgh University Press, 2024).

This event will be a hybrid.

This event is part of a talk series celebrating the 200th anniversary of the Literary and Historical Society of Quebec.

Saturday, January 25, at 2:30 p.m.

Most historians have heard of the “Auld “alliance between France and Scotland dating back to the early 13th century. Others are familiar with the Scottish settlement of the New World after the Seven Years’ Years’ and Irish immigration during the potato famine in the mid-19^th century. This presentation is groundbreaking in that it identifies new and essential points of Scottish immigration to the New World, primarily to what is present-day Quebec.

Nova Scotia claims the home of the first Scottish immigration to Canada, with the arrival of the ship The Hector in 1773. This presentation dispels this myth, based on nine years of research and genealogy. The music of Quebec, the place names, and the history of many French Canadian families are intertwined with the Scottish immigrants who settled in Quebec, helping to make the province what it is today. This presentation offers a different perspective on our history and explains many things hidden in time that are only now being uncovered; it is only the tip of the iceberg.

Ewen Booth “Le Chardon et la Fleur de Lys”

Ewen Booth is a historical researcher who uses genealogy as a tool to explore areas uncommonly ventured into by others. He and his wife, Kathleen McKen, have lived in Montmagny since relocating in 2017. Ewen is a former police officer and museum volunteer who is passionate about history. He uses his experience to unfold history that was never discovered by others previously. With over 140 active family trees, Ewen’s work continues to grow. Intending to put these stories on paper and develop mini videos for a YouTube audience, Ewen has also created a Scottish history tour of Quebec City and the south shore of the St. Lawrence River based out of Montmagny.

Ewen was the recipient of the 2020 Gordon Atkinson Memorial Prize in Highlander Military History by the Quebec Thistle Council and is the owner of “Le Ch “rdon et la Fleur de Lys,” a history project that turned into a business which captures all that he does: research, genealogy, history tours, public presentations, YouTube videos and written short stories. In addition, Ewen and Kathleen are restoring their 1767 home while researching previous homeowners, many of whom are relatives of Kathleen. Kathleen is a French-Canadian descendant of a Scottish soldier who remained in Quebec after 1763 and is the Quebec Commissioner for the Clan MacKinnon Society. Join us on our journey!