LECLERCQ, CHRESTIEN (1641 LIVING 1700)

LECLERCQ, CHRESTIEN, visiting missionary to the Micmac Indians; b. France, 1641; living in 1700.

Chrestien Leclercq, who it is thought to have been born at Bapaume (Pas-de-Calais), France, joined the Recollet order of priests in 1668. In 1675 he was appointed to the missions of Canada and assigned to work with the Micmac Indians on the Gaspé coast.

Leclercq quickly learned the Micmac language and developed a system of hieroglyphics which, in its original and revised versions, would be used by the Micmacs for written communication for more than 200 years. In 1677 he visited the different bands in the region. He was mystified by the fact that the Miramichi Indians carried the cross next to their skin on their clothing, and he referred to them as the "Porte-Croix," or cross-bearing Indians. Emmanuel Jumeau, his assistant on the tour, gathered data which he later used to make a map of the Miramichi River.

Mount Leclercq, in the Missionaries Range near the northern boundary of Northumberland County, was named for Leclercq, and Mount Jumeau, east of Nictau Lake, for his companion. Leclercq went back to France in 1687 and became superior of the monastery at Lens. In 1691 he published two books: Nouvelle Relation de la Gaspésie, and Premier Établissement de la Foy dans la Nouvelle-France.