Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
, 17 May 1610; d. at
Martinique
Martinique ( , ; gcf, label=Martinican Creole, Matinik or ; Kalinago: or ) is an island and an overseas department/region and single territorial collectivity of France. An integral part of the French Republic, Martinique is located in th ...
Poncet was born in Paris in 1610. His father was a member of the
Company of One Hundred Associates
The Company of One Hundred Associates (French: formally the Compagnie de la Nouvelle-France, or colloquially the Compagnie des Cent-Associés or Compagnie du Canada), or Company of New France, was a French trading and colonization company cha ...
chartered to trade in
New France
New France (french: Nouvelle-France) was the area colonized by France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Great Britain and Spai ...
.
Poncet entered the Jesuit novitiate in Paris at nineteen, as a student in rhetoric and philosophy. He pursued his studies at
Rouen
Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine in northern France. It is the prefecture of the Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one of ...
, and taught at
Orléans
Orléans (;"Orleans" (US) and Zevely, Julia. "Joseph Anthony de la Rivière Poncet." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 12. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 31 January 2018 Then he began his theological studies at Clermont, completing them at Rome.
While at Orleans, he met the son of the widow
Marie Guyart
Marie of the Incarnation (28 October 1599 – 30 April 1672) was an Ursuline nun of the French order. As part of a group of nuns sent to New France to establish the Ursuline Order, Marie was crucial in the spread of Catholicism in New France ...
. In 1638 he put her in touch with Madame de la Pettrie. Both accompanied him to
New France
New France (french: Nouvelle-France) was the area colonized by France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Great Britain and Spai ...
the following year. Poncet arrived in Quebec in early August 1639 and was immediately sent to the
Huron
Huron may refer to:
People
* Wyandot people (or Wendat), indigenous to North America
* Wyandot language, spoken by them
* Huron-Wendat Nation, a Huron-Wendat First Nation with a community in Wendake, Quebec
* Nottawaseppi Huron Band of Potawatomi ...
mission, where he spent a year before returning to Quebec, after which he went to
Trois-Rivières
Trois-Rivières (, – 'Three Rivers') is a city in the Mauricie administrative region of Quebec, Canada, at the confluence of the Saint-Maurice River, Saint-Maurice and Saint Lawrence River, Saint Lawrence rivers, on the north shore of the Sain ...
. In July 1643 he was a parish priest in Montreal.
While serving at the mission of Sainte-Marie in Huronia, in 1648 Poncet was sent to establish the mission of St. Pierre at Wiikwemkoong on the "Isle de Ste-Marie". In August 1653, after returning to
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
Iroquois
The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...
while attempting to get some persons to cut the harvest of a poor widow. He lost the index finger of his left hand due to torture, but was then adopted by an old woman in place of a relative that had been killed. His companion, Mathurin Franchelot, was burned at the stake. Towards October, Poncet was brought to Montreal, by way of
Fort Orange
Fort Orange ( nl, Fort Oranje) was the first permanent Dutch settlement in New Netherland; the present-day city of Albany, New York developed at this site. It was built in 1624 as a replacement for Fort Nassau, which had been built on nearb ...
, in a prisoner exchange.
Although Johannes Dyckman, commissary at Fort Orange treated him coldly, an elderly Walloon offered him hospitality, while others provided him with clothes, and a Scotch matron sent a surgeon to tend his wounds. A young Frenchman in the settlement served as interpreter. He was conveyed by way of Oswego to Lake Ontario and down the St. Lawrence to Quebec."Father Poncet's Capture", ''Documents of the Senate of the State of New York'', Vol. 14, 1902, p. 315 /ref>
At the request of his superior François Le Mercier, Poncet wrote an account of his experience. Poncet has been described as "an unreliable and capricious character".Campeau, Lucien. "Poncet de la Rivière, Joseph-Antione", ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography'', vol. 1, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003 /ref> In 1657, he became involved in ecclesiastical jurisdictional disputes and asked to return to France. He held the position of French penitentiary at Loreto, and was later sent to the Island of Martinique, where he died at the age of sixty-five.
"Father Poncet had an attractive personality, and did not lack talent, virtues, or zeal, although his suspicious and irritable character made him unhappy and difficult to handle."