While most soldiers were unmarried and resided in the barracks, some of them and, it would seem, almost all the sergeants, sought accommodation in town. Most of those living apart from their companies appear to have been married. During the first half of the eighteenth century, French troops who married did not receive any additional pay to help support their families. Those who wished to marry had to seek the permission of their commanding officers, and any who married without their captain's consent lost all seniority within the troops. Since the soldiers were drawn primarily from the lower classes of society, their wives ordinarily came from the families of labourers or fishermen. Many of these women would have worked as servants washerwomen. The Swiss troops, on the other hand, did receive a monthly allowance when married, in addition to a guarantee that their families would be permitted to follow wherever they were posted.
Courtesy: Parks Canada, National Film Board of Canada
