Mothers of the nation

In 1666, after three generations of French colonial presence, Louis XIV’s minister for the colonies, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, complained that Frenchmen who wanted to trade—mostly for furs—still had to communicate in the natives’ language.

Part of the solution to this was to send out well-brought-up French girls, filles à marier, to marry the settlers and create French-speaking homes. Among them were the famous filles du Roy, ‘king’s daughters’, mostly orphans from bourgeois families, whose travel and subsistence costs—and in some cases dowries—were borne by the Treasury. 

Some nine hundred of them were sent out between 1665 and 1673, to boost the population (3,215 according to the census of 1665), and improve the sex ratio (2:1 male to female). 

Fortescu-Brickdale, Arrival of the Brides

Although the intendant of the colony, Jean Talon, told Colbert that he would have preferred village girls, ready to work like men, rather than these delicate young ladies, they seem to have been a good investment. The population of Nouvelle-France reached 20,000 in 1713 and 55,000 in 1755. The fertility rate averaged a whopping 7.8 children per woman.

- Ostler, Empires of the Word


The Wikipedia article on the founder effect makes special note of Quebec:

While the French Canadians of Quebec today may be partly of other ancestries, the genetic contribution of the original [8,500 or so] French founders is predominant, explaining about 90% of regional gene pools, while Acadians (descended from other French settlers in eastern Canada) explain 4%, British 2% and Native American and other groups contributed less.

(link)