Esther Brandeau (flor. in Canada 1738–39) is notable in the history of the Jews in Canada as the first person of that faith to set foot in the country, travelling from France to New France. She was born around 1718, probably at Saint-Esprit-lès-Bayonne (near Bayonne), in the diocese of Dax. Jews in France were subject to waves of expulsion, and women's lives were limited by gender roles, which some tried to evade by cross-dressing. Brandeau reinvented herself as Jacques La Fargue, a Roman Catholic boy, and became a sailor on the St-Michel, a ship bound from Bordeaux for the Port of Quebec. At that time, Canada was the only colony of the New World never reported to have been visited by a Jew.