Marie Tranchepain

1680–1733), was a French woman of the Order of St. Ursula and in 1727 sailed to New Orleans where she became the first Mother Superior of the Old Ursuline Convent.

The Tranchepains were Protestants who were able to practice their faith in France according to the Edict of Nantes (enacted by King Henry IV in 1598).

The Tranchepains officially renounced their religion to avoid having their personal property seized by the state, being exiled, or sentenced to jail.

Tranchepain's father had to return to Rouen to claim the family estate after her uncle fled to Holland, otherwise it would have been seized by the state.

[1] Nicolas-Ignace de Beaubois, a Jesuit priest and missionary, recruited Ursulines in Rouen to work at a New Orleans' military hospital.

Tranchepain signed a contract with the French Company of the Indies stating that in exchange for the Ursuline's work at the hospital, a convent and girls' school would be established.

Father Baubois oversaw the construction of their residence[b] and had begun to build the convent for the Ursulines who arrived by August 7, 1727, having been assumed to be lost due to their extended delay.