Acadian Ancestral Home

Some Massachusetts Town Records

noreply@blogger.com (Lucie LeBlanc Consentino) — Fri, 12 Sep 2014 12:00:00 +0000

Some Massachusetts Town Records

This is just a small number of Acadians

exiled to Massachusetts that

I have been able to extract

from town records.

· OLD ABBINGTON

The family of John White, French Neutral was given refuge during the French & Indian War period. The house still stands at 351 High Street and it was built by David Porter, a bachelor, about 1730. It is thought to be the oldest original house still standing in Whitman.

· LANCASTER

Of the thousand Acadians apportioned to the Province of Massachusetts, the committee appointed by the General Court for the duty of distributing them among the several towns, sent three Acadian families, consisting of twenty persons to Lancaster.

These were:

Benoni Melanson
Mary Melanson, his wife
Children:
Mary Melanson
Joseph Melanson
Simeon Melanson
John Melanson
Bezaleel Melanson, (Carrie)
A daughter not named

Geoffrey Benway (Benoit)
Abigail Benway, his wife.
Children:
John Benway
Peter Benway
Joseph Benway
Mary Benway

Theal Forre [Forest]
Abigail Forre, his wife
Children:
Mary Forre
Abigail Forre
Margaret Forre

The Forre family was soon transferred to Harvard, Mass. They arrived February 1756 and the accounts of the town selectmen for their support were regularly rendered until February, 1761. They were destitute, sickly and apparently utterly unable to support themselves and were billeted now here and now there, among the farmers at a fixed price of two shillings and eight pence each per week for their board. Sometimes a house was hired for them.

· WORCESTER

In 1755, eleven Catholic French "neutrals" were assigned to Worcester after the "shameful rape of Acadia". These Acadians arrived in Worcester suffering from wounds to the body, soul and spirit after enduring a winter on the deck of a military ship traveling from Acadia to Boston. Not much detail is given on this piece of history, but it states that these Acadians were warmly received by Worcester residents and some stayed here "broken-hearted" while others left for Canada in 1767.

· MENDON

Selectmen 1764, March 5th: Selectmen Census taken in response to an order given by Colonial Governor Bernard. The Selectmen of Mendon conducted a census of the town in the fall of 1764.

The census revealed that the town contained 336 families living in 284 houses. The population consisted of 2,339 persons of which 1,441 were adults and 898 were children under the age of 16. Contained within the counts included 9 persons of color listed as Negroes and Molattoes and **5 persons listed as French Neutrals**. Interesting that there were no Indians counted in the 8 square mile area of Mendon. The census was submitted on December 17, 1764 signed by Joseph Daniels and 4 other selectmen.

· WALPOLE

THE OLD HOUSE IN WALPOLE -Where Lived and Died in Exile Jacques D'Entremont (The Walpole Times - May 1966)

The following article, dealing with the early history of Walpole, was written by Rev. Clarence J. d'Entremont on 71 Center Street. Fairhaven. It is hoped that the people of Walpole will take interest in this article which tells them of a phase of their history of which they may not know too much. By Rev. Clarence J. d'Entremont.

The student of American literature knows through the study of Longfellow's poem Evangeline of the Expulsion of the Acadians. These people, of French origin, lived in Nova Scotia, then called "Acadie", where "the richest was poor, and the poorest lived in abundance." By the Treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, their land passed into the hands of England. Summoned by their conquerors to pledge allegiance to the crown of England, they asked to remain neutral in case of war so that they would not have to fight against their mother country. For this reason the whole population, about 18,000 of them, less some 2000 fugitives, were boarded on ships and vessels, between 1755 and 1759, even up to the Treaty of Paris, in 1763, and "scattered like dust and leaves" all along the American Atlantic coasts and the shores of England. Massachusetts received about two thousand of them and placed them, under its care, in its different towns.

There is in Walpole the remains of a cellar on which stood the house where lived in exile, with his family, one of these Acadians, Jacques d'Entremont (1680-1759), some of Jacques Mius d'Entremont and of Anne de Saint-Etienne de la Tour, and where he died July 28, 1759 (1). This house belonged at the time to Jeremiah Dexter. Isaac N. Lewis, in his history of Walpole (2), calls this house "the old house", although at the time of Jacques d'Entremont it must not have been so old, as Jeremiah Dexter, who probably built it, is mentioned for the first time in 1748 in the history of Walpole.

Jacques d'Entremont was, with the members of his family, among the 70 Acadians from Baccareau Passage, Cape Sable, Nova Scotia, whom Colonel Prebble, after burning all their buildings, 44 in all, brought to Boston on a Friday, the last day of April, 1756. They were destined to North Carolina; a vessel under the command of Thomas Hancock, was to take them there. But after embarkation, they came back on shore and refused to re-embark. May 11th, Jacques Amirault and Joseph d'Entremont addressed a letter to the Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts and his Council stating the reasons why the group refused to go to North Carolina, begging that they be allowed to stay in Massachusetts.

Three days later, May 14th, Thomas Hancock, who it would seem had written of his own hand the petition of May 11th, to which Jacques Amirault and Joseph d'Entremont affixed their marks, appeared before the lieutenant governor and his council to discuss this matter. It was decided to give to these Acadians a delay of 14 days, during which they would be under the care of Thomas Hancock. The 14 days having elapsed, it was decided to distribute these families in the several seaports of the "Province".

August 20th, 1756, we find in Marblehead, Jacques d'Entremont with his family, that is, his wife, nee Marguerite Amirault, and his children, Ann, (b. 1732), Marguerite, (b. 1734), Joseph, (b. 1739), Paul, (b.1742), and Benoni, (b. 1745). Jacques d'Entremont and Marguerite Amirault had had at least two other children, namely, Jacques, the oldest, married in 1753 to Marguerite Landry, exiled with his family to England and then to Cherbourg, France, where he died in or before 1767; and Marie, married to Rene Landry, brother of Marguerite.

In the summer of 1756, Anne d'Entremont married in Marblehead Abel Duon who had been among the 70 Acadians who arrived from Cape Sable to Boston April 39th and who was quartered at Marblehead with the d'Entremont family. The following year, that is June 1st, 1757, we find this family in Medfield, along with Paul and Benoni, sons of Jacques d'Entremont. March 1st, 1758, Jacques d'Entremont, his wife, his daughter Marguerite and his son Joseph are found in Walpole, where they had been transferred.

A few months later, on November 8th, 1758, Joseph d'Entremont sent a petition to the lieutenant governor, stating that being in Walpole with his aged father and mother, a brother and a sister, while another brother, a brother-in-law, a sister and her child were in Medfield, asking, for different reasons, if it would be possible for the family to be all united together at the same place.

January 2nd, 1759, this petition was sent to a committee who, January 13th, decided that the members of the family who were in Medfield would be removed to Walpole. It would seem that this decision was not carried out, not immediately at least, because June 1st of that year, Benoni, Abel and his wife are still in Medfield; these two last are still there August 22nd, 1760.

After the death of Jacques d'Entremont, July 28th, 1759 (13), his son Joseph and his daughter Marguerite are transferred August 22nd, 1760, to Chelsea (14), at which date Paul and Benoni are said to be "retained" in Walpole with their ......

We can recapitulate these events in the following chronological order: - April 30th, 1756, arrival in Boston of the family of Jacques d'Entremont;

- August 20th, 1756, this family is in Marblehead, along with Abel Duon;

- Summer of 1756, marriage in Marblehead of Abel Duon and Anne d'Entremont;

- June 1st, 1757, Abel Duon, his wife, Paul and Benoni are in Medfield;

- March 1st, 1758, Jacques d'Entremont, his wife, Marguerite and Joseph are in Walpole;

Between the preceding and the following dates, Paul is transferred to Walpole;

- November 8th, 1758, petition of Joseph so that all the family would be united;

- January 13th, 1759, it is decided that the family would be united in Walpole;

- July 28th, 1759, Jacques d'Entremont dies in Walpole;

- August 22nd, 1760: Paul and Benoni are "retained" in Walpole with their mother; Joseph and Marguerite are sent to Chelsea; Abel and Anne are retained in Medfield.

On August 23rd, 1766, "Captain Amiro" received a permit to clear his vessel from Boston for Quebec. Undoubtedly this captain was Ange Amirault, who, ten years earlier, in the month of February of 1756, being not yet 20 years of age, sailed in his small vessel from Cape Sable to the shores of Massachusetts to ask of his future father-in-law and mother-in-law, already in exile, the hand of their daughter, Natalie Belliveau, who, like himself, was still in liberty at Cape Sable. The fact is that the Amiraults, the Belliveaux, the d'Entremonts and the Duons arrived by sea to Nova Scotia, on their way to Quebec, at the end of the summer of 1766, 200 years ago, this very year. Having received from the civil authorities of Halifax the permission to stay in Nova Scotia and the promise of the service of priest, they settled the following year, in 1767, in Pubnico, the land of their ancestors.

While in Walpole, the d'Entremont family lived in "the old house" of Jeremiah Dexter. Lewis tells us that this house was near the old cemetery, corner of Main and Kendall streets. A couple of old people, well in their 80's, now deceased, maybe of the Everett family, whom we met in Walpole in 1957, residing across from the old cemetery where they had lived practically all their lives, told us that the old house of Jeremiah Dexter, which they had seen in their young days, was located west of the cemetery, of Main street and of Neponset River, about 100 feet north of the dam.

How long did this family occupy this house? Surely between March 1, 1758, and August 22, 1760, that is at least 2 1/2 years. Probably they had been there before, and surely after. But we have no documents to tell us precisely how long.

A fact worthy to be mentioned here, which is surely by a coincidence, is that at about 75 feet south of the cellar there is the distinctive marks of the Acadians: an apple tree.

· DEDHAM

Dedham Town Records [1743-1773]. Vol 7. 382 pages.

Among data included are selectmen’s records, town meetings, town payments, etc. Note, on page 138, that French Neutrals (Acadians deported from Nova Scotia) were received 28 Nov 1755 "for the Selectmen of this Town to Dispose of them in Such Method as they think best for this Government."

· Marshfield, Massachusetts

Province of the Massachusetts Bay
To his Excellency William Shirley Esq; Captain-General

& Governour in chief in & over his Majesty's Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England The Hon ble the Council & House of Representative in Genl Court assembled March the 30 th A.D. 175[6]

Humbly shews Joseph Mitchel One of the Neutral French Inhabitants late belonging to Nova Scotia now residing at Marshfield in the County of Plymouth That your Petitioner was a Dweller near the Garrison at Annapolis & had a good Farm there & above thirty Head of Cattle & always Lived in a friendly Manner with the English & used to supply the Garrison with Wood & a considerable Quantity of Provision which he had to spare annually - That by Reason of the Late Misconduct of the French who Lived near Minas your Petr was a great sharer with them in their Misfortunes tho not in their Crimes, and thereby Lost his whole Estate both real & personal, & in this distress'd condition was brought to Marshfield aforesd with his wife & Family of Children the Last Fall where He has ever Since resided & has been provided for so as that He, his Wife & Children have been upheld in Life to this Time -

That his Eldest Son Francis, being Twenty Three Years old, Labored this Spring with one Caleb Tilden a near Neighbour to your Petitioner, To whom ^ he Your Petr hired Himself out for a Pistarene a Day till the first Day of May next, after which he was to have more, and both He & his Master Tilden were well contented -

That the Last Week John Little Esqr & Seth Bryant Two of the Select Men of the Town of Marshfield Came & by Force, utterly against the Will of your Petr & his Said Son, took away your

[1]

your Petrs sd Son & put him out to Anthony Winslow of sd Marshfield, When at the same Time sd Tilden offered to bind his Estate to Save sd Town & the Province free from any charge on his Account -

That sd Select Men at the same Time bound out another of your Petrs Sons named Paul about Fifteen Years of Age, to Nathaniel Clift of sd Marshfield Mariner, whom by force they dragged away & sent to Sea, notwithstanding diverse persons would gladly have taken Him to work on Shore at Farming Business to which He was used, & tho at the same Time he begged he might work on Shore because the Sea did not agree with Him - In short all your Petrs and his Wife's Intreaties were in vain, the sd Paul was by Force taken from them & Sent to Sea - And the sd Select Men took Security for Thirty Pounds as the Price ^ of sd Lad -

Your Petr being a Stranger in a Strange Land has no where to go for Relief but to your Excell. & Honrs - Tho He has Lost all his Estate he do[es] not desire his ^ children should be chargeable to any Body while they are able to work, but that such Places may be found for those under age as may be agreeable to 'em, & That those, who are of full Age, may provide for Themselves, at such places as the Lik[e] best -

Wherefore you Petr prays That the Indenture of your Petrs Said Sons may be declared null & void, & That They may be allowed to maintain Themselves, or, That such other Relief may be granted as you Excy & Honrs shall think fit And your Petr as in Duty bound shall pray & c

Joseph Michelle

[2]

[Petition submitted to the General Court of Massachusetts by Joseph Michel, 30 March 1756. SC1, Series 45X, Massachusetts Archives Collection, 1603-1799, vol. 23, page 51. Massachusetts Archives.]

The Committee appointed to take under consideration the Petition of Joseph Mitchell are unable to make enquiry into the truth of the facts mentioned before the dissolution of the Court by reason of the distance of Place where they are alledged to have been done and therefore ^ thus are of opinion that the consideration of the Petition be referred until the next session of the Court. The Committee are further humbly of opinion that it would be acting very different from the intention of the Legislature if any Selectmen in the Province should cause any of the children of the French from Nova Scotia to be disposed of for any sum of mony or other consideration except for the immediate use & benefit of such child or children and that where any child or children are able & willing to support themselves, or ^ where their parents or friends will undertake for their support

[1]

such child or children ought not to be separated from their parents or friends and that the Selectmen should as far as may be consult the inclination of the Parent & children in the service for which ^ any children they may be disposed of

T Hutchinson p order

In Council 20 April 1756 Read & accepted & Ordered that the Selectmen of the several Towns where any French are placed govern themselves accordingly

Sent down for concurrence

Thos Clarke Dpty Secry

In the House of Reps April 20. 1756

Read and Concurred

T Hubbard Spkr

Consented to W Shirley

[2]

With the exception of the two eldest sons, who were relocated to Plymouth in 1760, the majority of the family remained in Marshfield, Joseph Michel dying there in 1763. The rest of the family continued on and it is likely that they integrated themselves into town life. The Meuse Family

Hailing from Cape Sable, the Meuse family arrived in Massachusetts sometime between the summer and fall of 1756. Residing in Plymouth, the Meuses provided for their own support, yet when this became difficult they petitioned the General court, complaining that they were not being provided for by the town as were other Acadians.

[Massachusetts General Court Committee report on the petition of Joseph Michel, 26 April 1756. SC1, Series 45X, Massachusetts Archives Collection, 1603-1799, vol. 23, pages 56-57. Massachusetts Archives.]

The General court responded by assigning them to Wareham. Meanwhile, the Meuses had contacted Nathaniel Ray Thomas of Marshfield in order to provide for their support. He agreed and permission was given for them to remain in said place. Later they complained of mistreatment by Thomas, so the family's indenture was cancelled and the family moved to Easton. Again unable to support themselves, several of thesons left town to find work elsewhere.

Paul Clement, Charles Meuse son-in-law signed the petition along with his father-in-law addressed to the General Court.

Massachusetts Archives and Commonwealth Museum, September 2005 Exhibit opened June 21, 2005 at Massachusetts Archives/Commonwealth Museum and is scheduled to be open until June 2006.

CHELMSFORD

Chelmsford Oct 24, 1757.
In obedience & pursuant to an Order of the Great and General Court of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, made & passed the 21st Day of January A. D. 1757

Web site and Blog
2004 - Present

Acadians Exiled to Philadelphia in 1755

noreply@blogger.com (Lucie LeBlanc Consentino) — Fri, 05 Sep 2014 19:30:00 +0000

A rarity in exile, the Acadians exiled to Pennsylvania were allowed to practice their religion. William Penn founded Pennsylvania with a land grant that was owed his deceased father. His goal was to create a colony that allowed for freedom of religion due to his desire to protect himself and fellow Quakers from persecution.

In other colonies the word went out that priests were forbidden to go near the Acadians - if they did, they would be imprisoned or put to death. The same fate awaited the Acadians. To assure there would be no priests available, the priest in Acadia when the deportation began were all deported to France.

In Philadelphia the Acadians worshiped at St. Joseph's Church where Father Farmer was pastor. I visited the church several times when doing research in Philadelphia. Today it is known as Old St. Joseph National Shrine - The oldest Catholic Church in Philadelphia founded in 1733 by the Jesuits.

Father Farmer's marriage registers have been transcribed and I received permission to post to my web site. There are Acadian marriages in these registers. The registers are now located in the archdiocesan archives and elsewhere.

The transcribed registers can be found on the Acadian & French-Canadian Ancestral Home web site.

© Lucie LeBlanc Consentino

Acadian & French Canadian Ancestral Home

Web site & Blog 2005 - Present

1755 Deportation from Grand-Pré

noreply@blogger.com (Lucie LeBlanc Consentino) — Thu, 04 Sep 2014 18:00:00 +0000

The photograph of the list of names was taken at Grand-Pré Historic site in 1999.

This framed list of names is no longer on display.

INDIVIDUAL NAMES OF MEN AND BOYS DEPORTED FROM GRAND-PRÉ IN 1755
As Ordered Written By Colonel Winslow

The names of the Acadians imprisoned in the Church were written by Colonel Winslow and/or his soldiers. This is the list of names contained in the framed lists in the photograph above. The British did not speak French so the names were written by sound. The spellings are mostly incorrect. For the most part, this list does allow us to know the names of those imprisoned in the church of St. Charles for one month as they awaited the arrival of the ships that would deport and scatter them in the colonies.

Pierre ALIN
Jean APIGNE
Olivier AUCOINE
Claud AUCOINE
Charles AUCOINE
Jean AUCOINE
Renez AUCOINE
Joseph AUCOINE
Alexandre AUCOINE
Jean Bapiste AUCOINE
Charles AUCOINE
Pierre AUCOINE
Simon AUCOINE
Abraham AUCOINE
Simon AUCOINE
Charles AUCOINE
Martin AUCOINE
Olivier AUCOINE
Jean AUCOINE
Charles AUCOINE
Aman BABIN
Simon BABIN
Johanes BABIN
Joseph BABIN
Joseph BABIN
Simon BABIN
Jos. BABIN
Rener BABIN
Feler BABIN
Battistes BABIN
Charles BABIN
Joseph BABIN
Paul BABIN
Pierre BABIN
Simon BABIN
Jos. BABIN
Feler BABIN
Rener BABIN
Simon BABIN
Jean BABIN
Pierre BABIN
Jacques BELMERE
Joseph BELMERE
Renez BELMERE
Oliver BELFONTAINE
Oliver BELFONTAINE
Francois BENOIS
Joseph BENOIS
Joseph BLANCHARD
Pierre ilias BLANA
Pierre BOBIN
Joseph BOUDRO sits
Joseph BOUDRO
Pierre BOUDRO
Michel BOUDRO
Michel BOUDRO fils
Etimme BOUDRO
Charles BOUDRO
Marin BOUDRO
Paul BOUDRO
Abraham BOUDRO
Jean BOUDRO
> Jesepah BOUDRO
Pierre BOUDRO
Joseph BOUDRO
Norez Michel BOUDRO
Benois BOURG
leVieux René BOURG
Michel BOURG
Francis BOURG
Joseph BRASSIN
Cherussin BRAUX
Commo BRASSEAUX
Charles BRAUX
Pierre BRAUX
Vicar Francis BRAUX
Paul BRUNE
Joseph BRUNE
Pierre BRUNE
Aman BRUNE
Joseph BRUNE
Paul CAPIERE
Pierre CARETTER
Antoine CELESTAIN
Paul CELESTINE
Norez CELESTINE
Battistes BABIN
Pierre BABIN
Joseph BABIN
Jean BABIN
Paul BABIN
Joseph BABIN
Rener BABIN
Feler BABIN
Charles BABIN
Joseph BABIN
Simon BABIN
Jos. BABIN
Rener BABIN
Feler BABIN
Charles BABIN
Joseph BABIN
Jean Robs CHOC
Clotis......
Finmi CHELLE
Pierre COMMO
"le Vieuc COMMO"
Joseph COMO
Jean Louis BOUDRO
Jean Battiste BOUDRO
Charle BOUDRO
Pierre BOUDRO

Claude BOUDRO
Anseleme BOUDRO
Pierrs BOUDRO
Paul BOUDRO
Joseph BOUDRO
Pierrs BOUDRO
Paul BOUDRO
Joseph BOUDRO
Pierrs BOUDRO
Paul BOUDRO
Joseph BOUDRO
Alexandre DUON
Joseph DUPUIS
Fabien DUPUIS
Silven DUPUIS
Simon DUPUIS
Germain DUPUIS
Jean Batiste DUPUIS
Aman DUPUIS
Charle CELESTINE
Pierre CELESTINE
Jacques CLELAND
Pierre CLEMENSON
Lewis Pierre CLOATRE
George CLOATRE
George CLOATRE
Pierre GRANGER
Jean Battis GRANGER
Jean GRANGER
Sorans GRANGER
Simon GRANGER
Charles GRANGER
Joseph GRANGER
Rener GRANGER
Charle GRANGER
Francois GRANGER
Jean GRANGER
Joseph GRANGER
Ansemine GRANGER
Joseph GRANGER
Francis GRANGER
Charle GRANGER
Aman GRANGER
Joseph GRANGER
Vestache COMMO
Jean Battiste COMMO
Jean Battiste COMMO
Esteeme COMMO
Alexis COMMO
Oliver COMMO
Pierre COMMO
Simon COMMO
Norez COMMO
Bassil COMMO
Dominque COTE
Jean Beautiste DAIGREE
Jean Baxirles DAIGREE
Charle DAIGREE
Norez DAIGRE
Oliver DAIGRE Fils
Oliver DAIGRE
Brener DAIGRE
Joseph DAIGRE
Astaches DAIGRE
Battistes DAIGRE
Alin DAIGRE
Charles DAIGRE
Pierrs DAIGRE
Norez DAIGRE
jean Battiste DAVID
Joseph BOULET
Pierre BOULET
Jean DUPUIS
Antoine DUPUIS
Francois DUPUIS
Jean DUPUIS
Alexandre DUPUIS
Michelle DUPUIS
Suprian DUPUIS
Charle DUPUIS
Germain DUPUIS
Antoine DOUCET
Tunuislaps FORREST
Oliver FOREST
Josses inferms
habitant in formis
Charles Jean SONNE
Joseph GOTRO
Alexxis GOTRO
Jean GOTRO
Pierrs GAUTRO
Paul GOTRO
Charle GOTRO
Jean GOTRO
Joseph GOTRO
Paul GOTRO
Alexis GOTRO
Aman GOTRO
Joseph HEBERT
Aman GRANGER
Pierre HEBERT
Joseph HEBERT
Manuel HEBERT
Pierre HEBERT
Oliver HEBERT
Jean HEBERT
Joseph HEBERT
Norez HEBERT
Etimme HEBERT
Pierre HEBERT
Augustin HEBERT
Renez HEBERT

Aman HEBERT
Jacques HEBERT
Oliver HEBERT
Augustin HEBERT
Joseph HEBERT
Joseph HEBERT
Charles HEBERT
Simon LEBLANC
Paul LEBLANC
Jean LEBLANC
Francois LEBLANC
Francois LEBLANC
Jean DOUCET
Jean DOULET
Antaine HEBERT
Igneiff HEBERT
Simon Pierre HEBERT
Jean Battistes HEBEAR
Paul HEBERR
Francois HEBERT
Paul HEBERT
Pierre HEBERT
Francois HEBERT
Alexandre HEBERT
Aman HEBERT
Jos. HEBERT
Bonnos HEBERT
Guilljaums HEBERT
Benonis HEBERT
Joseph HEBERT
Simon HEBERT
Alexis HEBERT
Charle HEBERT
Charle Jean SONNE
Alexandre LANDRY
Pierre LANDRY
Jean a Pierre LANDRY
Charle LANDRY
Antoine LANDRY
Pierrs a GOUITIN
Aman LANDRY
Jean LANDRY
Fromer LANDRY
Francois LANDRY
Jos. LANDRY
Charle LANDRY
Pierre LANDRY
Jose LANDRY
Charle LANDRY
Germain LANDRY
Battiste LANDRY
Etimme LANDRY
Etair LANDRY
Simon LANDRY
Jean LANDRY
Michelle LANDRY
Michelle LANDRY
Martin LANDRY
Jean LANDRY
Germain LANDRY
Rener LANDRY
Charles LANDRY
Rener LANDRY
Pierrs LANDRY
le petis Clauds LANDRY
Etim LANDRY
Pierre LEBLANC
Pierre LEBLANC
Jean Battiste LEBLANC
Benois LEBLANC
Charle LEBLANC
Jacques LEBLANC
Simon LEBLANC
Pierre LEBLANC
Joseph LEBLANC
Oliver LEBLANC
Charle LEBLANC
Joseph LEBLANC
Jean Charle LEBLANC
Michelle LEBLANC
Belsse LEBLANC
Simon LEBLANC
Bonaumturs LEBLANC
Jean LEBLANC
Francois LEBLANC
Battistes LEBLANC
Daniell LEBLANC
Alin LEBLANC
Joseph LEBLANC
Simon LEBLANC
Jeanmer LANDRY
Alexis LANDRY
Charle LANDRY
Germain LANDRY
Jean LANDRY
Renez LANDRY
Jean LANDRY fil
Paul LANDRY
Jos. LANDRY
Jean pos LEBLANC
Bernard LEBLANC
Jacques LEBLANC
Pieurs LEBLANC
Jean Pauque LEBLANC
Oliver LEBLANC
Allin LEBLANC
Joseph LEBLANC
Felix LAURENT
Paul LEBAR
Jean LEBARE
Norez LEBARE
Margaret LAPIERRE

Delene LEURON
Jean LePrince
Joseph LEBOUS
Brounos LE GRANGER
Pierre LE CLANE
Pierre LEBLANC
Pierre Jean LEBLANC
Norez LEBLANC
Jean Baptiste LEBLANC
Michelle LEBLANC
Pierre LEBLANC
Charle LABLUN
Pinions LEBLANC
Auguste LEBLANC
Baptiste LEBLANC
Pierre NOALIS
Antoine PITREE
Dominque PITRE
Simon PITRE
Simon PITRE
Bour QUETTE
Michelle QUETTE
Basil RICHARD
Renez RICHARD
Germain RICHARD
Joseph RICHARD
Joseph RICHARD
Jean RICHARD
Jean RICHARD
Jacque RICHARD
Joseph LEBLANC dit
du Sour
Maturin LEBLANC
Pierrs LEBLANC
Charle LEBLANC Cems
Paul LEBLANC
Jean Pierrs LEBLANC
Germain TERRIOT
Pierre TERRIOTE
Oliver TERRIOT
Pierre TERRIOTE
Jean TERRIOT
Charles TERRIOT
Jacwue TERRIOT
Brunois TERRIOTE
Charls TIBODO
Joseph TIBODO
Paul TIBODO
Germain TIBODO
Joseph TRAHANE
Pierre TRAHAN
Claude TRAHAN
Michelle TRAHAN
Charle TRAHAN
Pierre TRAHAN
Jean TRAHAN
Renez TRAHAN
Francis ROUS
Jean (dit) le Sour
Antoine MAJET
Jean Baptiste MASIER
Battis MASSIER
Amans MASSIER
Battistes MASSIER
Paul MELANSON
Baptistes MELANSON
Alexandre MELANSON
Pierre Jane MELANSON
Battistes MELANSON
Jean Battis MELANSON
Joseph MELANSON
Pierre MELANSON
James MELANSON
Pierre Jean MELANSON
Aman MELANSON
Pierre MELANSON
Jacques MELANSON
Joseph MUNIER
Anselmer ales MANGEAN
Pierre RICHARD
Jos. RICHARD
Charles RICHARD
Paul RICHARD
Paul RICHARD
Joseph ROBICHAUD
Charles ROBICHOCT
Francis ROUS
Baptiste SAPIN
James SAPIN
Joseph SEMER
Charle SONIER
Pierre SOSONIER
Renez SOSONIER
Machalle SORERE
Marcelle SONER
Pierre TERRIOT
Janis TERRIOT
Charle a Claude
TERRIOT
Suprien TERRIOT
Charle TERRIOT
Pierre TRAHAN
Joseph TRAHAN
Joseph TRAHAN
Jean TRAHAN
Charles TRAHAN
Jean Batistes TRAHAN
Pierre TRAHAN
Joseph TRAHAN
Charle TUNOUR
Joseph VINCENT
Antoine VINCENT

Bibliography: Collection of the Nova Scotia Historical Society 1870-1884 ~ Journal of John Winslow volumes 1-4.

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Lucie LeBlanc Consentino
1999 - Present

Acadians Deported from Beaubassin Acadia in 1755

noreply@blogger.com (Lucie LeBlanc Consentino) — Thu, 04 Sep 2014 18:00:00 +0000

In 1755, the Deportation began from the Chignecto region of Acadia (Nova Scotia). On July 31, Colonel Monckton was at Chignecto and had been advised that the plan devised to remove the Acadians from Nova Scotia should be kept top secret.

On July 15, 1755, Governor Charles Lawrence called for a meeting of the Council to which he invited Admirals Boscawen and Mostyn. There were Twenty-one ships anchored in the harbour at Halifax. It was at this meeting that Lawrence's plan to rid the province of these "Neutrals" as they were called by the British, would become more specific in intent. The Council, under Lawrence's advice, decided to obtain a decision from the Acadians as to whether or not they would take the oath to the King of England. This oath meant that they could no longer be neutral but that in time of war, they would have to take up arms as the King's subject. This was why the Acadians had always remained neutral: because England and France were always at war one with the other, if the Acadians took this oath, it would mean that they would be taking up arms against their own countrymen, relatives and friends. The oaths they had taken thus far also allowed them freedom to practice their Catholic faith.

On July 25, 1755, a petition was presented from the Acadians of the Annapolis River area. These Acadians offered to forfeit their guns but would not swear a new oath citing the oath taken under Governor Philipps. The petition was rejection by the Council. The Acadians now had until 10:00 a.m. on July 28 to decide what they would do. Unfortunately, the Deputies decided that no matter what the Acadians decided, they would not change the decision that had been long-standing: to rid themselves of the Acadians.

While the Acadian Deputies were held as prisoners on George's Island along with the Pisiquid Deputies, the Council's resolution was to remove the Acadians from Nova Scotia. This would end the many years of indecision on the part of both sides of the issue.

Prior to this, there had been no such consideration to the Lord of Trades remove the Acadians from their lands. However, on this date of July 28, 1755, Governor Lawrence sent off a message of the imprisonment of these Deputies and that his plan was the best course to resolve this issue once and for all. Here is the message he sent to the Lord of Trades:

...They were ordered to be kept prisoners at George's Island, where they were immediately conducted. They have since earnestly desired to be admitted to take the oath, but have not been admitted, nor will my answer be given them until we see how the rest of the inhabitants are disposed. I have ordered new deputies to be elected and sent hither immediately, and am determined to bring the inhabitants to compliance, or rid the Province of such perfidious subject.

Lawrence was obviously already decided to obtain a decision in his favor that would expel the Acadians from Minas, Cobequid, Annapolis, Pisiquid and the Chignecto region. Here is the decision rendered by the Council:

After mature consideration, it was unanimously agreed that, to prevent as much as possible their attempting to return and molest the settlers that may be set down on their lands, it would be most proper to send them to be distributed amongst the several colonies on the continent, and that a sufficient number of vessels be hired with all possible expedition for that purpose.

In the Chignecto region, Acadians were held at both Fort Lawrence and Fort Beauséjour (renamed Fort Cumberland when it fell to the British). Meanwhile, Colonel Monckton and his troops were busy trying to keep the Acadians close to the forts. Because of the undeveloped country north of this area, it would be quite easy for anyone to escape and not be captured again so a decision was made that these Acadians would be the first to experience exile.

So after four generations of pioneering and making a life in this place called Acadie the grandchildren and great grandchildren of the first settlers would be removed from the only home they had ever known for by 1755 those first pioneers were the only ones who knew their roots in France and they had all passed on by now.

On August 13, 1755, ten ships under the command of Captain John Rous carried off 960 Acadians headed for South Carolina and Georgia. Behind where one could no longer see, were the homes of the Acadians who had lived at River Hébert and Menoudie. Though the Acadians were relegated to the bowels of the ships, these ships sailed by the burning villages of other Acadian homes as they slid past Cap Maringouin and Chipoudy Bay eventually making their way to the Bay of Fundy.

The ships that would deport the Acadians from this region: Boscawen ran aground; Boscawen from Chignecto to Pennsylvania; Cornwallis to South Carolina; Dolphin to South Carolina; Jolly Phillip to Virginia; Endeavor to South Carolina; Prince Frederick to Georgia; Two Brothers to South Carolina.

The Beaubassin area would be made up of Weskak (today Westcock), Pré des Bourgs (Sackville), Pré des Richards (Middle Sackville), La Butte, Le Coupe and Le Lac at the confluence of the Missiguash, Menouie and Eleysian Fields, Maccan (Makon), Nappan (Nepane) and Rivière Hébert.

Acadians on a list of eleven men in 1686: Pierre Morin, Guyon Chiasson, Michel Poirier, Roger Kessy, Claude Du Gast, Germain Bourque, Guillaume Bourgeois the latter both sons of Jacques Bourgeois, Germain Girouard, Jean Aubin Migneau, Jacques Blou and Thomas Cormier.

In 1698, there were twenty-eight families living in Beaubassin. Some of families: Arseneau, Bernard, Blou, Boudrot, Bourg/Bourque, Bourgeois, Chiasson, Chastillon, Cormier, Devau, Doucet, Girouard, Godin, Godet, Guercy, Haché, Mercier, Mirande, Poirier and Richard. Men from these families had married into the families of Cyr, Dugas, Guerin, LeBlanc, Martin, Melanson, Pellerin and Trahan.

A monument was erected commemorating the last known Acadian residents of Beaubassin in 1750. They were:

Pierre Deraier & Francoise Arsenau,
Jaques Mouton & Marguerite Kessy,
Francois Arsenau & Anne Bourgeois,
Abraham Arsenau & Agnes Sire,
Marie Sire,
Pierre Gravois & Marie Rose Bourgeois,
Francoise Sire,
Jaques Bourgeois & Marie Bourque,
Pierre Arsenau & Jeanne Marie Heon,
Marie Chiasson,
Claude Bourgeois & Anne Blanchard,
Michel Bourgeois & Marie Doucet,
Charles Heon & Marie Jeanne Bourgeois,
Jean Kessy & Marie Richard,
Paul Sire,
Oliver Bourgeois,
Pierre Cottard & Agnes Bourgeois,
Jean Mouton & Marguerite Poirier,
Baptiste Bourgeois & Anne Bernard,
Claude Bourgeois,
Michel Poirier & Madeline Bourgeois,
Francois Bourel & Marguerite Doucet,
Claude Tendon & Francoise Kessy,
Claude Poirier & Marguerite Sire,
Marie Kessy,
Paul Devau & Marguerite Buote,
Vincent Devau & Marie Buote,
Claude Kessy & Anne Chiasson,
Jaques Kessy & Marie Olivier,
Joseph Arsenau,
Anne Buote,
Jean Arseneau,
Brele & Anne Sire

Lucie LeBlanc Consentino

Acadian & French-Canadian Ancestral Home

Blog & Website

noreply@blogger.com (Lucie LeBlanc Consentino) — Wed, 11 Sep 2013 16:42:00 +0000

Acadians Overtake The Pembroke

Escape Deportation and Exile

But Die From An Epidemic in Quebec.

The photocopied page below is one of many listing the names of the Acadians who died in 1757 in Quebec. These Acadians had managed to escape the deportation in 1755 when the British set out to exile all of the Acadians from their lands. Some of those Acadians who died in 1757 were among those who were about to be deported on the ship Pembroke when it was overtaken by the Acadians. They then set sail for the St John River/Rivière St-Jean where they remained until they heard the British were coming to capture them. They set fire to the Pembroke and headed up to Miramichi. Food was scarce at Miramichi and some were dying of starvation so many of those Pembroke Acadians decided to continue on to Quebec only to be decimated during the epidemic that ensued. They had been through so much and in the end when their freedom was assured so many of them died.

Here are few:

On the twelfth of December seventeen hundred and fifty-seven was buried Rosalie Girouer (Girouard), Acadian, who died the previous day, having received the sacraments, approximately fifteen years of age, daughter of Germain Girouer and Marie Arseneau, his spouse; present Jean Vallée, Guihaume Taphorin and many others.

On the twelfth of December seventeen hundred fifty-seven was buried Suzanne Bussièere, Acadian, widow of Pierre Comeau, who died theprevious day, having received the sacrements, eighty years of age.

On the twelfth of December seventeen hundred fifty-seven was buried Jean Baptiste Forais (Forest), acadian, who died theprevious day at the age of six years, son of Jean Forais and deceased Marie Josephte Pitre, his spouse.

On the twelfth of December seventeen hundred fifty-seven was buried Pierre Cormier, Acadian, deceased the previous night sixteen years of age, having received the sacrements, son of deceased Pierre Cormier and Marguerite Cyre, his spouse.

This information comes from "Recherche Historiques" published by Pierre-Georges Roy, Volume Thirty-Six published in 1930.

These Acadians remnants of an unjust war have no tombstones but the lack of such should not allow us to remember them any less even though they lay in unmarked graves.

Acadian Ancestral Home

Lucie LeBlanc Consentino

Acadian History by Placide Gaudet

noreply@blogger.com (Lucie LeBlanc Consentino) — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 12:28:00 +0000

Acadian History by Placide Gaudet

Bridgetown, Nova Scotia

July 18th, 1922

The homestead of Antoine Belliveau, born in France in 1621, and married about 1651 to Andrée Guyon, was about one mile below the Allen river. Jean his only son, born at Port-Royal about 1652, married Jeanne Bourque about 1673 by whom he had three sons and two daughters. Jean Jr., his eldest son married in 1696 Madeleine Melanson and died September 13, 1707 of a wound he received in fighting the English, at the second attack of Colonel March against Port-Royal. He left three sons, of whom two settled at or near Carleton Corner opposite Bridgetown. Of these two I will speak, after I have related an episode relating to Charles, the eldest of the sons who was born in 1697, and married at Grand-Pré, November 3, 1717, Marguerite Granger, by whom he had ten children, of whom two where sons. Charles inherited his father's farm, and besides being a farmer, he was a ship carpenter and a good mariner. What I am going to say about Charles Belliveau, related to the year 1755, at the time of the Expulsion of the Acadians.

Writing on board his flagship the Torbay, then at St-Helen's, November 15 1755, to John Cleveland, Esq. Secretary to the Admiralty, Vice-Admiral Edward Boscawen, speaking of the removal of the Acadians, says: I appointed the following ships to convoy the transports that were to carry them: the Syren, captain Proby, from Chignecto to Georgia and the two Carolinas; the Nightlingale, captain Diggs, from Mines to Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, and then proceed to his station at New Yhork; the Baltimore, captain Owen, from Annapolis Royal to Newe York; the Hornet, captain Salt, from Annapolis Royal to Boston, and then the Spithead; the Mermaid, captain Shirley, to Connecticut. Captain Rous, of the Success, to assis in embarking them and to look into the St. John River.

Being short of provisions and the transports expected from Halifax not having yet arrived at Annapolis, captain Washington Shirley, commander of H.M.S., the Mermaid, sailed from Annapolis for Boston, with Sloop Hornet, captain Salk, November 10, and left T. Owen, captain of the Sloop Baltimore, in charge of the transports, five of which arrived at Annapolis Royal, between the 14th and the 17th of November. But the Pembroke Snow, with the provisions, having lost her main mast in a storm only reached Annapolis Royal between November 25, and December 1st.Her disabled mast had to be replaced, and Charles Belliveau was ordered to make a new one which he did. When it was finished he asked to be paid but on the refusal of the captain to do so, he at once lifted up his carpenter's axe and threatened to cut the new mast, and the captain had to pay him the price asked. But irony of fate he was embarked on board the Pembroke to be deported.

The Pembroke was of 42 tons, victualled for 139 days; she had on board 33 men, 37 women, 70 sons and 92 daughters forming a total of 232 persons. She sailed from Goat Island, December 8, 1755, bound for North Caroline. The other transports were the Helena, 3323 persons, for Boston; the Edwards, 278 persons, for Connecticut; the Two Sisters, 280, for Connecticut; the Experiment, 200 persons, for New York; the Hopson 342 persons, for South Carolina, and a Schooner, for South Carolina, with 9 persons. The grant total on the seven vessels was 1664 Acadian prisoners. With the exception of the Pembroke the transports reached their destination and landed their human cargo. The Baltimore convoyed them as far as New York, and Captain Owen approaching the Pembroke said to her captain: Be on your guard; on board your vessel you have some very able men and some good mariners, and so saying the captain of the Baltimore took another direction, whilst the Pembroke, which was only manned by eight persons went on her course towards North Carolina.

The 232 Acadian prisoners were kept in the hole of the Pembroke.

Just think of it, 232 persons packed in that part of the vessel where there was no ventilation of any kind! Was that an act of humanity, or of barbarity? I will not dwell on that subject; it is too heart rending. In order to prevent the unfortunate prisoners dying of suffocation, six at a time were allowed to come on deck every half hour alternatively. At last Charles Belliveau chose five of the strongest men among them, and told them what thy were to do, when the hatch-way would be opened, and instructions were also given to others to act promptly, at the proper moment. As soon as the half hour was over, and the six on deck ordered to go down in the hole, and six others called on deck, Belliveau and his five chosen companions came out quickly, and before the hatchway was closed they had mastered the captain and crew by stunning them with strong blows from their fists, and as the hatchway was left open many others came on deck to help their companions, if need be. At once Charles Belliveau took charge of the vessel, and as he was an expert mariner, he soon turned the direction of the Pembroke. The wind was very strong and the captain cried out: Stop! you are going to break the main-mast! To this Belliveau answered promptly: You lie; I made this mast and I know it will not break. Alternatively Captain Fontaine called Beaulieu and Belliveau, and some others were at the wheel. The Pembroke had sailed from Goat Island, December 8, 1755, and on February 8, 1756, she entered the port of St. John, New Brunswick where its human cargo was landed.

There are several documents relating to the capture of the Pembroke but the following extract of a letter from Governor Lawrence to Governor Shirley, of Massachusetts Bay, bearing date, February 18, 1756 is here appropriate. Here is what Lawrence says:

I lately sent a part of Rangers in a schooner to St. John River, as the men were cloathed like french soldiers and the schooner under french colours, I had hopes by such a deceit, not only to discover what was going there but to bring off some of the St. John Indians. The officer found there an English ship, one of our transports that sailed from Annapolis Royal with French inhabitants aboard bound for the Continent, but the inhabitants had risen upon the master & crew and carried the ship into that harbour, our people would have brought her off but by an accident they discovered themselved too soon, upon which the French set fire to the ship.

Amongst the Acadian prisoners onboard the Pembroke, besides Charles Belliveau and Captain Beaulieu, there were families of Boudreau, Dugas, Guilbeau, Granger, St-Seine, etc. There was also Prudent Robichaud, born in 1669 at Port-Royal, son of Etienne Robichaud and Françoise Boudreau, both natives of France. Prudent Robichaud married in 1691, Henriette Petitpas, and they had a family of twelve children, of whom five were sons. He was one of the prominent inhabitants of Annapolis Royal and rendered services to the English garrison, and yet notwhithstanding his old age - he was then eighty-six years old - he was embarked in December 1755 on board the Pembroke. In the summer of 1756, some of the 32 families left St-John River for Quebec. Robichaud was with them and died on the St-John River on his way to Quebec. On April 16 (N.S.) 1727, Lieutenant Governor Lawrence Armstrong had appointed him a Justice of the Peace for Annapolis, and on December 12 (N.S.) 1733, the same Lieutenant-Governor had given him the commission for collecting his Majesty's rents, etc., within the Banlieue of Annapolis Royal.

As to Charles Belliveau he succeded in reaching Quebec where he died in January 1758. His wife had predeceased him eight years and was buried at Annapolis Royal May 2, 1750.

Charles Jr. the eldest of the two sons, was born October 12, 1731, and on January 10, 1755, he married Osithe Dugas. He was deported in 1755 to Massachusetts Bay, and in 1767, he was permitted with his family to go to the province of Quebec, settled at St-Jacqaues de l'Achigan, where he died August 10, 1796, leaving several children, whose descendants are today numerous. As to Pierre, the youngest of the sons of Charles, the ship carpenter and mariner, he was born May 16, 1734, and therefore he was twenty one years old, at the time of the deportation which he escaped by taking to the woods, and succeeded in reaching, with others, an Acadian settlement at Coverdale, a few miles from Moncton. Amongst his companions in flight from Annapolis river, were three brothers, namely: Joseph, Charlitte and Bonaventure LeBlanc. They were all unmarried. They are, with Pierre Belliveau at their head, connected with the capture of the schooner in the summer of 1756, at Sackville, Westmorland County, New Brunswick. The Acadian families who had taken refuge, at the Acadian Village at Coverdale, about five or six miles from Moncton, being short of provisions Pierre Belliveau and the three LeBlanc brothers offered to go in search of cattle in the Chignictou district if a guide was given them. Cyprien Gautreau, a native of that district, offered his services which were acepted.

Pierre Belliveau and his four companions on arriving at Tintamarre River, at or near the town of Sackville, noticed at the bottom of the river, it was low tide, a schooner which Pierre Belliveau recognized at once, as belonging t his father, the hero of the Pembroke, and resolved to capture her. Having explained his plan to his companions, the five of them boarded the schooner on the pretext to buy some tobacco. The captain with a crea of four men had been sent from Annapolis, in search of Acadian fugitives, and to capture those he would meet. He therefore was delighted when those five young men went onboard of his schooner, and gave them free plenty of tobacco. But as the tide began to rise, Pierre Belliveau who could speak English well enough to make himself understood, thanked the captain and pretended to leave the vessel, but the captain told him that he and his companions were his prisoners, and then ordered three men of the cre to throw them into the hole. But this was not to be effected. Charlitte LeBlanc, on eof the three brothers and who had the strength of four ordinary men, had been told to keep himself close to windlass, and to make us of the windlass bar when ordered, consequently before the order of the captain could be obeyed, the cry of Strike, Charlitte, was heard, and the heavy bar of the windlass fell alternatively on the heads of the three sailors, who were killed outright. Then the captain called his first mate - a mighty strong man - who at the time was in the cabin, and ordered him to throw in the hole these Acadians whom he qualified with epithets unproper to be repeated here. Again was heard Strike, Charlitte! and the first mate fell overboard, holding Pierre Belliveau. The latter was promptly rescued, and the mate received another blow which finished him. Then came the turn of the captain who begged of them on his knees not to kill him but without avail. Having been told to recommend his soul to his Maker, he received a fatal blow from the hands of Charlitte LeBlanc. The schooner was taken up the Petcoudiac River, and hidden in a creek at Coverdale.

It was in the seventies of the last century that at Memramcook, I learned this last episode from the lips of some of the descendants of those who captured that schooner. Some twelve years later, Pierre Belliveau and the three LeBlanc brothers settled on the west side of the Memramcook River, where they died leaving large families. The descendants of Gautreau are at Barachois, near the town of Shediac.
Pierre Bellieveau was born 16 May 1734 and married Abt. 1760, Anne Girouard, and died at Memramcook, Febraury 16, 1820, and his wife on April 5th, 1823. They had a family of seven children whose descendants are today very numerous.

As I have said, two sons, of Jean Belliveau (who died in 1707, from the wounds he received at one of the sieges of Port-Royal by Colonel March) and brothers of Charles Belliveau of the Pembroke fame, settled at Carleton Corner after their marriage. Jean, the eldest of the two, born in 1699, married November 13, 1730, Marie-Madeleine Gaudet, and died at Belliveau's Cove, Digby County, Nova Scotia. He was the great-grandfather of Julie Vitaline Belliveau, wife of the late Luc LeBlanc and mother of the Right Reverend Dr. Edouard A. LeBlanc, Bishop of St-John, New Brunswick.
Pierre Belliveau, brother of Jean, who died at Belliveau's Cove, was born August 4, 1706, and on January 21, 1723, he married Jeanne Gaudet, sister of Marie-Madeleine, wife of his brother Jean. These two sisters were the daughters of Bernard Gaudet and Jeanne Terriot.

Pierre Belliveau had the surname Piau (pronounced Peeo) and was the uncle of the Pierre Belliveau who with four others made the capture of his father's schooner at Sackville, New Brunswick. This Pierre Belliveau surnamed Piau was the grandfather of my father's mother. Like his brother harles and Pierre, his nephew, his adventures at the time of the Expulsion deserve to be related.

Towards the end of August 1755, on the arrival of the first vessels ordered from Halifax to Annapolis Royal to transport the Acadians, all the French inhabitants residing above the fort fled to the wood. A few days later many returned to their dwelling houses, and there remained until they were embarked, on December 4, onboard the transports, but not on those which had arrived from Boston in the month of August. These had to be sent to Minas Basin where vessels were waiting to deport the population of that district.

But Pierre Belliveau surnamed Piau and several of his neighbors and a few families,from both sides of the river, below the fort, who had fled to Gaudet Village, thought it more prudent to abandon their homes and seek a temporary place of refuge, where they would be in in safety from the pursuit of the soldiery. Acordingly they took with them as much of their effects as they could conveniently carry, crossed to the North Mountain, and went to New Hampton, then called Anse de la Croix (Cross Cove). Here were several large fishing boats hidden there by the heads of the families living below the fort who fled to Gaudet Village. It must be remembered that Major John Handfield, commanding officer at Annapolis Royal, had ordered by a proclamation, dated July 12, 1755, that all fire arms, boats of all kinds belonging to the Acadians should be delivered at the fort, without delay. Fortunately for Belliveau and his companions this order was not unanimously carried out, and this is the explanation why fishing boats were hidden at Cross Point. These boats were used by Belliveau's caravan to ascend the bay, some twenty-four miles, till they reached a little port which afterwards was called French Cross on account of a cross erected there by Bellieveau and his Acadian companions but is now known as Morden. It is situated on the Bay of Fundy shore, and lies about seven miles from Hampton station, in a direct line. Here they remained until about the 9th dy of December, awaiting with great anxiety to learn what would be the fate of their compatriots who had returned to their homes in the beginning of September.

From their hiding place they noticed one day, about the middle of October, a fleet of ten ships, convoyed by an armed vessel, going down the bay. did they dream that onboard of these there was a human cargo of 1,045 Acadian prisoners from Chignictou district? There is no record to tell us. This fleet had sailed from Cumberland Basin, on the 13th of October, bound for Georgia, North and South Carolina, and put in the Basin of Annapolis, whence it sailed again on the 27th, which day, another fleet composed of thirteen vessels, convoyed by the frigate Nightengale, also sailed from Minas Basin, with 1,505 prisoners from that locality, and 1,100 from Pisiguit. These also, as they went down the bay, were noticed by Bellieveau and his companions.

At last they got information through some Indians met by their watching party, that the people of Annapolis had been shipped off on a fleet which sailed from Goat Island on Monday the 8th of December at five o'clock in the morning. this human cargo consisted of 1,664 Acadian prisoners.
Had Belliveau and his companions remained a few weeks longer in their hiding place, they would have seen other transports going down the bay with human cargoes, one on the 6th of same month with 150 prisoners, two on the 13th with 350 Acadians, and on the 20th December, two other vessels left Minas Basin with 230 prisoners.

Summing up the above figures, we have a total of 6,080 Acadians of Annapolis, Kings, Hants, Colchester and Cumberland counties, who were shipped off in thirty-four vessels. Minor deportations took place from time to time for several years.

What a terrible catastrophe had fallen on the Acadian people. Pastors and flocks were being tossed at the same time on the rolling waves of an angry sea. The members of families were separated and embarked on different transports. Their houses and churches were given to flames. The inhabitants of the peninsula who had escaped deportation were wandering in the forest and shivering with cold and exposure, whilst the perpetrators of these misfortunes and miseries were rejoicing over the result of their inhuman and cruel work. The heart-rending sufferings of the unfortunate Acadians were nothing to Lawrence and his associates. They thought the Acadian race was forever banished from Acadie. How great mistaken they were!

About the 9th of December, 1755, after having erected a cross as a momento of their sojourn at Morden, Belliveau and his companions left their hiding place at French Cross to seek a safer one. Fortunately, they had the few fishing boats which I have already mentioned, and having embarked onboard, they coasted the shore of the Bay of Fundy as far as Digby Neck, and then enterred by Petit Passage, nearly opposite Ste-Anne College, at Church Point, into St-Mary's Bay, which they ascended as far as the entrace of Belliveau's Cove, five miles from Petit Passage. Here there was then a small island, and they decided to land and encamp on it for the rest of the winter. When I first visited that locality, in February 1885, that island was called Ile-à-Piau (Piau's Island) by the old people of the neighbourhood. that name is now in oblivion, and the island itself is no more, it has since joined the mainland and forms a part of the picturesque landscape now called Major Doucet's Point. With Church Point this is the most historic spot in the whole municipality of Clare or French Town, as the Acadian settlements on the estern shore of St. Mary's Bay were formerly known to their English-speaking neighbors. As several deaths occurred among Pierre Belliveau's caravan, soon after their arrival and during the winter 1755-6, they were buried here. This spot was in September, 1768, the cradle of Clare Settlement by Acadians. For twenty years, from 1771 to 1791, the first Acadian settlers of Clare buried their dead alongside of those interred there during the winter of 1755-6, and thus Piau's Island became the first Acadian burial ground in Digby County.
I will not endeavor to portray the sufferings and miseries the Acadian fugitives endured during that winter. They are more easy to be conveived than to be described. One of their cares was to build rough huts. This I know by family tradition. These unfortunate one, poorly clad, sleeping on bed of fir twigs spread on bare ground for pillows, often covered with snow after stormy nights, destitute of proper food and starving, were often visited by the angel of death, which mercifully ended the sufferings of many. Thus passed the bleak winter of 1755-6.

Spring came at last and Pierre Belliveau and his companions bade adieu to the small island which had given them shelter, and embarked in their fishing boats to seek another place of refuge. Having crossed to the other side of the Bay of Fundy they followed its shores to Chignictou Bay which they ascended, entered Shipody Bay then Petcoudiac River went to its bend, now Moncton, and proceeded to the Acadian Village at Coverdale. Here they found every one in complete misery and that decided them to seek another refuge. They went through the woods to Cocagne, and on foot reached Boishebert's camp, at Nelson, on the Miramichi River, a distance of nearly one hundred miles. The caravan found here as much miseries if not more than at Coverdael. The Acadian refugees there were daily dying of starvation, and many of Belliveau's caravan were buried at Nelson. Belliveau and his companions soon left the place and went to Ristigouche where they remained a few years and then returned to Coverdale. Thjis was before Captain McKenzie's raid at Ristigouche in 1761.

About the year 1768, Pierre Belliveau surnamed Piau, with his son Joseph, settled on the western side of the Memramcook River, nearly opposite where is now the University St-Joseph (today in 1999 a museum exists here). For many years that locality was called Le Village-des-Piaux, (Piaus' Village) but now it is St-Joseph. A few years later, Joseph Belliveau became one of the first settlers of Belliveau's Village on the eastern side of the Petcoudiac river, and it is there that his father died in 1800, and himself in 1840, both of them approaching one hundred years of age. Their descendatns are very numerous

Placide Gaudet ended this presentation by saying: Dear Denis Gaudet, first settler of this locality, may you rest in peace. Your race shall never become extinct, since your numerous descendants are to be found in nearly every province in the Dominion and even in the United States. Placide Gaudet
SOURCE: La Société Historique Acadienne, le 30ième Cahier, Vol. III no. 10, January, February, March 1971.

© Lucie LeBlanc Consentino
Acadian & French Canadian Ancestral Home
1998 - Present

Speaking at NARA 21 Februrary 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Lucie LeBlanc Consentino) — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 11:12:00 +0000

They Came From Acadia: Rich History & Fascinating Genealogy

Welcome/Bienvenue!

Free National Archives Program Explores

Acadian History and Genealogy

Thursday, February 21, 2013 6 P.M.

Waltham, MA. The specific story of Acadians –-rich and also sad--is part of the fabric of New England and Canada. Once a distinct colony of New France, Acadia was geographically and administratively separate from the French colony of Canada (Quebec), and Acadians developed a unique history and culture which thrives today. With the Great Expulsion (1755–1763) by the British, 11,500 Acadians were deported from the Maritime region. All suffered; many perished. Some were re-settled in Louisiana (Cajuns), some returned to the Maritime provinces of Canada, and many would end up right here.

On Thursday, February 21, 2013, at 6:00 P.M., the National Archives at Boston (Waltham) welcomes Acadian history & genealogy expert Lucie LeBlanc Consentino. Consentino will present “They Came from Acadia,” an exploration of Acadian history and genealogy. Lucie LeBlanc Consentino is a leading Acadian genealogist and historian. Her web site, Acadian & French-Canadian Ancestral Home (www.acadian-home.org), is widely regarded as repository for Acadian history and genealogy providing reliable, original, and comprehensive genealogical data. She has published in several Acadian, American, and French-Canadian genealogy journals and speaks regularly at events in the U.S. and Canada. She was honored to give the keynote address at the Commemoration of the 250th Anniversary of the Deportation of the Acadians. She has been interviewed by many mainstream media outlets about her genealogy work including Radio Canada television.

Consentino’s engaging presentation is intended for the general public; teachers can receive professional development credit. Welcome/Bienvenue!

To register for “They Came from Acadia” on February 21^st at 6:00 P.M., please call toll free 866-406-2379, local 781-663-0130, or email boston.archives@nara.gov .

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ANNIE DAVIS, Ed. M.
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noreply@blogger.com (Lucie LeBlanc Consentino) — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 18:01:00 +0000

Acadians Overtake The Pembroke

Escape Deportation and Exile

But Die From An Epidemic in Quebec.

Here are few:

On the twelfth of December seventeen hundred fifty-seven was buried Suzanne Bussièere, Acadian, widow of Pierre Comeau, who died theprevious day, having received the sacrements, eighty years of age.

This information comes from "Recherche Historiques" published by Pierre-Georges Roy, Volume Thirty-Six published in 1930.

These Acadians remnants of an unjust war have no tombstones but the lack of such should not allow us to remember them any less even though they lay in unmarked graves.

Lucie's Legacy

Lucie LeBlanc Consentino

noreply@blogger.com (Lucie LeBlanc Consentino) — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 13:38:00 +0000

Lists of names exist regarding the Acadians of Louisbourg and Ile St-Jean who were repatriated to France in the Treaty signed about 1757 at the fall of Louisbourg between Britain and France. Because so many Acadians being deported from Ile St-Jean/Prince Edward Island died when their ships went down at sea, we do not necessarily have all of those names. These Acadian families are being reconstructed by Stephen A. White. What is posted here is the research of Father Patrice Gallant. Father Gallant went France in search of what had happened to the Acadians who had been exiled to France.

First of all, he querried as to what had become of all and any Acadians when they went to France and then what had become of them after that. This, whether they went to France as exiles from Louisbourg and Ile St-Jean, or if they had been expatriated to France at the Treaty of Paris in 1767. What he found was the following information:

1. 1,500 of the Acadians who had been captured in Mines (Grand-Pré) in 1755 had been sent to the New England Colonies and then onto England where they would have arrived in 1757. After the Treaty of Paris, they went to France and were predominantly settled at Morlaix. In Morlaix there are three parishes: St. Martin, St. Mathieu and St. Mélaine. Most of the Acadians were placed especially at St. Martin on Bourret Street. Father Gallant found 86 acts involving the Acadians the first one being a marriage celebrated on 7 November 1763 and the last on 19 January 1780. At St. Mathieu, he found 22 acts from 21 July 1763 to 9 August 1770; there were no Acadian records following that date. At St. Mélaine, there were only 4 acts - the first was the baptism of Anastasie-Prudente, daughter of Mathurin Granger and Geneviève Terriot, born and privately baptized in England.

2. The second group of Acadians to be exiled were captured at Cap-Sable, that is to say, at Pubnico; taken to Halifax, they were then expedited to Europe on 9 November 1759. In Cherbourge, France, Father Gallant was able to find 246 Acadian records that were of greatest interest; the first, a marriage on 29 May 1759 and the last, a baptism on 8 February 1775.

The Acadians arrived on at least two ships: the first on 30 November 1758 coming from Louisbourg transported the inhabitants of Ile St-Jean; the second ship, on 14 January 1760 came from Halifax where it had departed on 9 November 1759. Two children were born aboard this ship: Louis-Marie Dubois, born 16 December 1759 on the ship that had left from Halifax and disembarked on 14 January 1760 - he had been validly baptized aboard the ship by Joseph Landry. Isidore Viger, born 20 December 1759 on the British transport that arrived 14 January 1760. Another, Joseph-David Hébert was born at Halifax on 27 October 1759, just prior to departure. Recorded in the registers from 15 to 30 January 1760, were 8 baptisms, born either at Cap Sable, at Halifax or aboard ship; one was born 8 December 1758; another was 8 months old. On 26 January 1760, at the end of the same year, more than 40 deaths were recorded of the Acadians who had arrived on this ship.

On the arrival of an earlier shipload of Acadians from Cap-Sable, the first Acadian burial was that of Marie Doucet, daughter of Joseph and Marguerite Moulaison, on 15 February 1759. She was a native of Ste-Anne au Cap Sable, 2-1/2 years of age. That means that this ship would have left Cap Sable about the end of 1758.

3. The third ship to arrive came from Ile St-Jean. Many writers have said that nine vessels deported the Acadians from Ille St-Jean (Prince Edward Island) to France, from the Fall of 1758 to the Spring of 1759. Thus, over 2,200 Acadians would have been deported. According to rameau de St-Père Une Colonie Féodale, page 224, a ship entered the port of Boulogne, taken there by a storm on 26 December 1758 and it had come from Ile St-Jean with 179 passengers aboard.

On 30 November 1758, another ship arrived at Cherbourg. Many records mention the following: Transferred to France because the English gained control of Louisbourg, living in this city since the St-André of the last year. There was a marriage on 2 June 1759 between Léonard Giraud, surgeon, and Madeleine Boudrot, daughter of deceased Pierre Boudrot and Marie Douaron, deceased during the trip from Louisbourg to France. This ship had remained at sea off Plymouth for three months with its 130 passengers having hardly any food and dying of thirst. At Cherbourg, on 12 August 1760 Joseph Deveau married widow Marie De la Croix who died at Plymouth where her body was thrown into the sea. During 1759, there were 30 Acadian burials at Cherbourg.

However, it is especially St-Malo that received the largest contingency of Acadians who had been deported from Ile St-Jean. Records in France mention 5 British ships. The Acadians sought refuge in the following locations:

ST-SERVAN - 700 Acadian records were found here by Father Gallant. It is possible that this is where the greatest number of Acadians could be found. From 31 January 1759 to 27 July of the same year, there were 44 burials. The first burial on 31 January was that of Hélène Leblanc, child of Claude and Marie-Josèphe, 8 years of age having arrived a short time ago from Louisbourg. In the following records, February 1759, the deceased people are said to have arrived on the last transports. The dead were said to have come from either Ile St-Jean or from Louisbourg. The last records on the Acadians were at the end of 1773.

ST-ENOGAT - Here all of the Acadians were from Ile St-Jean (Prince Edward Island).

ST-SULIAC - There were some records on the Acadians who had been here from May 1759 through 29 October 1773. The following places received a fewer Acadians and those who went to these locations were there for a very short time...

PLEURTUIT - Records from 7 August 1759 to 27 May 1767.

CHATEAUNEUF - Records here show mostly burials at this location (16) from 15 April 1759 through 13 September 1761.

ST-MELOIR DES ONDES - 12 records dated 30 June 1761 to 8 December 1768.

ST-COULOMB - 23 records from 4 April 1760 through 22 May 1771.

PARAME - Only 6 records at this location however, the following one is quite interesting. On 17 June 1760, Nicolas Bouchard, native of Canada, St. Thomas Parish, Québec, son of deceased Nicolas and Anne Sylvain, widower of Marie Chiasson, married Cécile Caissy, daughter of deceased Jean and Cécile Hébert, widow of Pierre Grossin, originally from Beauséjour; Pierre Grossin died at the hospital of St-Malo. Also included in this report was a Certificate from Sir Commissioner of the Marine attesting to the death of Marie Chiasson on the report of passengers disembarked from the five english packboats who saw the said Marie Chiasson die on the transport. (Source: Tanguay, vol II. page 366: marriage of Nicolas Bouchard and Marie-Anne Chiasson, daughter of François and Anne Doucet, at St-thomas de Montmagny on 10 October 1746.)

PLOUER - 169 records from 12 March 1760 through 9 December 1774.

PLEUDIHEN - 222 records from 14 December 1759 through 17 April 1774.

PLESLIN - 38 records from 28 June 1760 through 11 February 1774.

TRIGAVOU - 65 records from 6 March 1760 through 26 February 1774.

PLOUBALAY - 15 records from 3 May 1759 through 9 May 1768. Interesting details here on the first burials. Burials on 3 May 1759 of François Robichaud husband of Agathe Turpin, fugitive of Acadia because of the invasion of the British and relegated to this parish, 62 years of age, died from smallpox, a sickness unheard of in Acadia. Present at the burial, Jean-Pierre Robichaud, her son. Burial on 5 May 1759 of Joseph Robichaud, 13 years of age, son of François, transported to St-Malo by the British, after they overtook Cap Breton, died of smallpox. On 7 May there were two more burials with the same details.

LANGROLAY - only 5 reports from 18 August 1760 through 28 March 1763.

TREMEREUX- 29 reports from 1 May 1762 through 12 December 1775.

What Became of the Acadians?

I. TO THE FRENCH COLONIES IN GUYANA

Lauvrière Tragédie d'un Peuple, Vol. II, page 201, cites a detailed census of Sinnamari, in Guyana, dated 1 May 1765. On this census there were 138 Acadians of which 62 truly originated from Acadia, 50 from Louisbourg and 26 from Ile St-Jean. The Rochefort Census of 8 January 1770 gives interesting details on these Acadians, in as much as it helps to establish the history of several families who were brought from Ile St-Jean to Louisbourg then transported from Louisbourg to England and from England to France, then from France to Guyana in 1764; then returned to France once again in 1765. It would seem that all of this was accomplish with women and children as well. (Rameau, page 227)

II. AT BELLE-ILE-EN-MER

Another attempt with serious results was the installation of the Acadians at Belle-Isle-En-Mer. Father Le Loutre worked with a great deal of zeal so that the 78 families numbering 400 persons in November 1765 would be successful; most of these Acadians were coming from Morlaix and a few from St-Malo. On 12 January 1767, the Rennes Parliament stipulated to the parish rectors of Belle-Isle that they were, in the presence of Father Le Loutre, to make known the state of these immigrants, containing as much as possible, all of the details relative to each individual: the birthplace for himself, for his wife and for his children; the death dates and the marriage dates. These declarations (which are referred to even today as the Declarations of Belle-Ile-en-Mer) were recorded in a register that still exists today. At the end of the Declarations Register is found a note signed by Father Le Loutrte, containing in substance, the history of these unfortunate families: The Acadians placed on this island were transported by the British to Boston and other British colonies in the month of October 1755; from these colonies, they were trasferred to Old England (versus the New England colonies) and dispersed in different locations in the kingdom, during the year 1756. In 1763, after the peace treaty, they were transported to France on the King's Ships and placed in two ocean ports: Saint-Malo and Morlaix. In 1765, during the month of October, they came to this island by order of Mgr le duc de Choiseul.
At the Vendée departmental archives at Roche-sur-Yon, in the LANCO records, are found the very precious manuscript on the Acadians at Belle-Isle.

III. AT POITOU

On 15 September 1772, a list was drawn up of all of the Acadian families, on the eve of the departure of the Acadians for Poitou. This list consists, at the date indicated above, of 626 families comprising 2,370 persons. There is a supplement to this list that brings the total to 2,563 persons, including those of Belle-Isle. In addition to this 1,500 are destined to go to Poitou; 497 have already left. The first convoy, coming from St-Malo, according to Rameau, would have arrived in 1774. This endeavor was a total failure. Except for twent-one families, as of 1775, the Acadians left Poitou for Nantes. M. André Blanchard de La Puye (Vienne) provided Father Patrice Gallant with 250 Acadian records for this time frame. The first contingent left Poitou for Nantes 24 October consisting of 28 families; the second contingent left 15 November 1775 with 62 families; the third contingent left 7 December 1775 with 103 families; the fourth contingent left from 6 through 13 March 1776 with 78 families. In all 271 families left Poitou for Nantes.

IV. IN LOUISIANA

These families settled at Nantes, especially in the parish of St-Martin de Chantenay, at a location called the Hermitage; a few settled in the parishes of St-Nicolas, St-Sébastien, St-Léonard and at Paimboeuf, in the region of Saint-Nazaire. There were 292 records at Chantenay from 1776 through 1785. Finally, from Nantes, most of these families went to Louisiana. Seven vessels sailed for Louisiana in 1785. These ships are all listed as are the ships' lists on another page of this web site accessible at the sidebar. 371 families totalling 1,633 persons sailed for Louisiana.

V. TO CANADA

It is very interesting and most important to know that many Acadian families from the region of St-Malo, in particular from Pleudihen and Plouër, instead of going to Poitou, chose to return to Canada, by passing by Jersey or England. On the list for 1772, it is stated that some of these families escaped to England. What this simply means is that they left without authorization of the French government. In a letter from Lemoyne to the Minister of Bertin, 18 April 1773, it was said the 8 families that had settled at Plouër and Pleudihen deserted and went on to England. Hired by the Robin family, some of them are found in the Gaspésie, others on Ile St-Jean (Prince Edward Island), before going - for the most part - to settle permanently at Cap-Breton. Here is an incomplete list that Father Gallant proferred -
Returned to Gaspésie:
Olivier Bariault, the elder of the Bariaults of Carleton and of St-Louis-de-Kent. His brother Jean-Baptiste and his 4 sisters prefered to go to Poitou and then to Louisiana.
Michel Bourg: Father Bourg's family.
Widow of Olivier Daigle: Olivier Daigle died at St-Servan on 3 July 1774; 40 years old.
Grégoire Daigle, brother of Olivier.
Simon Henri
The widow of Pierre Landry
Jean-Baptiste Lavache (single)
Marin Leblanc
Amand Leblanc - brother of Marin
Joseph Leblanc dit Bourquet
Michel Quessy
The widow of Joseph Robichaud (Claire LeBlanc)
Charles Terriot, son of Joseph and Marie Melanson, from Pleudihen, married at Paspébiac 28 February 1808 to Anne Dickson.
FAMILIES THAT RETURNED TO ILE ST-JEAN, and to CAP BRETON, especially CHÉTICAMP, and POMQUET on the Nova Scotia peninsula:
Alexis Doiron
Josaphat Doiron, son of Alexis
Pierre Aucoin
Jean Commeau
Jean Landry
Joseph Melanson**

[From Michael Melanson: Joseph Melanson did not return to Pomquet, he died some time before 1784, his widow remarried in 1784 and she along with her new husband and sole surviving son Charles Marie Melanson moved to Pomquet, Nova Scotia. Here is their outline and dates: I have a copy of the 1810 census of Pomquet showing Charles and his family:
Descendants of Elizabeth Broussard
1 Elizabeth Broussard b: 1749 in Isle St Jean, now: Prince Edward Island d: Aft. 1785 in Pomquet, Antigonish County, Nova Scotia
+Joseph Melanson b: 25 October 1747 in Grand Pre, Kings County, Nova Scotia m: 14 January 1772 in Pleudihen, Cotes du Nord, France d: Bef. 1784 in La Coquenais, St. Malo, France Baptised: Grand Pre, Nova Scotia, St. Charles Church Reference #: PGJA Father: Etienne Melanson Mother: Francoise Granger
2 Joseph Marie Melanson b: 17 November 1772 in La Ville de Cain, France d: 29 March 1780 in La Coquenais, St. Malo, France Baptised: 18 November 1772 Pleudihen, Cotes du Nord, France Burial: 30 March 1780 Pleudihen, Cotes du Nord, France
2 Charles Marie Melanson b: 14 December 1776 in La Coquenais, St. Malo, France d: Aft. 1822 in Pomquet, Antigonish County, Nova Scotia
.... +Marie Doiron b: Abt. 1778 m: Abt. 1794 in Pomquet, Antigonish County, Nova Scotia d: Aft. 1822 in Pomquet, Antigonish County, Nova Scotia
2nd Husband of Elizabeth Broussard: . +Jean Cyprien Boudreau b: Abt. 1747 m: 22 November 1784 in Pleudihen, Cotes du Nord, France*]

Charles Broussard
Grégoire Maillet
Pierre Duon
Germain Boudrot
Georges Charpentier

SOURCE other than information from Michael Melanson: Father Patrice Gallant in an article written in 1968 in French and translated into English by this webmaster.

© Lucie LeBlanc Consentino
Acadian & French Canadian Ancestral Home

1999 - Present

1752 Acadian Census

noreply@blogger.com (Lucie LeBlanc Consentino) — Sun, 20 Jan 2013 13:00:00 +0000

January 1752
General List of Inhabitants of French Acadia
By Names, Families, Villages and number of Boys and Girls
in Each Family

1752

VESKAK

Jean ARSENAU, his wife, 2 boys, 1 girl Francois DOUCET, his wife, 2 boys 1 girl
Michel HACHÉ, père [father or Sr.], his wife, 2 boys, 3 girls
Jean HACHÉ, his wife, 1 boy, 3 girls
Jean-Bte [Baptiste] SAVOYE, his wife, 2 boys, 7 girls
Michel HACHÉ, fils [son or Jr.], his wife, 1 boy, 3 girls
Michel GIROUARD, his wife, 1 boy, 2 girls
Jean DOUCET, his wife, 1 girl
François DOUCET, his wife, 1 girl
Jean CORMIER, his wife, 2 boys, 3 girls
Bte. [Baptiste] BERNARD, his wife, 5 boys, 3 girls
Jean MIGNEAU, his wife, 1 boy, 3 girls

PRÉ DES BOURGS (BOURQUE)

Michel BOURG, his wife, 3 boys, 2 girls Belonie BOURG, bachelor
Rene BERNARD, the elder [l'ainé], his wife, 3 girls, 1 boy
Rene BERNARD, the younger [le jeune], his wife, 1 boy, 3 girls
Joseph DOUCET, bachelor, with his brother and sister.

DES RICHARDS

Martin RICHARD, widower, 2 boys, 1 girl. Jean RICHARD, his wife, 1 boy, 1 girl.
Pierre RICHARD, his wife, 2 boys, 2 girls.
Pierre BOURGEOIS, his wife, 2 boys, 2 girls.
Joseph RICHARD, his wife, 2 boys, 2 girls.
Francois BERNARD, his wife, 1 boy.
Francois BOURG, his wife, 7 boys, 3 girls.

TINTAMARRE

Michel GODET, his wife, 2 boys. Germain GIROUARD, his wife, 1 girl.
Pierre GODET, his wife, 2 boys, 2 girls.
Ambroise POIRIER, his wife, 1 boy, 1 girl.
Joseph GIROUARD, his wife, 1 boy, 1 girl.
Joseph GODET, his wife, 1 boy, 1 girl.
Jean-Bte. [Baptiste] BERTRAN, his wife, 1 boy, 1 girl.
Louis GODET, his wife, 1 girl.
Pierre DEVAU, his wife, 1 boy.
Michel NUIRAT, his wife, 2 boys, 1 girl.
Rene POIRIER, his wife, 2 boys, 2 girls.
Germain GIROUARD, his wife, 2 boys, 6 girls.
Maire BOURG, widow, 2 boys.
Joseph BELLIVAU, widower, 4 boys, 1 girl.
Augustin GODET, widower, 1 boy, 1 girl.
Pierre GIROUARD, his wife, 2 boys, 1 girl.
Jean GODET, his wife, 4 boys, 3 girls.
Francois ARSENAU, his wife, 2 boys, 3 girls.
Francois POIRIER, his wife, 1 boy, 1 girl.
Pierre BERNARD, his wife, 1 boy, 3 girls.
Pierre GODET, his wife, 2 boys, 1 girl.
Charles DOUCET, his wife, 1 boy, 1 girl.
Joseph GODET, his wife, 1 boy.
Charles DEVAU, 2 boys, 1 girl.
Charles GAUDET, widower, 1 boy, 3 girls.
Jean GAUDET, his wife, 1 boy, 1 girl.
Paul BERNARD, his wife, 2 boys.
Claude ARSENAU, his wife, 2 boys, 2 girls.
Joseph BERNARD, his wife, 4 boys, 2 girls.

LA COUPE

Pierre CARÉ, his wife, 2 boys, 5 girls. Jean DEVAU, his wife, 5 boys, 2 girls.
Jean DEVAU, le jeune, his wife, 1 boy, 1 girl.
The widow POIRIER, 3 boys, 3 girls.
Joseph CARRÉ and his wife.
Jean-Bpt. [Baptiste] ORILLON, his wife, 1 boy, 1 girl.

LE LAC

Joseph CORMIER, his wife, 3 girls. Charles POIRIER, his wife, 2 boys, 2 girls.
Jean CARRE, widower, 1 girl.
Germain CARRE, bachelor.
Joseph GRANGE [Granger], his wife, 4 boys, 1 girl.
Alexis LANDRY, his wife, 5 boys, 2 girls.
The widow CORMIER, 2 boys, 3 girls.
Alexis CORMIER, widower, 1 girl.
Marin LEBLANC, his wife, 1 boy.
Pierre BOURGEOIS, his wife, 5 boys, 3 girls.
Alexis LEBLANC, his wife, 3 boys, 1 girl.
Paul OLIVIER, his wife, 5 boys.
The widow GRANGE [Granger], 1 boy, 1 girl.
Joseph DOUCET, his wife, 2 boys, 4 girls.
Jean TERRIOT, his wife, 1 boy.

LA POINTE À BEAUSÉJOUR

Charles BRUN, his wife, 4 boys, 3 girls. The widow POIRIER, 4 boys, 1 girl.
Jean-Baptiste ORILLON, his wife, 3 boys, 3 girls.
Michjel POIRIER and his wife.
Pierre VIGNEAU, his wife, 1 boy, 1 girl.
Charles HEAN [Heon], his wife, 1 boy.
Jean CORMIER, his wife, 2 boys, 3 girls.
Charles GIROUARD, his wife, 4 boys, 1 girl.
Louis HUGON, his wife, 6 boys, 4 girls.
Louis HUGON, fils [son or Jr.], and his wife.
Jacques HUGON and his wife.
Francois POIRIER, his wife, 3 boys.
Ignace NUIRAT and his wife.
Magloire HEBERT, his wife, 2 boys, 1 girl.
Michel BOURGEOIS, his wife, 1 girl.
Joseph BOURGEOIS.
Michel CORMIER, fils [son or Jr.].
Jean-Bte [Baptiste] GIASSON [Chiasson], his wife, 3 boys, 3 girls.
Pierre GIASSON [Chiasson], his wife, 1 boy.
Paul MARTIN, his wife, 5 boys, 2 girls.
Augustin DEVAU, his wife, 3 boys, 1 girl.
Joseph KESSY, his wife, 1 boy, 1 girl.
Alexis KESSY, his wife, 1 boy, 2 girls.

MEMERAMKOOK(MEMRAMCOOK)

Pierre BLANCHARD, his wife, 1 boy, 2 girls. Joseph RICHARD, his wife, 2 boys, 1 girl.
Michel LANOUE, his wife, 2 boys, 1 girl.
Honore LANOUE, his wife, 2 boys, 2 girls.
Pierre DUPUIS.
Jean BENOIST, his wife, 1 boy, 1 girl.
Claude BENOIST, his wife, 1 boy, 1 girl.
Joseph LANDRY, his wife, 3 girls.
Paul LANDRY, his wife, 3 girls.
Alexis LANDRY, his wife, 2 boys, 2 girls.
Bte. [Baptiste] LANDRY, his wife, 1 girl.
Pierre AUCOIN, his wife, 2 boys, 5 girls.
Jean AUCOIN, his wife, 3 boys, 3 girls.
Gregoire MAILLET, his wife, 2 boys 2 girls.
Pierre GIROUARD, his wife, 1 boy, 3 girls.
Guillaume GIROUARD, his wife, 2 girls.
Pierre FOREST, his wife, 1 girl.
Joseph BLANCHARD, his wife, 1 boy, 1 girl.
Pierre GODET, his wife, 1 boy, 1 girl.
Michel DUPUY, his wife, 1 girl.
Benjamin THIBODEAU, 1 girl.
Joseph THIBODEAU, his wife, 2 boys, 4 girls.
Rene DAIGLE, his wife, 9 boys, 1 girl.
Charles SAVOYS [Savoie], his wife, 2 girls, 1 boy.
Prudent ROBICHEAU, his wife, 1 boy, 2 girls.
Jean BASTARACHE and his wife.
Bruno ROBICHEAU, his wife, 1 boy.
Joseph ROBICHEAU, his wife, 1 boy.
Policarpe ROBICHEAU.
Gregoire RICHARD, his wife, 1 girl.
Michel HÉBERT, his wife, 2 boys, 1 girl.
Belonie HÉBERT, his wife, 2 boys, 2 girls.
François HÉBERT, his wife, 1 girl.
Amant HÉBERT, his wife, 1 girl.
Claude HÉBERT, his wife, 1 boy, 1 girl.
The widow HÉBERT.
Olivier HÉBERT.
Charles DESLAURIER.
Jean SIRE, his wife, 2 boys, 6 girls.
Pierre SIRE, his wife, 3 boys, 3 girls.
Joseph GIROUARD, his wife, 1 girl.
Honore BLANCHARD, his wife, 3 boys, 2 girls.
Jean RICHARD, his wife, 1 boy, 2 girls.
Honore SIRE, his wife, 2 boys, 2 girls.
Honore LANDRY, his wife, 3 boys, 1 girl.
Joseph SIRE, his wife, 2 girls.
Joseph RICHARD, his wife, 1 boy, 3 girls.
Jean BLANCHARD, his wife, 4 boys, 3 girls.
Paul BLANCHARD, his wife, 2 boys, 1 girl.
Pierre BLANCHARD, his wife, 1 boy, 2 girls.
Joseph BOURG, his wife, 1 boy, 2 girls.

PETKOUDIACK(PETITCODIAC)

Jacques BONNEVIE, his wife, 6 boys, 3 girls. Pierre VINCENT, his wife, 4 boys, 5 girls.
Jean VINCENT, his wife, 4 boys, 3 girls.
Rene LEBLANC, his wife, 5 boys, 3 girls.
Pierre SURET, his wife, 4 boys, 5 girls.
Paul MELANCON, his wife, 1 boy, 2 girls.
Honore MELANCON, his wife, 1 boy, 1 girl.
Jean DESLAURIERS, his wife, 1 boy, 1 girl.
Simon DARROIS, his wife, 1 boy, 2 girls.
Jean DAROIS, his wife, 4 boys, 3 girls.
Silvain BREAU, his wife, 2 boys, 1 girl.
Germain BOYE, his wife, 1 boy, 2 girls.
Paul TRAHAN, his wife, 1 girl.
Jean TRAHAN, his wife, 1 boy, 3 girls.
Rene TRAHAN and his wife.
Joseph BROUSSARD, his wife, 1 girl.
Jean DESLAURIERS, his wife, 2 boys, 3 girls.
Charles THIBODEAU, his wife, 4 boys, 3 girls.
Pierre LALANDE, his wife, 2 boys, 2 girls.
Joseph LALANDE, his wife, 2 boys, 2 girls.
Joseph LAPIERRE, his wife, 1 boy, 3 girls.
Pierre SAUNIER, his wife, 1 boy, 1 girl.
Jacques SAUNIER, his wife, 2 boys, 2 girls.
Etienne SAUNIER, his wife, 4 boys, 4 girls.
Charles SAUNIER, hiw wife, 1 boy, 2 girls.
Jean BOYE, his wife, 1 girl.
Alexandre BROUSSARD, 5 boys, 2 girls.
Joseph BROUSSARD, his wife, 8 boys, 2 girls.
Joseph LANDRY, his wife, 2 girls.
Jean LANDRY, his wife, 1 boy, 2 girls.
Pierre THIBODEAU, widower, 7 girls.
Paul THIBODEAU, his wife, 3 boys, 4 girls.
Pierre SAUNIER, his wife, 4 boys, 4 girls.
Francois COMMEAU, his wife, 5 boys, 4 girls.
Toussaint BLANCHARD, his wife, 4 boys, 4 girls.
Pierre SAUNIER, 4 boys, 3 girls.
Joseph SAUNIER, 3 boys, 2 girls.
Paul MARTIN, his wife, 2 boys, 4 girls.
The widow MARTIN, 2 boys, 2 girls.
Jean BISSON, his wife, 1 boy, 2 girls.
Jean DUBOIS, his wife, 5 boys, 2 girls.
Joseph DUBOIS, his wife, 1 girl.
Jean DUBOIS, the younger [le jeune], 2 boys, 2 girls.
Paul LÉGER, his wife, 1 girl.
Joseph PINET, his wife, 1 boy, 1 girl.
Joseph LÉGER, his wife, 2 boys, 2 girls.
Pierre LÉGER, his wife, 1 boy.
Louis ALLAIN, his wife, 2 boys.
Pierre, COMMEAU, 1 boy, 1 girl.
Jean LÉGER, his wife, 2 girls.
The widow OMIRAU [Amirault], 3 boys, 2 girls.
Olivier BLANCHARD and his wife.
Simon MARTIN and his wife.
The widow LÉGER, 4 boys, 2 girls.
Jean BERTRAN, widower, 4 boys, 2 girls.
Claude MATHIEU, his wife, 2 boys, 1 girl.

CHIPOUDY

Martin AUCOIN, his wife, 2 boys, 5 girls. Louis LABAUVE, his wife, 4 boys, 1 girl.
Jean LABAUVE, his wife 1 boy, 3 girls.
Joseph LABAUVE and his wife.
Simon COMMEAU, his wife, 1 boy, 2 girls.
Honore SAVOYE, his wife, 1 boy, 4 girls.
Pierre COMMEAU, his wife, 3 boys, 5 girls.
Jean-Bte. [Baptiste] COMMEAU, his wife, 3 boys, 5 girls.
Francois COMMEAU, his wife, 5 boys, 4 girls.
Jean COMMEAU, his wife, 5 boys, 1 girl.
Rene BLANCHARD, his wife, 1 boy, 1 girl.
Ambroise COMMEAU, his wife, 3 boys, 3 girls.
Morice COMMEAU, his wife, 3 boys, 4 girls.
Joseph COMMEAU, his wife, 1 girl.
The widow LURON.
Jean SAUVAGE, his wife 1 girl.
Jean-Bte. [Baptiste] LEVRON, his wife, 3 boys, 1 girl.
Charles BRUN, his wife 2 girls.
Pierre PITRE, his wife, 4 boys, 3 girls.
The widow PITRE, 1 boy, 1 girl.
Joseph PITRE, his wife, 2 boys, 3 girls.
Simon SAVOYE, his wife, 3 girls.
Claude THIBODEAU, his wife, 1 boy.
Charles THIBODEAU, his wife, 2 boys, 5 girls.
Michel THIBODEAU, his wife, 3 boys, 4 girls.
The widow MIRE, 2 boys, 4 girls.
Jean THIBODEAU, his wife, 1 boy, 4 girls.
Jean PREJEAN, his wife, 4 boys, 2 girls.
Olivier THIBODEAU, his wife, 3 boys, 3 girls.
Jean BREAU, his wife, 3 boys, 6 girls.
Jean SAVOYE, his wife, 2 boys, 1 girl.
Jean LAVOYE, his wife, 3 boys, 3 girls.
Paul LAVOYE, his wife, 2 boys, 2 girls.
Olivier SAUNIER, his wife, 1 boy, 2 girls.
Jean-Bte. [Baptiste] SAVOYE, his wife, 3 boys, 5 girls.
Charles PELLERIN, his wife, 1 girl.
Bernard GODET, his wife, 1 girl.
Pierre MARTIN, his wife, 2 boys, 2 girls.
Pierre MARTIN, l'aine, his wife, 2 boys, 3 girls.
Amant PREJEAN, his wife, 1 boy.
Charles MARTIN, his wife, 1 boy.
Jean BLANCHARD, his wife, 1 boy, 5 girls.
Paul BLANCHARD, his wife, 3 boys, 2 girls.
Jean LORD, his wife, 1 boy, 6 girls.
Alexandre COMMEAU, his wife, 1 boy.
Charles SAVOY, his wife, 1 boy, 2 girls.
Ambroise BREAU, his wife, 5 boys, 3 girls.
Jean-Bte. [Baptiste] SAVOYE, his wife, 2 boys, 3 girls.
Jean BROUSSARD, his wife, 1 girl.
Michel SAUVAGE, his wife, 2 boys, 3 girls.
The widow PELLERIN, 2 boys, 3 girls.
Jean LÉGER, his wife, 2 boys, 6 girls.
Joseph LORD, his wife, 3 boys, 1 girl.
François BRUN, his wife, 2 boys, 4 girls.
Jean BRUN, his wife, 2 boys, 2 girls.
Simon LAVRON, his wife, 1 boy, 1 girl.
Charles BRUN, his wife, 3 boys, 1 girl.
Pierre MIRE.
Joseph SAVOYE.
Pierre SAVOYE.

January 1752
General List of Refugee Families by Their Names,
Villages, and Number of Boys and Girls in each Family

GASPARAUX [Gaspereau]
Jean HAMON, his wife, 2 boys.
Charles BOURG, his wife, 2 boys, 3 girls.
Silvain BOURG, his wife, 2 boys.
Joseph BOURG and his wife. (Cobequit)
The widow LEBLANC, 1 girl.
Francois LEBLANC, his wife, 1 girl.
Francois BOURG, his wife, 4 boys, 2 girls.
Pierre RICHARD, Jr., his wife, 2 boys, 1 girl. (Planches)
Pierre RICHARD, Sr., his wife, 3 boys, 1 girl. (Planches)
Paul SIRE, his wife, 2 boys, 4 girls. (Mesagouche)
Pierre BOUDROT, his wife. 5 boys, 3 girls.
Paul LANDRY, his wife, 1 boy, 3 girls. (Mines)
Joseph MELANCON, his wife, 2 boys, 2 girls.
Charles CHAUVET, his wife, 1 boy, 4 girls.
The widow CATHARY, 1 boy, 3 girls. (Pisiquit)

BAYE VERTE

Jean KESSY, his wife, 4 boys, 3 girls. The elder Claude BOURGEOIS and his wife.
Francois ARSENEAU, dit Bresle, his wife, 5 boys, 2 girls.
Pierre GRAVOIS, his wife, 2 boys.
Claude BOURGEOIS, his wife, 5 boys, 1 girl.
Pierre SIRE, his wife, 2 boys, 4 girls.
Abraham POIRIER and his wife.
Jean SIRE, his wife, 3 boys, 4 girls.
Michel SIRE, his wife, 4 boys, 2 girls. (Mesagouche)
Claude POIRIER, his wife, 3 boys, 3 girls.
The widow HONET, 2 boys, 1 girl.
Abraham ARSENEAU, his wife, 1 boy.
Jean VIGNEAU, dit Morice, his wife, 4 boys, 1 girl.
Francois ARSENEAU, his wife, 1 boy, 5 girls.
Jacques VIGNEAU, Jr., and his wife.
Jean SIRE, dit mon fils (?).
Francois HEBERT, his wife, 2 boys, 2 girls.
Jean HEBERT, his wife, 1 girl. (Riviere des Heberts)
The younger Jacques HEBERT, his wife, 7 boys, 3 girls.
The widow Marie Joseph HEBERT with 1 boy. (Riviere des Mines)
Jean-Jacques BOURGEOIS, 1 boy, 2 girls. (des Planches)
The older Jean CORMIER and his wife.
Francois CORMIER, dit Palet, his wife, 4 boys. (Veskak)

PORTAGE

Pierre CORMIER, dit le grand, his wife, 6 boys, 5 girls. Francois LEBLANC, dit le Maigre, his wife, 4 boys. (Veskak)

POINTE BUOT

Jean HEBERT, widower, 2 boys, 3 girls. (Riviere des Mines)

Jean SIRE, his wife, 6 boys, 1 girl. (Veskak)

Vincent DEVAU, his wife, 1 boy, 4 girls.

Paul DEVAU, his wife, 2 boys, 1 girl.

Morice DEVAU and his wife.

Paul SIRE, widower, 4 boys, 3 girls.

Pierre COTARD, his wife, 3 girls. (Mesagouche)

Michel BOURGEOIS, his wife, 2 boys, 1 girl

Francois BOURET, his wife, Z boys, 4 girls.

Olivier BOURGEOIS, widower, 1 boy, 1 girl.

Paul BOURGEOIS, his wife, 4 boys, 3 girls. (des Planches)

Pierre DOUCET, son, his wife, 1 boy, 3 girls.

Pierre DOUCET, his wife 4 boys, 4 girls. (Nanpan)

Anne MATHIEU, widow, 4 boys, 4 girls.

LA COUPE

Jean CORMIER, his wife, 1 boy, 3 girls. (Nanpan) The elder father HEBERT, widow.
Paul HEBERT. his wife, 1 boy. (Riviere des Mines)
Charles FOREST and his wife.
Rene FOREST and his wife. (Menoudy)

LE LAC

Michel BOURGEOIS, his wife, 2 boys, 3 girls. (des Planches) Francois BOUDROT, his wife, 1 girl.
Francois GIROUARD, his wife, 2 boys, 3 girls. (de la bute)
Jacques GIROUARD and his wife.
Francois POIRIER, his wife, 2 boys, 2 girls.
Joseph POIRIER, his wife, 3 boys, 1 girl. (Mecan)
Michel POIRIER, 3 boys, 3 girls.
Paul BUJEAU, his wife, 2 boys, 1 girl.
Bernard POIRIER, his wife, 4 boys, 2 girls.
Joseph POIRIER, his wife, 4 boys, 4 girls.
Belonie DOUCET, his wife, 4 boys.
Paul POIRIER, his wife, 1 boy, 2 girls.
Jean POIRIER, his wife, 2 girls.
Paul DOUAIRON [Doiron], his wife, 5 boys, 3 girls. (Mecan)
Paul DOUAIRON [Doiron], fils [son or Jr.], his wife, 1 girl.
Claude POIRIER, his wife, 1 boy, 1 girl.
Joseph CORMIER, his wife, 7 boys, 2 girls.
Anne CORMIER, widow, 3 girls.
Jean BOURG, his wife, 4 boys. 3 girls.
Jean RICHARD, his wife, 1 boy, 1 girl.
Pierre POIRIER, 3 boys, 1 girl.
Pierre BOURG, his wife, 3 boys. 3 girls.
Jean BOURG and his wife. (Nanpan)
Michel RICHARD, his wife, 7 boys, 4 girls.
Joseph POIRIER, his wife, 4 boys, 1 girl.
Paul POIRIER, his wife, 1 hoy, 1 girl.
Joseph POIRIER, his wife, 1 boy, 1 girl.
Paul BOUDROT, his wife, 5 boys, 2 girls.
Rene LEBLANC, his wife, 4 boys, 2 girls.
Jean CORPERON.
Charles BREAU, his wife, 1 boy.
Alexandre DAVID, his wife, 2 boys, 1 girl.
Alexis PROVENCAL.
Ambroise MELANCON, his wife, 5 boys, 2 girls. (Mines)
Joseph HEBERT, his wife, 1 boy.
Pierre HEBERT, widower, 2 boys, 3 girls.
Marie HEBERT, widow, 2 boys, 3 girls.
Jacques BABIN, his wife, 2 boys, 2 girls.
Cecile THIBODEAU (widow?), 6 boys, 2 girls.
Joseph TERRIOT, his wife, 3 boys, 1 girl.
Pierre THIBODEAU, his wife, 4 boys, 3 girls. (Veskak)
Jean-Charles DUPUY, his wife, 1 boy, 3 girls.
Pierre POIRIER, his wife, 1 boy, 3 girls.
Paul TERRIOT, his wife, 3 boys, 3 girls.
Alexandre FOREST (widower?), 1 boy, 2 girls.
Guillaume POIRIER, his wife, 2 boys, 4 girls.
Jean FOREST, his wife, 1 boy, 4 girls.
Joseph FOREST (widower?), 2 boys 4 girls.
Francois FOREST, his wife, 2 boys, 3 girls.
Jean BLANCHARD, his wife, 2 boys, 3 girls.
Margueritte FOREST (widow?), 3 boys, 1 girl. (Menoudy)
Jacques FOREST and his brother. (Menoudy)
Pierre DOUAIRON [Doiron], his wife, 4 boys, 3 girls.
Joseph POIRIER, 5 boys, 3 girls.
Abraham GIASSEN [Chiasson], his wife, 6 boys, 3 girls.
Olivier LANDRY, his wife, 1 boy.
Germain FOREST, his wife, 1 boy.
Charles-Bte. [Baptiste] FOREST, his wife, 2 boys, 2 girls.
Jean-Augustine HEBERT, his wife, 3 boys, 1 girl.
Pierre POIRIER, his wife, 2 boys, 2 girls.
Pierre FOREST, his wife, 2 boys, 3 girls.
Pierre LAMBERT, widower, 1 boy.
Jean THIBODEAU, his wife, 3 boys, 2 girls.
Germain DOUCET, his wife, 3 boys, 1 girl.
Jean PITRE, his wife, 3 boys, 5 girls. (Cobequit)
Jacques KESSY, his wife, 3 boys, 1 girl.
Jacques MOUTON, his wife, 2 boys, 2 girls.
Michel POIRIER, his wife, 1 girl.

LA POINTE DE BEAUSÉJOUR

Francois LEBLANC, his wife, 4 boys, 3 girls. Joseph PROVENCAL, his brother, his sister.
Charles PROVENCAL widower, 1 girl. (Mines)
Pierre THEBEAU.
Charles LEVRON.
Francois LAPIERRE, his wife, 5 girls.
Ignace VREZ his wife, 1 boy.
Joseph KESSY, his wife 4 boys, 2 girls.
Michel LAPIERRE, his wife, 6 boys 3 girls.
Francois LABAUVE, his wife, 1 boy 1 girl.
Charles HEON, his wife, 3 boys, 4 girls.
Pierre ARSENAU, his wife, 2 girls, 1 girl. (de la bute)
Jean MOUTON, 2 boys, 2 girls.
Claude TENDON, his wife, 2 boys, 1 girl.
La CANADIENNE, widow, 3 girls, 1 boy.
Claude KESSY, his wife, 1 girl. (de la Bute)
Marie GIASSON, widow.
Pierre DOUAIRON, his wife, 2 girls. (Menoudy)
Claude BOURGEOIS. (des Planches)
Joseph GIROUARD. (Port Royal)
Jean HEBERT and his wife. (Mines)

VESKAK

Pierre HEBERT, his wife 4 boys, 5 girls. (Riviere des Mines) Le Vieu [Old] Claude GAUDET, his wife, 4 boys, 5 girls. (de la Bute)
Charles GOUDET, his wife, 3 boys, 3 girls. (de la Bute)
Pierre HEBERT, dit la Prade, and his wife. (Riviere des Mines)
Jean BLANCHARD. (Port Royal)
Pierre CORMIER and his wife. (Veskak)
Etienne MIGNEAU and his wife. (Mesagouche)

LA PRÉ DES BOURG

Jacques HEBERT, his wife, 2 girls. Pierre ARSENAU and 2 sisters.
Jean BABIN, his wife, 1 boy. (Riviere des Mines)
Marie BERNARD, widow, 3 boys, 1 girl.
Jacques BOURGEOIS, his wife, 3 boys, 2 girls.
Jean-Bte. [Baptiste] BOURGEOIS, his wife, 3 boys, 3 girls.
Pierre CORMIER, his wife, 1 girl.
Francois CORMIER, his wife, 1 boy, 1 girl.

DES RICHARD

Jean-Bte. [Baptiste] CORMIER, his wife, 3 boys, 4 girls. Antoine LANDRY, his wife, 3 boys, 2 girls. (Veskak)
Joseph RICHARD, his wife, 4 boys, 2 girls. (Nanpan)

TINTAMARRE

Pierre POITIER, his wife, 3 boys, 2 girls. Michel BERNARD, his wife, 4 boys, 3 girls.
Jean BERNARD and his wife.
Francois HEBERT, his wife, 4 boys, 1 girl.
Paul ARSENAU, his wife, 3 boys, 6 girls. (Riviere des Mines)
Pierre RICHARD, his wife, 3 boys, 2 girls. (Nanpan)
Claude BABIN, his wife, 2 boys, 1 girl. (Veskak)
Anselme BOUDROT, his wife, 4 boys, 1 girl.
Claude GAUDET, his wife, 3 boys, 3 girls. (de la Bute)
Charles POIRIER and 2 brothers.
Pierre DERAYE, his wife, 1 boy, 3 girls. (Mesagouche)
Joseph ARSENAU.
Joseph HEBERT, his wife, 3 boys, 4 girls.
Claude HEBERT, his wife, 1 boy, 1 girl.
Pierre SIRE, his wife, 1 boy, 2 girls.
Joseph DOUARON, his wife, 4 girls. (Menoudy)
Jean DOUARON, his wife, 1 boy, 4 girls. (Menoudy)
Philipe LAMBERT.
Michel LAMBERT (widower?), 2 boys, 1 girl.
Joseph GARSO, his wife 2 boys, 5 girls.
Jean HEBERT and his wife. (des Hebert)

MEMRAMKOUK [Memramcook]

Pierre AROSTEGIN, his wife, 4 boys, 2 girls. The widow ROBICHEAU.
Pierre BOUDROT, his wife, 2 girls.
Jean-Bpte. [Baptiste] BOUDROT, his wife, 2 boys, 4 girls. (Cobequit)
Alexandre BOURG, his wife, 5 boys, 3 girls.
Jean GIROUARD and his wife.
Joseph LEBLANC his wife, 1 girl.
Rene BLANCHARD.
Louis LEVRON.
Justinien DUPUIS
Joseph LEBLANC. (Port Royal)
Bazile GIROUARD.
Charles MAILLET.
Marie POIRIER, unmarried woman.
Joseph LANDRY.
Charles HEBERT.
Francois HEBERT.

CHIPOUDY

Michel GIROUARD, widower, 2 boys, 5 girls.

PETKOUDIAK

Francois LEVRON.

© Lucie LeBlanc Consentino
Acadian & French Canadian Ancestral Home
1998 - Present

October 16, 1755 - Acadian Deportation Has Begun

noreply@blogger.com (Lucie LeBlanc Consentino) — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 11:30:00 +0000

Our Ancestors would not celebrate another Christmas in their homeland of Acadie.

October 16, 1755
The Pennsylvania Gazette BOSTON, October 6.

By letters from the Camp before Fort Cumberland, in Nova Scotia, of the 8th ult. we have Advice, That on the 27th of August, Major Fry, with several Officers and 200 Men, embark on board the Sloop York, Capt. Cobb, and the Schooner Warren, Captain Adams; and the same Evening, landed at Chipoudie, a Village about 8 Leagues up the River, having Instructions to bring off all the Inhabitants and set Fire to the Houses.--- That upon their first landing they marched with an advance and two flank Guards to the Village, but found all the Inhabitants were fled except 25 Women and Children, who were taken Prisoners. The next Morning they set Fire to the Buildings and burnt down 18 Houses and Barns, with all the Hay, Grain, &c. therein.--- After this they proceeded to the Mass house, which, with what was therein, was burnt to Ashes; --- then putting the Prisoners on board one of the Transports which lay ready for that Purpose, they embark again, and the next Morning two of the Officers with 62 Men, were ordered to proceed to Pitcoudiack; and having landed within Sight of the ArmVessels, they found the Houses entirely evacuated; and by the first of September, they laid the Buildings in Ashes, for fifteen Miles in Length on the northerly Side of the River; and about 6 on the other Side; and when they came in Sight of a Mass House, they discoverFoot Tracks lately made, and soon after perceived a Smoak; the Mass House being cloase to a thick Wood, they posted proper Guards, and as they were preparing to fire the House, a Signal Gun was fired by the Enemy;and before the Guards, and the few Men with them, could repair to the main Body, they found themselves almost surrounded by them; upon which they were obliged to rush thro' them as well as they could, firing their pieces, and receiving their Fire; and while thus retreating, the Indians gained Ground, shot lieut. March, and took and wounded some others. But a Serjeant with 6 Men coming from a Cops of Wood, stop their Pursuit, so that the rest of our Men gainthe Dyke and secured their Retreat. --- At this Time it was impossible for Major Fry to come to their Assistance, on Account of the Rapidity of the River, being driven by the Current 3 Quarters of a Mile below the intended Landing Place; but landing thee rest of his Men as soon as he possibly could, drew up the whole Body, and made a Stand; upon which the Enemy likewise drew up in a Body, besides the Dykes lined with Indians, and parties scouting in the Woods, supposed to be upwards of 300, but they were not inclined to engage our Forces in an open Manner, th'with such a Number they might have done almost as they pleased. --- At high Water the two armVessels got in as near the Shore as they safely could, and covering each of the Flanks, sent their Boats ashore, and took or Men and carried them on board; the Vessels during the Embarkation, fired their Cannon and kept the Rebels off.--- Several of the Enemy were killed, but how many is uncertain. --- 253 Houses and Barns, besides the Mass House have been burnt.

©Lucie LeBlanc Consentino

Acadian & French-Canadian Ancestral Home

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The Proclamation of Acadian Deportation - 1755

noreply@blogger.com (Lucie LeBlanc Consentino) — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 09:30:00 +0000

PROCLAMATION

" To the inhabitants of the district of Grand Pré, Minas, River Canard and places adjacent, as well ancients as young men and lads.

Whereas His Excellency the Governor has instructed us of his late resolution respecting the matter propsed to the inhabitants, and has ordered us to communicate the same in person, His Excellency being desirous that each of the should be satisfied of His Majesty's intentions, which he has also ordered us to communicate to you, as these presents, all of the inhabitants as well as of the above-named districts as of all the other districts, both old and young men, as well as the lads of ten years of age, to attend the church at Grand Pre, on Friday, the 5th. instant, at three in the afternoon, that we may impart to them what we are ordered to communicate to them, declaring that no excuse will be admitted on any pretense whatsoever, on pain of forfeiting goods and chattles, in default of real estate."

Given at Grand-Pre, 2nd September, 1755 John Winslow

With less than twenty-four hours notice the Acadians appeared at Grand Pré from all the villages of Minas. Four hundred and eighteen men entered the church to hear His Majesty's final resolution to the Acadians:

"Gentlemen, - I have received from his Excellency, Governor Lawrence, the King's Commission which I have in my hand, and by whose orders you are conveyed together, to Manifest to you His Majesty's final resolution to the French inhabitants of this his Province of Nova Scotia, who for almost half a century have had more Indulgence Granted them than any of his Subjects in any part of his Dominions. Whatuse you have made of them you yourself Best Know. The Part of Duty I am now upon is what though Necessary is Very Disagreeable to my natural make and temper, as I Know it Must be Grievous to you who are of the Same Species. But it is not my business to annimadvert, but to obey Such orders as I receive, and therefore without Hesitation Shall Deliver you his Majesty's orders and Instructions, Vist:-

"That your Land & Tennements, Cattle of all Kinds and Livestocks of all Sorts are forfeited to the Crown with all other your effects Savings your money and Household Goods, and you yourselves to be removed from this Province.

"Thus it is Preremtorily his Majesty's orders That the whole French Inhabitants of these Districts be removed, and I am Through his Majesty's Goodness Directed to allow you Liberty to Carry of your money and Household Goods as Many as you Can without Discommoding the Vessels you Go in. I shall do Every thing in my Power that all those Goods be Secured to you and that you are not Molested in Carrying of them off, and also that whole Families Shall go in the Same Vessel, and make this remove, which I am Sensable must give you a great Deal of Trouble, as Easy as his Majesty's Sevice will admit, and hope that in what Ever part of the world you may Fall you may be Faithful Subjects, a reasonable & happy People.

"I Must also Inform you That it is His Majesty's Pleasure that you remain in Security under the Inspection & Direction of the Troops that I have the Honr. to Command."

They were then declared to be prisoners of the King. This was just the beginning of great suffering for the Acadians. The British would pursue and deport any and all Acadians they could find for the next 11 years. This was not a one-time happening. Many of our ancestors died on the ships at sea and suffered great harships in the lands to which they were exiled.

What Preceded the Deportation?

For forty years, that is, from 1700 to 1740 the Acadians pretty much ignored changes taking place in North America while the tensions were increasing between the French and the English as they battled for control of the continent. Even after the British conquest of Nova Scotia in 1710, the Acadians who had managed to remain neutral, pretty much went on with life as usual and with narry an interruption from the life they knew.
France never really lent a great deal of help nor support to the Acadians. Again in 1713, when the war between the English and the French officially ended, one more time, France sacrificed Acadia and its population when the Treaty of Utrecht was signed. Control of Acadia and Newfoundland was given to the English while France retained control of only Ile-Royale/Cape Breton Island and Ile Saint-Jean/Prince Edward Island. Nova Scotia was the new name given this land formerly known as Acadia and Port-Royal would become Annapolis Royal, renamed so in honor of Queen Anne of England.

Between 1719 through 1730, the Acadians had taken oaths of loyalty to the British throne which had given them a verbal assurance of neutrality and included the promise not to have to bear arms against the French - their countrymen - and the Micmaw. Though likely supported and intervened by the French priests, the neutrality the Acadians adhered to was likely of their own doing. The British referred to the Acadians as the "Neutral French" or as "the Neutrals" and they were spoken of or referred to in this manner even in the American colonies. In 1755,this position of total neutrality in the face of great British adversaries who disliked them, and who would do anything to win the English view in this matter, would lead to the demise of the Acadians.

Within the next few years there was a significant change in the position of the Acadians. Because of their neutrality, neither the English nor the French now trusted the Acadians. The time came when the Acadians were faced with having to choose one side or the other.

During the 18th century, England legally excluded Roman Catholics from public office. The religion of the King of England was the religion that all English must follow and this religion was Anglican. According to Naomi Griffiths in The Contexts of Acadian History 1688-1784:

. . . the absorption of Nova Scotia with its Acadian population into the British empire posed, at first sight, no great or novel problems. London had already coped with people living at the end of long lines of communications and inclined to riot for their vision of political liberty, the other British North American colonies. However, the particular combination of the specific language and religious beliefs of the Acadians with the political geography of the colony was about to demand flexibility of mind and vision from its new administrators, for the Acadians were on the British imperial territory and linked to another power in that area by language and religion.

The British population grew between 1749 through 1755. This created quite a bit of tension for the Acadians. In fact, tensions ran so high on both sides that the English built one fort after another so as to counteract the French presence in Nova Scotia. It was an outward attempt to flex their muscles as the dominant and only landlord of this land! The English worked hard to outdo the French.

Because of its location, the English wanted Nova Scotia to be theirs. From here, the Acadians could easily connect with their French counterparts in Québec and the rich fishing banks were easily accessible. The Governor of Massachusetts, William Shirley, knew that this area was the only direct link to Québec by sea and it would also be the link to take the English ships from Massachusetts to the Louisbourg Fortress on Ile Royale/Cape Breton Island.

© Lucie LeBlanc Consentino
Acadian & French Canadian Ancestral Home
1998 - Present

Acadians Die At Sea on the Duke William

noreply@blogger.com (Lucie LeBlanc Consentino) — Thu, 06 Sep 2012 16:46:00 +0000

British Ships in the Stormy Sea

The American Philosophical Society, founded in 1743 in Philadelphia by Benjamin Franklin, is the oldest scholarly society in the United States. Among the Society’s holdings is Franklin’s newspaper, The Pennsylvania Gazette, which he founded in 1728. Published until 1800, the Gazette is regarded as The New York Times of the 18th century. During a recent visit to the Society, we had the opportunity to search for references to the Acadians in the Gazette. In an issue dated April 19, 1759, we found the following letter from "A.B." as an introduction to the extract he sent to the Gazette by William Nicholls, captain of the Duke William. It is his account the sinking of the Duke William, which at the time of its loss was carrying all of the Acadians being deported from Ile St-Jean/Prince Edward Island to France in 1758. I believe its inclusion in the Gazette may be its earliest publication in North America.

Note: A.B. was Anthony Benezet. Mr. Benezet was a French Huguenot who became a Quaker once settled in Philadelphia. Anthony Benezet was instrumental in helping the exiled Acadians from the moment of their arrival. Deploring what had happened to them and perhaps aligning himself with them since he too originated from France, he found them housing and clothing. He petitioned the Council for funds to take care of them. I have visited Pine Street where the "Acadian Huts" as they were called once stood.

April 19, 1759

To the Printers of the PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE
GENTLEMEN:
You will very much oblige some of your Reader, in giving a place in your Gazette to the inclosed Letter, wrote by the Master of the Duke William Transport, which it is hoped may have a Tendency to lessen, if not remove, the strong prejudices which prevail in the Minds of many with respect to those distressed People, known amongst us under the Name of French Neutrals; as they are in a great Measure the same Sort of People with those mentioned in this Letter; many of the Inhabitants of the Island of St. John having retired from Nova Scotia, especially at the breaking up of their Settlement, to that Island. And by Letters which our Neutrals lately received from Liverpool, they have an Account, that several of their Children and Relations perished on board the Duke William. It must be acknowledged, that the imprudent and self willed disposition which those unhappy People have repeatedly shewn amongst us, has justly rendered them obnoxious to those of this Province: Nevertheless, if, in a Spirit of Christian Charity, we will take the Pains to look into their Case, and fully consider it; especially the easy and plentiful Situation they formerly lived in, and the Straits and Difficulties to which they are now reduced, whereof the frequent Want of Health, so as often to disqualify them from Labour, is not the least; such will certainly be led to sympathise with them in their Distress; especially when it is considered, that what appears to us in them Imprudence and Self will, with respect to binding out their Children, arrises chiefly from a Want of Knowledge of Mankind, the Prejudices of Education, and their inviolable Attachment to their religious Persuasion; out of which they are taught to believe that there is not Salvation. In other Respects they are, especially the Old and Middle aged, generally a virtuous People; and that which appears Obstinacy in them, arises rather from a Stedfastness of Heart, which no worldly consideration will induce to forsake what they apprehend to be Truth; a Principle, which, tho' it requires Pity when, by the Force of Education, or Prejudice, it is fixed on the wrong Object, yet as it is noble in itself, so it strongly calls for Forbearance and Charity from every considerate Mind; And indeed, the Patience and Resignation to the Dispensations of Providence, which has appeared, in the Close of Life, in most all the grown Persons, who have died amongst us, is a plain Indication of their Fortitude of Mind, and of that Divine Support which the Almighty has favoured them with, in that most trying Hour. I remain, A. B.

Extract of a Letter from Capt. William Nicholls, of the Duke William Transport, Pensanze, (a Market Town of Cornwall, sit 8 Miles East of the Land's end, and 65 m. S.W. of Launceston) Dec. 16.

UNDER the greatest Affliction, I acquaint you. I have been obliged to leave the Duke William, with 300 French inhabitants on board, from the Island of St. John's, North America, to sink about 35 Leagues from the Land's end, Wednesday the 13th inst. about 4 o'clock in the afternoon, and believe she could not keep above water till eight at night. We sailed from St. John's on the 5th of November, and on the 29th out ship sprung a leak, and in a short time had five feet of water in the hold, but having two spare pumps on board, and a great many hands to bail, in about 24 hours gained on her, and kept her in this situation about eight days. On the 9th, being more moderate, hoisted out the boats, and soddered the ship, by which means the leak stopped, so that we could keep her with one pump continually going, having hove everything off the decks, and out of the hold, we possibly could, to ease her, but on Monday the 11th, the leak broke out again, and notwithstanding the four pumps, and such a number of hands bailing from every hatchway, they could not keep her, so that by Wednesday morning about five o'clock her hold was full of water, and left off pumping, and hoisted out the boats with great difficulty, that in case any ships came in sight, we might save our lives: At nine in the morning we saw two ships steering towards us, which gave us great hoopes; we hoisted the signal of distress, and fired a great many guns, but they hoisted their ensigns, and kept away from us; we then cut away our mainmast, to shew them ore perfectly our distress, but they took no notice of us, going clear away. At eleven a Snow passed by, viewing our unhappy situation, and hearing our guns as plain as we could see their men on the decks, but he behaved as the other had done before, by running away from us. The French then gave over all hopes, and said, God had foresaken them, and they were resigned to death. As in the term of the Voyage under our misfortunes, they had behaved with the greatest intrepidity, so in their last moments they behaved with the greatest fortitude; for seein our attempts were frustrated, they came and embraced me saying, they were truly sensible that I, with all mh people, had done all in our power to save the ship, and their lives, but as I could be of no farther service to the, begged I would save my own life and my men. Taking their priest with me, whom I put into the boat before I went myself over the stern, there being so much sea the boats could not lie along side her, after we were in, the boats laid off the s hip about half an hour, when their cries, and waving us to be gone, almost broke our hearts. We then left them about four o'clock in the afternoon, being ourselves in a most unhappy situation, being persons in number, upwards of thirty leagues from the Land's End by our reckoning, and our whole provisions amounting to about either or nine pounds of bread, our provisions in the gun room being all expended, and the hold full of water, our mainmast cut away, could get nothing from thence. In this melancholy situation it pleased God to conduct us safe to this place.

On Tuesday captain Sugget, in the Violet, with 500 French on board, hoisted a signal of distress, his fore yard was gone in the sling, and his mizen mast cut away; I spoke to him the night before, he told me he could not keep her with his pumps, so I'm afraid he suffered likewise.

All I have to comfort myself under this misfortune is being sensible I did all in my power to save the s hip and lives, which the poor unhappy sufferers were truly sensible of, and which made themm so willing to let us go; if they had not, so great a superiority as 300 to 34, might easily have hindered us.

The Ruby Lost at Sea

[A third transport deporting the Acadians from Ile St-Jean also went down with 200 Acadians lost.]

March 29, 1759
The Pennsylvania Gazette PHILADELPHIA, March 29.
The same Day Capt. Wright arrived here from Fyal, and brought Advice, that the Ruby Transport, William Kelly, Master, bound to St. Maloes, with 310 of the Inhabitants of the Island of St. John [Ile St-Jean] on board, sprung a Leak in a Gale of Wind, and being in great Distress, the Captain made the best of his Way for the Western Islands, and thought to have got to Fyal; but the Wind shifting, they were obliged to stand for the Island of Pico, where the Ship struck on the Rocks, and soon went to Pieces, when 200 of the French perished. They had no Advice at Fyal of Commodore Keppel putting into Madeira, nor of his receiving any Damage at Sea.

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Key Figures In The Fall of Acadia - Part IV

noreply@blogger.com (Lucie LeBlanc Consentino) — Sat, 11 Feb 2012 22:58:00 +0000

WINSLOW, JOHN,

army officer and office-holder; b. 10 May 1703 at Marshfield, Massachusetts, son of Isaac Winslow and Sarah Wensley; m. in 1725 Mary Little, and they had two sons; m. secondly Bethiah Johnson, née Barker; d. 17 April 1774 at Hingham, Massachusetts.
John Winslow was a member of one of the most prominent families of New England; his great-grandfather and grandfather had both been governors of the Plymouth Bay colony. After holding a few minor positions in Plymouth, he was commissioned captain of a provincial company in the abortive Cuban expedition organized in 1740. Apparently through the influence of Governor William Shirley of Massachusetts, Winslow transferred soon afterwards to the British army and served as a captain in Richard Philipps’ regiment (40th Foot) at Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, and St John’s, Newfoundland. In 1751 he exchanged with a half-pay captain of Shirley’s former regiment and returned to Massachusetts, where he looked after his property and represented Marshfield in the General Court of 175253. In 1754 he was promoted major-general of militia by Shirley and chosen to command a force of 800 men which was sent to the Kennebec River (Maine) to consolidate British positions in the area and prevent French encroachments. There Winslow planned and built forts Western (Augusta, Maine) and Halifax (Winslow, Maine). The expedition added greatly to his popularity, and he was thus a natural choice as the lieutenant-colonel of a provincial regiment raised by Shirley in 1755 to aid Lieutenant Governor Charles Lawrence of Nova Scotia in his attempts to sweep French influence from the province.
Winslow played a conspicuous role at the capture of Fort Beauséjour (near Sackville, N.B.) in June 1755 and in the defeat of French ambitions in the Chignecto region during the summer; his journals provide an important eye-witness account. Throughout the expedition differences of temperament had caused him to clash with the commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Robert MONCKTON, a British regular officer; problems of pay and provisioning added to the tension. Monckton appears to have used little tact in dealing with his touchy second in command, at one point ordering that Winslow’s regimental colours be forcibly seized. A furious Winslow confided to his journal that “This Transaction Causd Great uneassiness to both officers & Soldiers & raisd my Temper some.” He was probably equally to blame for the friction, however, since he resented not having been given command of the expedition.
After the reduction of the French forts in the Chignecto region, Winslow was ordered to proceed to Grand Pré, the largest Acadian community in the Minas area, and there carry out the removal of the population of that region. Although often believed solely responsible for carrying out the deportation, Winslow was in charge of only one segment of a much larger operation. On 5 Sept. 1755 he informed the assembled Acadian men of the Grand Pré region that they, their families, and their portable goods were to be removed from the province. Winslow termed the business “Very Disagreable to my natural make & Temper,” but he carried out his orders with care, military precision, and as much compassion as circumstances allowed. The numerous delays in procuring transports caused the deportation to take far longer than had been anticipated, but by November he had shipped some 1, 510 Acadians to Pennsylvania, Maryland, and other British colonies to the south. Plans had been previously made to use Winslow as an agent for the settlement of the now vacant farm lands, but they were not carried out.
Winslow instead returned to Massachusetts in November, and the following year reached the high point of his military career when he was appointed by Shirley to command the provincial troops in the expedition against Fort Saint-Frédéric (near Crown Point, N.Y.). However, he fought bitterly with Lord Loudoun, the commander-in-chief, over Loudoun’s proposed integration of the provincial troops with the regulars. The provincial soldiers had enlisted to serve only under their own officers, while their officers feared that if the integration came about they would lose their rank, which they held only by colonial commission. The issue nearly developed into a mutiny of the provincial troops and a revolt of their officers, but Winslow eventually agreed to the integration under threats from Loudoun and after pleadings from Shirley. Little of military importance, however, was achieved in the campaign.
This expedition appears to have marked the end of Winslow’s military career. He returned to Massachusetts in 1757 and represented Marshfield in the General Court from 1757 to 1758 and from 1761 to 1765. In 1762 he served as a member of the St Croix River boundary commission, and about 1766 moved to Hingham, where he lived the rest of his life.
BARRY M. MOODY
Winslow’s journals have been published: “Journal of Colonel John Window of the provincial troops, while engaged in removing the Acadian French inhabitants from Grand Pre . . .” and “Journal of Colonel John Window of the provincial troops, while engaged in the siege of Fort Beausejour, in the summer and autumn of 1755 . . . ,” N.S. Hist. Soc., Coll., III (1883), 71–196, and IV (1885), 113–246.

Key Figures In The Fall of Acadia - Part III

noreply@blogger.com (Lucie LeBlanc Consentino) — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:15:00 +0000

LAWRENCE, CHARLES,

military officer, governor of Nova Scotia; b. c. 1709 in England, son of Herbert Lawrence; d. Halifax, Nova Scotia, 19 Oct. 1760.

Charles Lawrence’s life before his arrival in Nova Scotia in July 1749 is obscure, and existing accounts of it are inaccurate. It seems that he was commissioned in the 11th Regiment of Foot in 1727, was in the West Indies from 1733 to 1737, and then served in the War Office. He was promoted lieutenant in 1741 and captain in 1742, and fought with the 54th regiment in 1745 at Fontenoy (Belgium) where he was wounded. He was gazetted major with the 45th regiment (Warburton’s), and joined it at Louisbourg, Île Royale (Cape Breton Island), in 1747. His family was related to the Montagus, which partly explains why he enjoyed the patronage of George Montagu Dunk, 2nd Earl of Halifax, president of the Board of Trade. This connection was his only source of influence, however, and he was without private means. He was popular in the army and was known to be strong, energetic, and direct in his methods.

Lawrence became a company commander in the 40th regiment in Nova Scotia in December 1749. The following April Governor Edward Cornwallis* sent him with a small force to establish British authority in the isthmus of Chignecto. On the north bank of the Missaguash River Lawrence found French forces under Louis de LA CORNE, who had orders to prevent British penetration beyond that point and who had had the village of Beaubassin, near the south bank of the river, burned. Rather than fight the French, with whom the British were not at war, or admit to any territorial limitation, Lawrence withdrew.

Authorities in London were divided on the question of how far their troops in Nova Scotia should proceed in peace time in establishing British claims to the whole of Acadia. The Duke of Bedford, secretary of state for the Southern Department, had refused to reinforce Cornwallis so that he could implement these claims. But the Duke of Newcastle, prompted by Lord Halifax, intervened and despite royal opposition ensured that the 47th regiment was sent to Cornwallis in June 1750. Lawrence was promoted lieutenant-colonel about this time, and in August he left for the Missaguash River with a stronger force and routed a group of Indians led by the Abbé Jean-Louis Le Loutre*. Captain John ROUS, the naval commander supporting the landing of troops in this engagement, was full of praise for Lawrence’s coolness and leadership under fire. Cornwallis, in dispatches to London, commended his tactics. In the fall of 1750 Lawrence built Fort Lawrence on the south bank of the river. He remained there through the following year, and returned to Halifax in 1752, about the time that Peregrine Thomas HOPSON succeeded Cornwallis as governor.

In the summer of 1753 Governor Hopson chose Lawrence to direct the settlement of the European Protestants who had waited vainly since their arrival in Halifax in 1751 and 1752 for the land promised them. Hopson decided to settle them on the coast south of Halifax at Mirligueche, renamed Lunenburg. There the French would not be able to stir up trouble for them, although Indian raids were to be expected. Lawrence accompanied the settlers to Lunenburg in June and supervised the establishment of the colony.

The settlers found cleared land, but most of the work remained to be done. Soured by months or years of waiting in squalid huts in Halifax, they were impatient to stake their claims and to start cultivation. Lawrence had seen the effects of Indian raids in different parts of the province and had to persuade the settlers to build defences before anything else. It was human to ignore a danger which few of them had experienced and it required artifice on Lawrence’s part to make them do communal work. “Decent people,” he noted, had to be cajoled into sleeping in communal shelters for protection and sharing them with those who were “dirty [and] full of Vermin.” Building supplies were pilfered and fights over favoured sites were frequent. But little by little this “inconceivably turbulent” crew was brought to see that they must either “proceed in another manner, or have [their] throats cut.” By a mixture of bribery, bullying, and verbal persuasion, Lawrence gained their affection – “not only their hats but their hearts,” as he described it – and retained it, to his political advantage, after his return to Halifax in August 1753. By then Hopson was preparing to return to England and had summoned Lawrence back as president of the council.

In 1754 Governor William Shirley of Massachusetts approached Lawrence with a plan to drive the French troops out of their Chignecto forts. Both men were sure of Lord Halifax’s support and took advantage of an ill-advised letter from Thomas Robinson, the new secretary of state, ordering them to cooperate to throw the French out of Acadia. Robinson later repudiated the letter, but Shirley used it as authority to plan an operation. Late in the fall of 1754 he and Lawrence raised two battalions in Massachusetts, giving the command to Lieutenant-Colonel Robert Monckton*, assisted by the New Englander John Winslow*. This force was to attack Fort Beauséjour (near Sackville, N.B.), which the French had built on the north shore of the Missaguash River, opposite Fort Lawrence. Without authority, Lawrence paid for the force with the annual parliamentary grant for Nova Scotia. Early in 1755 General Edward Braddock, commander-in-chief in North America, sailed for America with flexible orders for the removal of French “encroachments” given him by the Duke of Cumberland, commander-in-chief of the army. Braddock was permitted to undertake several operations against the French simultaneously if he had sufficient troops. He authorized Monckton’s expedition and it sailed from Boston on 19 May 1755. Fort Beauséjour fell to Monckton on 16 June.

The capture of Beauséjour was the only British success that year, but Lawrence had no orders for exploiting it. Braddock was killed near Fort Duquesne (Pittsburgh, Pa.) early in July [see Daniel-Hyacinthe-Marie Liénard de Beaujeu], while Shirley, his second in command, was proceeding towards Fort Oswego (Chouaguen) for operations against the French. In June, off Louisbourg, Vice-Admiral Boscawen let most of the French fleet escape with reinforcements for Louisbourg, Quebec, and Montreal. In an atmosphere of doubt about his superiors’ activities and intentions and of apprehension about the enemy’s, the defence of what he had gained became Lawrence’s main concern.

As early as 1 May the Nova Scotia Council had considered how to deal with the Acadians north of the Missaguash once Beauséjour had fallen. Those who had deserted to the French under the blandishments of Le Loutre could be punished for breaking their limited oath of allegiance to George II [see Richard PHILIPPS] if they had taken up arms or assisted the French. The other Acadians in this area could be required to depart to whatever destination the defeated garrison chose. The decision to expel all these Acadians was formally taken by the council on 25 June. The council planned to put settlers from New England on the vacated Acadian lands of the Chignecto isthmus as a barrier between the French in Île Royale and Île Saint-Jean (Prince Edward Island) and the Acadians remaining on the Nova Scotia peninsula. A military force in Chignecto would raid northwards and eventually enable the rest of Acadia beyond the Missaguash (present-day New Brunswick) to be settled. This was also Lord Halifax’s conception.

John Winslow was the linchpin of the plan to obtain New England settlers. But owing to Lawrence’s uncertainty about how to exploit his victory, Winslow was not permitted enough time to survey the land around Chignecto after the fall of Beauséjour. Inactivity caused the discipline of Winslow’s troops to collapse and he quarrelled with Monckton, who had been ordered to recruit New Englanders for the regular battalions. Shirley also raided their ranks for his own use on the American continent. Winslow became embittered and lost interest in settlement. Short of troops and under the impression that the French were going to counter-attack, Lawrence turned his attention to securing his communications with Chignecto and was thus forced to deal with the issue of the loyalty of the Acadians of the peninsula. The scene was set for the tragedy.

Lawrence learned from the correspondence of previous governors, such as Richard Philipps and Peregrine Thomas Hopson, that although he should not drive the Acadians into the arms of the French, he should not grant them tenure unless they took an oath of allegiance which included the promise to bear arms for the English king. There was to be no compromise with the principle that before receiving the rights of subjects, they must accept their duties, and that Acadians who had left the country could not return without taking the oath. Hopson had been told to demand the oath when the circumstances of the province allowed. It had been an assumption of Lord Halifax’s policy since 1749 that that moment would arrive when the French military presence had been removed from Nova Scotia. A change in the attitude of Acadian leaders after the French surrender at Beauséjour seemed to bear out this assumption.

Early in July 1755 a group of 15 delegates from Minas (Grand Pré region) came before the council to present a petition concerning the confiscation of their boats and arms that spring by Alexander MURRAY at Fort Edward (Windsor). Lawrence took advantage of their presence to demand of them an unqualified oath of allegiance. The Acadians were reluctant to believe that the English would at last enforce the oath or protect them from Indian and French reprisals if they now took it. Consequently they refused the unqualified oath without a general consultation with the populace of Minas. Lawrence and his council insisted that each man decide on the oath himself, and when they still refused to do so they were imprisoned.

Exasperated by the Acadians’ intransigence the English became legalistic and felt compelled to pursue their course to the end. New Acadian delegates were summoned from Annapolis Royal and Minas to meet with Lawrence and the council, which included John Rous, John Collier, and Jonathan Belcher*. On 25 July the Annapolis delegates were told “they must now resolve either to take the Oath without any Reserve or else quit their lands, for that Affairs were now at such a Crisis in America that no delay could be admitted.” They and the Minas delegates refused the oath and on 28 July were “ordered into confinement.” The council, having resolved to expel all Acadians who rejected the oath, agreed that “it would be most proper to send them to be distributed amongst the Several Colonies on the Continent.” Admiral Boscawen and Vice-Admiral Savage Mostyn attended this meeting and assented to the council’s decision. Over the next few months most of the Acadian population of Nova Scotia was rounded up and transported to the American colonies, from Massachusetts to South Carolina.

The expulsion proved to have been as unnecessary on military grounds – with the subsequent capture of Louisbourg and Quebec – as it was later judged inhumane. Lawrence was not a cruel man, however, even if he lacked imagination. It is too simple to explain the decision as simply a matter of greed; legalism, deference to precedent, and over reliance on the collective responsibility of councils – marks of the age – provided an umbrella for it. The policies of the Board of Trade over the years, ambiguous in many respects, were specific in demanding the oath when the occasion arose. The unauthorized operation against Beauséjour provided the occasion. No military plan existed in London for the Nova Scotia operation, but after the expulsion Lawrence received no reprimand for acting without orders. His decision was made in that “motly state neither peace nor war” (Lord Holdernesse) which Nova Scotia had experienced since 1749. The chief elements in the affair were confusion, misunderstanding, and fear. Each step towards the tragedy created the facts which pointed to the next. At no time did those who had the power also have the information to decide aright. They planned in a vacuum. Indeed, the only note of irritation appearing in letters from London in the months after the expulsion was caused by the complaints of the American governors on whom the Acadians had been foisted with little or no notice. Lawrence had overlooked the administrative and social implications of what he had considered a military operation.

In July 1756 Lawrence became governor of Nova Scotia. He saw as his most important task the settlement of the Acadian lands. But by 1757 merchants who were opposed to his personal rule, such as Joshua Mauger* and Ephraim Cook, had convinced the Board of Trade that settlers would not come unless they had an elected assembly. They also tried to show that Lawrence had favoured his friends with contracts and offices and would not call an assembly for fear of exposure.

In October 1754 the Board of Trade had instructed Jonathan Belcher, on his arrival as chief justice, to inquire into the legality of enactments made without an assembly. He reported that the governor’s instructions did not make an assembly mandatory and pointed out that only one township would qualify for representation at that time. In fact, he added, an assembly would be a hindrance to the administration of the province. Both the attorney-general and solicitor-general of Great Britain, however, advised that without an assembly Lawrence’s acts as governor could be illegal. The board then instructed Lawrence to prepare a scheme for setting up an assembly, although it was aware that undue representation might be given to “dram-sellers” and contraband runners in Halifax, and that the Lunenburg settlers, who were not yet naturalized, could not be represented until 1757. The board also knew that an assembly might be a forum for the struggle which had broken out in Hopson’s time between the New England and British elements in the population. The correspondence about various schemes dragged on through 1755 and 1756.

The council finally hammered out a plan by which an assembly could be convened in April 1757. But Lawrence, who was stalling until he could get the Lunenburg votes, instigated a memorial, with only 11 signatures, demanding that the plan first be submitted to London. He then departed for Boston early in 1757 to meet Lord Loudoun [John Campbell], commander-in-chief of British forces in America, giving instructions that Monckton, president of the council in his absence, should issue writs for elections only if “he found the people pressing.” Monckton received a memorial but would not issue the writs. Angered, Belcher, Charles Morris, and two others in the council petitioned the Board of Trade in March. In May the board also received a petition from the grand jury of Halifax and was finally persuaded that the issue had shifted from recognizing the rights of Englishmen to cleansing the administration. The petition accused Lawrence of bias against merchants and failure to advertise contracts, of preventing the council from examining his accounts and allowing offices to accumulate in a few hands. These accusations were familiar enough to the board, but they indicated that Lawrence was losing support.

Lawrence might have prevented the alliance between members of the council and the Halifax merchants simply by issuing the writs after his return from Boston in May 1757. But he claimed that Loudoun did not approve of assemblies and that he could not attend to the matter himself that summer because he would be involved in preparations for an expedition against Louisbourg. He went off to Chignecto in the fall, on Loudoun’s orders, to strengthen its defences. He was determined not to submit to pressure, lest he lose control of his government. In February 1758 the board finally ordered Lawrence to convene an assembly. When he received this order in May, he told the council he would issue writs for the autumn. He intended to fill council vacancies with his supporters, and hoped that the Louisbourg campaign, in which he was about to take part, would prove victorious and thereby restore his popularity.

Lawrence, with the temporary rank of “brigadier in America,” commanded a brigade under General Jeffery Amherst* in the successful expedition against Louisbourg. He returned to Halifax in September to help prepare the British forces for operations against Quebec in 1759. Stores were scarce but he improvised. Thousands of pairs of shoes were made, arms repaired, and light infantry units formed and trained. Lawrence paid special attention to feeding the troops and thanks to fresh meat, milk, spruce beer, and “our climate in spite of the opinions of the C.O.s,” the sick recovered. When James WOLFE, the commander of the Quebec expedition, returned in the spring, that critical young man had nothing but praise for Lawrence and his subordinates. Lawrence had hoped to command a brigade at Quebec; in the end the commands went to Monckton, James Murray*, and George Townshend*, that of the latter through political influence. It was a “mortifying situation” to be left behind, but Lawrence threw off his disappointment and turned to the problems of settlement and politics in Nova Scotia, which were less glamorous, but in the long run more important, than commanding a brigade on the Plains of Abraham.

The first meeting of the new assembly had taken place on 2 Oct. 1758, with 20 assemblymen present, and its business was conducted with surprisingly little trouble. Lawrence’s support on the council grew in August 1759 with the appointment of Richard Bulkeley*, Thomas SAUL, and Joseph Gerrish*, to the seats left vacant by the absence of William Cotterell, Robert Grant, and Montagu WILMOT. In December the first Lunenburg representatives entered the assembly, and Lawrence received an address of praise from that body for his achievements in the province.

Lawrence’s aggressive policy for finding settlers had much to do with his success. He was supported by Charles Morris, the surveyor and council member, who was involved deeply in the settlement plans. Lawrence began the drive to settle the Acadian lands in October 1758 with a proclamation seeking proposals for settlement. In January 1759 a second proclamation informed would-be settlers of the actual terms they could expect. Each grant would combine cultivated land and wild woodland. One thousand acres was the maximum initial grant for each family, with further grants available when the terms of the first one had been complied with. The proclamations were directed mainly at New Englanders.

Settlers were reluctant to break new forest land while the marsh land of Chignecto and the cleared areas of the Annapolis valley were vacant. To resolve this difficulty, Lawrence preferred to combine old land with new in each grant and thus offered favourable conditions usually permitted only to those breaking in new lands. He had been instructed to submit proposals for settling the old lands to the Board of Trade, but he disregarded this directive and informed the board of his policies after the fact, as was his custom. The board was angry, but by the time it had explained that the good lands were intended as rewards for the army and navy, Morris had surveyed lots with representatives of “some hundreds of associated substantial families” from New England and had promised them advantageous conditions. The board could not cancel the arrangements and had to be satisfied with Lawrence’s assurances that new land taken by Monckton’s expedition up the Saint John River in the fall of 1758 and land on the Miramichi River would be kept for the military. Lawrence wrote privately to Lord Halifax, however, to point out that servicemen were bad settlers.

Their “drunken, dissolute and abandoned” habits, “particularly that most unhappy one,” idleness, made them quite unsuitable. Lord Halifax’s influence ensured that when the commissioners for Trade and Plantations received copies of the grants in 13 townships at the end of 1759 under conditions which they had earlier condemned, they wrote that it was a great satisfaction “to us . . . to express to you our approbation.” From the Board of Trade, which seldom had anything good to say about its governors, that was praise indeed.

Lawrence’s death on 19 Oct. 1760 took everyone by surprise. “I should have taken an annuity on his life as soon as anyone I knew,” wrote Amherst to General James Murray. It was a shock to his friends that this enormous, bluff, and competent man could have been struck down so quickly after catching a chill. His many friends grieved for him, though relief may have been uppermost in the minds of the New Englanders and publicans of Halifax. After his death the Board of Trade ordered an investigation of charges against him of “partiality, profusion and private understanding” in relation to provision contracts for the Nova Scotia settlements, and of maintaining his own vessels at the expense of the colony. It was also charged that he had assumed illegal powers in intervening on behalf of soldiers who were being tried for civil offences in the courts. The board declared that he had granted lands in larger amounts to single persons than was permitted, and that he had concealed the real cost of his land policy. It later complained that he had placed all trade with the Indians in the hands of a government agency. Jonathan Belcher investigated the charges against Lawrence and reported, in January 1762, that “upon the best examination in the severest charges” the accusations were unfounded.

The prosecution of the war against the French had been the first duty of the North American governors in these years. Shirley was the only one among them who had persuaded his assembly to act vigorously in this cause; the others were at one with Whitehall in considering that their assemblies were a nuisance. In this light, Lawrence’s policy concerning the assembly was justified. His land policy was in the best interests of the province, and Lord Halifax himself had advised the establishment of a government agency for Indian trade for the whole North American frontier region. It is true, however, that Lawrence favoured his friends with contracts and on occasion protected soldiers from the civil courts. Yet he did not grow rich as Governor George CLINTON of New York was reputed to have done. In fact, the charges against him might not have been pressed had Lord Halifax not left the Board of Trade in 1761 to be lord lieutenant of Ireland.

Referring to the monument raised to Lawrence’s memory in St Paul’s Church, Halifax, to indicate the late governor’s popularity, Belcher wrote, “In a grateful sense of his affection and services the last tribute that could be paid to his memory was unanimously voted by the General Assembly at their first meeting after the late Governor’s universally lamented decease.” These sympathetic remarks by a contemporary with whom Lawrence had sometimes been at odds and the considerations mentioned above should be placed in the scales against the views of historians who condemn him for his inhumanity to the Acadians.

© Lucie LeBlanc Consentino
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Key Figures in the Fall of Acadia - Part II

noreply@blogger.com (Lucie LeBlanc Consentino) — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 14:33:00 +0000

LE GUERNE, FRANÇOIS

(sometimes written Guerne or De Guerne), Spiritan, priest, and missionary; b. 5 Jan. 1725 at Kergrist-Moëlou (dept of Côtes-du-Nord), France, son of Yves Le Guerne; d. 6 Dec. 1789 at Saint-François-de-Sales, Île d’Orléans, Quebec.

On 1 July 1749, after a few years at the Séminaire du Saint-Esprit in Paris, François Le Guerne entered the Séminaire des Missions Étrangères, where Abbé de L’Isle-Dieu, the bishop of Quebec’s vicar general in Paris, paid his board. Early in the summer of 1750 he left for Quebec, sailing on the frigate Diane from Rochefort; at that time he was only a tonsured cleric. He spent more than a year in Quebec, completed his theological studies, and was then ordained priest by Bishop Pontbriand [Dubreil*] on 18 Sept. 1751.

Le Guerne went to Acadia, probably in 1752, to minister to the settlers around Fort Beauséjour (near Sackville, N. B.). At first he served some 80 families at Tintemarre (Tantramar), but after the departure of Abbé Le Guet (Du Guay) early in 1754 he had at least 200 families scattered over nearly 40 leagues along the Shepody, Petitcodiac, and Memramcook rivers. Obliged to travel from one post to another for two months of every year, he asked the bishop of Quebec for another missionary to assist him with his heavy burden. He worked in cooperation with Jean-Louis LE Loutre, who ministered to the Indians in the region.

In June 1755 Fort Beauséjour was captured by British troops under Robert MONCKTON. Le Guerne refused to compel the Acadians to resist the British because Louis DU Pont Duchambon, the commandant of the fort, and Abbé Le Loutre “had said on leaving that it was in the habitants’ interest to be quite submissive.” So strongly were the Acadians attached to their lands that Le Guerne doubted many would heed a counsel of disobedience, and he was reluctant to be held responsible for the misfortunes of those who did. On seeing the sad fate that befell them anyway – those who presented themselves at the fort were imprisoned with a view to deportation – Le Guerne changed his mind; accompanied by a large number of his parishioners he took to the woods north of the Shepody, Petitcodiac, and Memramcook rivers. With Charles DESCHAMPS de Boishébert he attempted to facilitate the escape of families still at liberty and to organize the resistance of those Acadians who wished to continue harassing the enemy. He had repeatedly to go into hiding because Monckton sought to have him arrested. Nearly 200 families shared his lot, living in extreme poverty, without flour, salt pork, cooking fat, molasses, or adequate rations of meat. By March 1756 Le Guerne had managed to get some 500 Acadians across to Île Saint-Jean (Prince Edward Island) [see Gabriel Rousseau de Villejouin]. Many of his former flock, however, were too attached to their lands and paid no heed to his appeals, hoping that Acadia would again become French.

In order to escape the British Le Guerne left Acadia for good in August 1757. On his arrival in Quebec he immediately wrote to Governor Vaudreuil [RIGAUD] to request aid for the Acadians; however the situation was critical in the St Lawrence valley and the governor refused his request. Abbé de L’Isle-Dieu wanted to send Le Guerne to the mission to the Tamaroas (Cahokia, now East St Louis, Ill.), but Bishop Pontbriand kept him in Quebec hoping that he would be able to return to Acadia once peace had been restored. Since the war did not end, the bishop entrusted him in 1758 with the parish of Saint-François-de-Sales on Île d’Orléans.

Le Guerne spent the remainder of his career in that parish, absenting himself for a year (1768–69) to give a course in rhetoric at the Petit Séminaire in Quebec. In October 1789 about 50 of his parishioners, citing Le Guerne’s “state of languor and infirmity,” asked Bishop HUBERT to recall him, and the bishop advised him to retire. They complained that they had been harshly treated by their pastor and reproached him for denying his services to a large number of his flock and for seeking to enrich himself by every means. He died two months later. Among other legacies in his will Le Guerne left 360 livres to the Séminaire de Québec, 3,600 livres to the Séminaire du Saint-Esprit in Paris, and 3,600 livres to his relatives in Brittany.

GEORGE III (1760-1820 AD)

George III was born in 1738, first son of Frederick, Prince of Wales and Augusta. He married Charlotte of Mecklinburg-Strelitz in 1761, to whom he was devoted. The couple produced a prolific fifteen children: nine sons and six daughters. George was afflicted with porphyria, a maddening disease which disrupted his reign as early as 1765. Several attacks strained his grip on reality and debilitated him in the last years of his reign. Personal rule was given to his son George, the Prince Regent, in 1811. George III died blind, deaf and mad at Windsor Castle on January 29, 1820.

George III succeeded his grandfather, George II, in 1760 (Frederick, Prince of Wales, had died in 1751 having never ruled). George was determined to recover the prerogative lost to the ministerial council by the first two Georges; in the first two decades of the reign, he methodically weakened the Whig party through bribery, coercion and patronage. Prime Minister, William Pitt the Elder was toppled by Whigs after the Peace of Paris, and men of mediocre talent and servile minds were hand-picked by George as Cabinet members, acting as little more than yes-men. Bouts with madness and the way he handled the American Revolution eroded his support and the power of the Crown was granted again to the Prime Minister.

The Peace of Paris (1763) ended the Seven Years' War with France, with the strenuous, anti-French policies of the elder Pitt emphasizing naval superiority in the colonial warfare. Great Britain emerged from the conflict as the world's greatest colonial power. England thrived under peacetime conditions, but George's commitment to taxing the American colonies to pay for military protection led to hostilities in 1775. The colonists proclaimed independence in 1776, but George obstinately continued the war until the final American victory at Yorktown in 1781. The Peace of Versailles, signed in 1783, ensured British acknowledgment of the United States of America. The defeat cost George dearly: his sanity was stretched to the breaking point and his political power decreased when William Pitt the Younger became Prime Minister in 1783. George reclaimed some of his power, driving Pitt from office from 1801-04, but his condition worsened again and he ceased to rule in 1811.

The peace following the French war settlement was short-lived. A mere ten years later, England joined a continental alliance against French revolutionary forces who, after gaining power in France, sought total French hegemony across Europe. By 1797, the largest part of Europe was under French dominance, with England standing alone against the revolutionary Republic. The British Navy again proved decisive, defeating French forces at Camperdown, Cape St. Vincent and the Battle of the Nile in 1797, and finally at Copenhagen in 1801. Peace was negotiated at Amiens in 1802, with the French supreme on land and the British at sea. Napoleon Bonaparte seized supreme power in France at the turn of the century, and renewed attacks against England in 1803. Hostilities with France lasted until 1814 taking several forms. Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington, led the land attack; the navy, commanded by Lord Horatio Nelson won the decisive battle off Cape Trafalgar, and imposed a blockade of Europe to offset Napoleon's " continental system" which was forbidden from importing British goods; and the younger Pitt guided the government through the hardships of total war. In addition to the continental conflict, England went to war again with the United States between 1812-14, over the British practice of pressing American seamen into service in the British Navy. Both conflicts were resolved in 1814; Napoleon was deposed and England agreed not to abscond with American sailors. Napoleon returned to Europe briefly in 1815, but was soundly defeated by continental forces led by Wellington.

George's madness ultimately left the fate of the crown on his eldest son George, Prince Regent. Prince George was put in the daunting position of attempting to govern according to the increasingly erratic will of his father. A letter received by novelist E. M. Frostier from his aunt, Marine Thornton, describes the situation: "... there he was sitting on the Throne with his King's Crown on, his robes scarlet and ermine, and held his speech written out for him, just what he had to say. But, oh dear, he strode up and made a bow and began "My Lords and Peacocks'. The people who were not fond of him laughed, the people who did love him cried, and he went back to be no longer a king, and his eldest son reigned in his stead".

PHILIPPS, RICHARD

(1661–1750), colonial governor, was born in Pembrokeshire, the son of Richard Philipps and his wife, Frances, née Noel. At sixteen or seventeen years of age Philipps enlisted in the army, where he distinguished himself primarily as an active whig. After William of Orange set sail in 1688, but before he landed in England, Philipps distributed whig manifestos to his fellow troops. He was arrested and condemned for sedition, but in the ensuing chaos the death sentence was never carried out. After the revolution of 1688 he served in William III's army, at the battle of Boyne and subsequently in Flanders and Spain.

In 1712 Philipps purchased, at a price of 7000 guineas, the colonelcy of the 12th regiment of foot. Five years later he exchanged this commission for the governorship of Nova Scotia. He was simultaneously appointed governor of the British outpost on Newfoundland and colonel of a new regiment, the 40th, which had been formed to garrison the two territories. Philipps never visited Newfoundland, and he was replaced as governor there in 1729. He remained governor of Nova Scotia until 1749, though he spent less than three years in residence in the colony.

None the less, even from a distance, Philipps was able to assist in Nova Scotia's administration. Since 1710, when the British conquered the colony (which had been known as Acadia) from the French, the garrison had been almost continuously understaffed and undersupplied. Owing to his military position Philipps acquired reliable supplies for the garrison and maintained more or less constant manpower levels, accomplishments which had eluded his predecessors. His other important early accomplishment was to fortify Canso, an island off the Atlantic coast that served as a drying station for fishermen. He hoped that the military base which he established on the island in 1720 would trigger the economic redevelopment of the eastern half of the province. This larger plan never materialized, but the base helped create economic and political links between the fishermen of New England and the government of Nova Scotia, links which proved crucial for the survival of British rule after the French attacked the colony in 1744. New England's fishermen were a powerful lobby in support of the Massachusetts government's decisions to reinforce the garrison of Nova Scotia in 1744 and pre-emptively attack the French at Louisbourg in 1745.

Philipps is best remembered, though, for the policies he adopted towards the Acadians, the descendants of the original French colonists in the region. When he was first appointed, Philipps had hoped to remove the Acadians from their lands and replace them with English-speaking protestant settlers. During his visit to Nova Scotia in 1720 he and his provincial council had petitioned the Board of Trade in favour of the plan. The effort achieved modest political success; the board endorsed the proposed expulsion in 1721 in a report to George I. But Philipps received no money or logistical support, and in the end no official authorization. The rise of Sir Robert Walpole reshaped the political landscape and restricted the financial resources available to would-be colonial promoters. Furthermore, after Philipps's return to Britain in 1722 the Mi'kmaq (the native people of Nova Scotia) took up arms against his colonial government and the Acadians professed neutrality in the conflict. These events helped reorder Philipps's priorities. He ceased advocating the expulsion of the Acadians, and instead supported a political accommodation with them.

Philipps returned to Nova Scotia for the last time in the summer of 1729. During his fifteen-month stay he engaged in negotiations with Acadians from various parts of the province and persuaded almost all of Nova Scotia's adult male Acadian inhabitants to swear allegiance to the British crown. By taking the oath the Acadians acknowledged British sovereignty over the colony, but in exchange they obtained recognition of their special status and limited autonomy. Philipps promised them (orally) that they would never be pressed into military service. Subsequent administrators claimed that Philipps's promise was illegal and furthermore that it contradicted and invalidated the terms of the oath of allegiance. Chief Justice Jonathan Belcher jun. made this argument in order to justify the removal of the Acadians from Nova Scotia in 1755. Unwittingly, therefore, Philipps helped lay the legal groundwork for the Acadian removal.

After 1730 Philipps treated his governorship primarily as a sinecure, though he remained interested in issues of patronage connected to the garrison there. Working with King Gould, the colony's agent in London, he participated in negotiations over appointments within the provincial garrison and council. He also took a hand in negotiations over the sale of the chaplaincies for the garrison. But the internal government of Nova Scotia concerned him very little. Philipps was twice married: first to Elizabeth Cosby (d. c.1739), with whom he had at least two children, and, second, to Catherina Bagshawe, née Stratham. He died in Westminster on 14 October 1750 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.

Geoffrey Plank
Source: Dictionary of Canadian Biography

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Key Figures In The Fall of Acadia - Part I

noreply@blogger.com (Lucie LeBlanc Consentino) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 13:34:00 +0000

KING LOUIS XV OF FRANCE

Louis XV was born February 15, 1710 and died May 10, 1774. He was king of France from 1715-74. He was born at the Palace of Versailles. Until the royal legal age of maturity at fourteen, his uncle, Philippe d'Orléans, acted as Regent. Cardinal Fleury, until his death in 1743, acted as the Chief Minister of France.

The son of Louis, Duke of Burgundy and Marie-Adélaide of Savoy, and great-grandson of King Louis XIV, Louis was part of the Bourbon Dynasty. At age two, his father, mother and brother all died within one week, leaving him heir to the French throne. He was crowned King of France at the age of five in the Cathedral at Reims.

His great-grandfather, Louis XIV, had left France in a financial mess, and in general decline. Louis XV worked hard but unsuccessfully to overcome the fiscal problems. At Versailles, the King and the nobility surrounding him showed signs of boredom that symbolized a monarchy in steady decline.

At first he was known popularly as Louis XV, Le Bien-aimé (the well-beloved) after a near-death illness in Metz in 1744 when the entire country prayed for his recovery. However, his weak and ineffective rule was a contributing factor to the general decline which led to the French Revolution. Popular faith in the monarchy was shaken by the scandals of Louis' private life, and by the end of his life he had become the well-hated. In 1757 a would-be assassin entered Versailles and stabbed him in the side with a penknife.

In 1743, France entered the War of the Austrian Succession. During Louis' reign, Corsica and Lorraine were won, but a few years later, King Louis XV lost the huge colonial empire as a result of the Seven Years' War with Great Britain. The 1763 Treaty of Paris which ended the Seven Years' War was one of the most humiliating episodes of the French monarchy. France abandoned India, Canada, and the left bank of the Mississippi River. Although France still held New Orleans and lands to the west of the Mississippi, as well as Guadeloupe, it was this defeat and signing of the treaty that represented the first stage of a total abandonment of the New World. French prestige sank, its foreign policies a dismal failure.

King Louis XV died of smallpox at the Palace of Versailles. Because Louis XV's son the dauphin had died nine years earlier, Louis's grandson ascended to the throne as King Louis XVI.

LE LOUTRE, JEAN-LOUIS

(he signed LeLoutre), priest, Spiritan, and missionary; b. 26 Sept. 1709 in the parish of Saint-Matthieu in Morlaix, France, son of Jean-Maurice Le Loutre Després and Catherine Huet; d. 30 Sept. 1772 in the parish of Saint-Léonard in Nantes, France.

As soon as he had been ordained, he sailed for Acadia and in the autumn of that year appeared at Louisbourg, Île Royale (Cape Breton Island). Le Loutre was supposed to replace Abbé Claude de La Vernède de Saint-Poncy, the parish priest at Annapolis Royal (N.S.), whose relations with the British governor, Lawrence Armstrong*, had become strained [see Claude-Jean-Baptiste Chauvreulx*]. By the time he set foot on the American continent, however, the difficulties between Saint-Poncy and Armstrong had been ironed out and the governor had agreed that the parish priest should retain his post. Taking advantage of this situation, Pierre Maillard*, a missionary on Île Royale, wrote to the home authorities requesting that Le Loutre be allowed to replace Abbé de Saint-Vincent, a missionary to the Mi'kmacs, and make his residence at Shubenacadie, on the river of the same name, 12 leagues from Cobequid (near Truro, N.S.).

On 22 Sept. 1738 Le Loutre left Île Royale for the Shubenacadie mission, an immense territory stretching from Cape Sable to Chedabucto Bay in the north and present-day Cumberland Strait in the west. Le Loutre was to minister to the Indians as well as to the French posts at Cobequid and Tatamagouche, where Abbé Jacques Girard would replace him in 1742, and he concerned himself indirectly with the Acadians on the east coast of Nova Scotia. He remained on cordial terms with the British authorities until 1744.

The Acadians had always been very obedient to the Catholic Church represented by these priests who ministered to them or the communities around them. They had always bent to the brimstone and fire preached to them. This attitude would be no different with LeLoutre who had a passion for what he did but who also lacked principals in his demands on both the Indian and Acadian communities.

When the Acadians showed no inclination to be subjected to his demands, he would threaten them with Indian warfare telling them that he would send the Indians to bring peril to them and to their families even telling them they would watch their wives and children die at the hand of the Mi'kmaq right before their eyes as well as their lands wasted. At one point, there was even remonstrance toward LeLoutre from the then Bishop of Quebec. Unfortunately, Leloutre's passion to get his way knew no bounds.

He had no mercy for the Acadians of Beaubassin and Chignecto, when in 1755 he set fire to the church and demanded that the Acadians do the same to their homes, barns and properties - he enlisted the help of the Indians to make sure this would happen. With their properties burning behind them, the Acadians of Beaubassin crossed to the French site across the Missaguash and became refugees of the French fort of Beauséjour. They would know poverty and hunger. LeLoutre told the Acadians who were on the outside of the fort walls that they had to fight the British soldiers when they attacked - instead, they ran away as they had no inclination to go to war.

The British routed the incapable French officers and soldiers of the garrison. Thomas Pichon, commisary of stores, had been a traitor and ally of the British in helping to take down the fort. He had been carrying on secret correspondence with the commandant of Fort Lawrence, and informing him of all that was going on within the French fort. It as in part form this source that the designs of the French against the British were becoming known in Halifax and more expecially, the goings-ons of "Moses", the name by which Pichon referred to LeLoutre because he always carried on as if he had led the Acadians out of bondage as had Moses of the Bible.

Meanwhile, the Acadians yearned to return to their lands, take the oath and live in peace with the English. LeLoutre was so resolved that this should not happen that he told them "If you go, you will have neither priests nor sacraments, but will die like miserable wretches." Of course, the assertion was false. Priests and sacraments had never been denied them but he manipulated them with such threats.

Well once the British attacked the fort, where was LeLoutre? He had escaped and was well on his way to Quebec knowing full well that if caught the British might execute him.

Once in Quebec, he hoped to make his way to France but was captured by the British Le Loutre was taken prisoner, and despite the minister of Marine’s efforts he was not released until eight years later, on 30 Aug. 1763, after the signing of the treaty of Paris. He then went on to France and when the Acadians arrived there following repatriation, he did what he could to help them and did obtain for each a special gratuity of 600 livres.

Historians are unanimous in recognizing the importance of Le Loutre’s activity in Acadia but differ in their assessment of the significance of his role as a missionary. Several, particularly those writing in English, have criticized him for having acted more as an agent of French policy than as a missionary, and they hold him largely responsible for the deportation of the Acadians from Nova Scotia in 1755, because in threatening them with reprisals if they signed the oath of loyalty, he condemned them to a forced exile. Before a judgement is made on Le Loutre’s career in Acadia, however, three important points must be considered: in the 18th century France claimed to be the defender of the Catholic faith; Acadia was populated with French Catholics governed by the Protestant British; missionaries were the only representatives of the French government among the Acadians tolerated by Great Britain. According to Le Loutre almost any means could be used to remove the Acadians, who were in danger spiritually, from British domination. He used the means at his disposal: arguments of a religious nature and the Indians. His method was debatable, but it was in keeping with the logic of his age, when in France as in England religion was at the service of the state.

He was probably excessively zealous, and his conduct was often questionable, but his sincere devotion to the cause of French Acadia cannot be doubted. He cannot be held responsible for the deportation of the Acadians.

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Source: Dictionary of Canadian Biography

Wars and Battles Pertaining to Acadia

noreply@blogger.com (Lucie LeBlanc Consentino) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 10:41:00 +0000

The Wars to take Acadia

Acadia lay in a boundary zone, between the English and French colonies, and it was never left in peace for long. The English colonies of New England were closer to Acadia than to any other French settlements. In peacetime the English came to trade, and in war they came to conquer. In 1613 English colonists from Virginia led by Samuel Argall attacked and burned Port-Royal. The English attacked again in 1629. They captured Port-Royal in 1654 and controlled Acadia until France regained it by treaty in 1670. The English attacked again in 1690, 1704, and in 1707. With so much fighting and so many changes of command, the Acadians became a people without strong ties to either side.

In 1710 the British captured Port-Royal yet again, and in 1713 the Treaty of Utrecht gave Acadia permanently to Britain. Port-Royal was renamed Annapolis Royal, and a British commander with a small garrison of soldiers replaced the French governor and his garrison. However, most of the Acadians stayed on under British rule.

The Acadian People

Despite the wars, the tiny colony of Acadia kept growing. The 400 people of 1671 became 1,400 by 1701. By the 1750s, there would be 13,000 Acadians. As their numbers grew, the Acadians began to move out from Port-Royal to settle at Beaubassin, Grand Pré, and other places around the Bay of Fundy. The Acadians were mostly farmers. To control the huge tides of the Bay of Fundy, they built dykes on the marshlands around Port-Royal. As rainwater and melting snow drained the salt out of the newly dyked land, rich farm fields became available. The settlers raised crops and animals, and they planted fruit trees. They built mills to grind their grain and to cut lumber for their homes, barns, boats, and furniture. They ate what they needed from their produce and traded the remainder for tools, molasses, fabrics, and other things they could not easily make themselves.

The Acadians were becoming an independent and self-reliant community even before the British took control. Until 1713, they had French governors and seigneurs (the heirs of the d'Aulnays and the La Tours), but these rulers tended to be driven away whenever the British attacked, and the Acadians learned to live without them. The government in France was too far off to have much influence. New Englanders were officially the enemy, but New England was the closest place with which Acadians could trade. They began to refer to the New Englanders as our friends the enemy. The Acadians were a people between two empires, yet were not fully a part of either.

The Wars including the French & Indian War

I. The French and Indian War (1754-1763) was the last of four North American wars waged from 1689 to 1763 between the British and the French.

In these struggles, each country fought for control of the continent with the assistance of Native American and colonial allies. The French and Indian War differed from previous confrontations, however. The earlier wars consisted primarily of skirmishes between small regular units of the European powers aided by local militiamen. The French and Indian War was part of a great war for empire, a determined and eventually successful attempt by the British to attain a dominant position in North America, the West Indies, and the subcontinent of India.

Although the French and Indian War began in America, it expanded into Europe as the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), and at the same time into Asia as the Third Carnatic War (see Carnatic Wars).

The French and Indian War not only stripped France of its North American empire, it also caused Britain to change its relationship to its colonies, a change that eventually led to the American Revolution.

II. By the end of the 17th century, the British had established flourishing colonial settlements along the Atlantic Coast in New England and in the Chesapeake Bay region.

At the same time, France had founded small communities along the Saint Lawrence River and had claimed the entire Mississippi River Valley, following the expeditions of French explorers Louis Jolliet and René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle. These North American colonies became part of an intense rivalry between Great Britain and France.

Each country tried to equal or surpass the economic, political, and military power of the other through colonization, alliances, and warfare.

Beginning in 1689, Britain fought a century-long series of wars with France and its ally, Spain. On three occasions prior to the French and Indian War, these hostilities spilled over into the western hemisphere where overseas colonies could provide important advantages.

Britain and France competed to control the valuable fur trade on the North American mainland and the rich sugar production on the islands of the West Indies. Both nations received military assistance from colonists in these wars, but also relied on the help of Native American peoples who participated because of their own rivalries for land and power.

The first of these conflicts was King William's War (1689-1697), known in Europe as the War of the League of Augsburg. In North America, this war consisted of a number of skirmishes that produced no changes in territory.

The New England militia and their Native American allies, the Iroquois, fought against French troops and their Algonquian Native American allies on the northern frontier in the American colonies and in Canada.

The New Englanders captured Port Royal, the capital of French Acadia (now the portion of Canada that includes Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island), but the Peace of Ryswick (1697) that ended the war in Europe also returned Acadia to France.

The next conflict was Queen Anne's War (1702-1713), known in Europe as the War of the Spanish Succession. During this war, the French and British again fought battles along the New England frontier. However, the northern region of New York remained quiet because the Iroquois adopted a policy of aggressive neutrality, selling furs to both the French and the English but refusing to fight for either side.

The major battle was a British and colonial attempt to capture Québec in 1710. Although the expedition failed, Britain used victories in Europe to gain significant additional territory in the Peace of Utrecht (1713-1714). From France, Britain obtained Newfoundland, Acadia, the Hudson Bay region of northern Canada, and greater access to the Native American fur trade. From Spain, France's ally, Britain acquired the Mediterranean fortress of Gibraltar and trading privileges in Spanish America. These gains enhanced Britain's commercial supremacy and gave it extensive territories in North America.

A new conflict, King George's War (1744-1748), began outside of North America in 1739 when Spain tried to halt commerce between its North American colonies and Britain. This trade war became part of a general European conflict, the War of Austrian Succession (1740-1748).

In 1745 New England militiamen captured the French naval fortress of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island (near the mouth of the St. Lawrence River), but the Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748) returned the fortress to France.

III. Beginning of the French and Indian War - The last of the conflicts between Britain and France for control of North America was the French and Indian War. It began in the struggle for control of the Ohio Valley. For more than a generation, the powerful Iroquois Confederacy, an alliance of several Native American nations from the Iroquoian language family, dominated a middle ground between the French and British colonies in North America. The Iroquois, originally centered in western New York, had gained control of a vast region in the interior of the continent by alliances with other Native American peoples and had successfully excluded the European nations from this territory. The Iroquois were able to maintain their power against that of both the British and the French, but this three-way balance of power began to break down during the 1740s. British traders penetrated deep into the Ohio country and established direct relations with tribal groups who previously had been controlled by the Iroquois or had traded only with the French. A rivalry for the Ohio Valley The Ohio company, an association of land speculators based in Virginia, encouraged the British excursions. The company had received a grant of 500,000 acres from the British king and wanted to move traders and settlers into this interior region.

In 1753 Governor Robert Dinwiddie of Virginia, who was also a leading member of the Ohio Company, dispatched 21-year-old George Washington on his first military mission. Washington carried a message to the French, warning them to leave the region. In the following year Governor Dinwiddie ordered the construction of a fort at the forks of the Ohio (where the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers meet), later the site of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

These developments convinced the French governor-general of Canada of the need to dominate the Ohio Valley militarily in order to protect France's strategic interests in the American interior. The French immediately reinforced their existing forts south of Lake Erie and expelled the British from the forks of the Ohio. At that strategic site, they built a new military post, Fort Duquesne, and established firm title to the region.

The French government realized that not only were the profits of the fur trade at stake, but also possession of the vast Ohio and Mississippi river valleys. These rival territorial claims in the Ohio Valley quickly led to violence. An armed party of Virginians under the command of George Washington defeated a small French force east of the Ohio River and built a log stockade that became known as Fort Necessity. The French gathered more troops and quickly laid siege to this small fort, forcing Washington and his troops to surrender on July 4, 1754. The French then sent Washington and his troops back to Virginia. The French and Indian War had begun.

The Albany Congress The British Board of Trade had anticipated the outbreak of war, and only weeks before had urged the colonial governors to seek an alliance with the Iroquois Confederacy, often referred to as the Six Nations. In June 1754 delegates from seven colonies met with 150 Iroquois leaders in Albany, New York. Some members of the Iroquois Confederacy already in alliances with the British colonies complained of poor treatment. The Native Americans also protested that the British governor of Virginia as well as the French governor-general of Canada had attempted to seize their lands. After receiving large presents of supplies and arms, the Iroquois grudgingly renewed their alliances with the British colonies. Delegates then moved on to plan other defensive measures. An important topic was a plan of union developed by Benjamin Franklin. The Albany Plan, as it became known, proposed a single institution to govern all of the British colonies in America. Under the plan, each colony would send delegates to an American continental assembly, presided over by a British governor-general. This council would assume responsibility for the western affairs of the colonies, including trade, Native American policy, and defense. The Albany Plan was never implemented because the British government feared the consequences of convening a great American assembly, and individual colonial assemblies refused to support the proposal because they wanted to preserve their autonomy.

IV. The last conflict with France, which ended in 1748, had depleted the British treasury, and Parliament refused to impose new taxes.

British leaders, such as William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, who were intent on expanding British influence, demanded action. As a result, Britain dispatched two regiments of troops, under Sir Edward Braddock, to America. Eventually, however, many more troops were needed. During the next five years, the government sent thousands of regular troops under a succession of British commanders. In addition, Parliament financed the enlistment and supply of more than 20,000 American troops during the period of heaviest fighting from 1758 to 1760.

Phase One: Initial Skirmishes The French and Indian War had four distinct phases. The first began with the French capture of Washington and his troops at Fort Necessity in 1754 and lasted until 1756, when war was formally declared. During these two years both Britain and France hoped to avoid a general European war and so committed few troops or resources to the fighting in America. Each side primarily attacked enemy forts in unsettled areas along the frontier.

Two battles of considerable significance did take place during this phase, however. The French ambushed and defeated forces led by British General Edward Braddock as they attempted to drive the French from Fort Duquesne. The defeat was costly for the British: General Braddock lost his life, more than 900 of his men were killed or wounded, and British prestige among Native Americans in the region declined. British and colonial forces offset these losses by victories in Nova Scotia, where they captured two French forts. Subsequently, the British deported more than 6000 of the French inhabitants of Nova Scotia, known as Acadians, a signal of the growing brutality of the conflict.

Phase Two: French Successes The second phase of the war in America was fought with much larger armies and opened with a series of French victories.

In mid-1756 a French force captured the British fort at Oswego in northern New York. The French advance continued in 1757 with a victory over British regulars and New England militia at Fort William Henry, within striking distance of the important fur-trading town of Albany, New York. Then the French offensive faltered. France's regular troops and their Native American allies could not continue the war in populated areas of the British colonies. They had to travel vast distances, where there were few local sources of supply. Most importantly, the small French Canadian population was not large enough to provide food and soldiers for a lengthy campaign.

In the end, the British had the strategic advantage in North America. Britain could call upon a population more than ten times as large to provide troops and supplies for an all-out assault on Canada. The only other necessities were political support from the colonial assemblies, which were provided somewhat begrudgingly, and firm direction and financial assistance from the British ministry. Strong support by the British government began after William Pitt became secretary of state in June 1757. Pitt firmly believed the way to defeat France in Europe was to attack French possessions around the world, including India, North America, and the West Indies.

Phase Three: British Victories in North America In 1757 Pitt launched the third phase of the war by sending thousands of British troops to America and ordering a direct attack on Canada. A force of 16,000 British and colonial troops advanced from Albany toward Montréal, Canada, in 1758. This expedition, commanded by General James Abercrombie, stalled in the face of French opposition at Fort Ticonderoga in northeastern New York. However, British and colonial troops under General Jeffrey Amherst did capture the fortress of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island near the mouth of the St. Lawrence River. Additional British victories came at Fort Frontenac, on Lake Ontario, and at Fort Duquesne.

Bolstered by these successes, William Pitt ordered a new British offensive for 1759. He agreed to finance the mobilization of 20,000 colonial troops and elevated Amherst to the command of all British forces in America. Amherst's army promptly continued the advance on Canada, capturing Fort Niagara at the junction of lakes Erie and Ontario and forcing the French to abandon the strategic Fort Ticonderoga.

By early August 1759 the French had retreated to their inner line of defense which protected the major cities along the St. Lawrence River. The British quickly breached these defenses and dispatched a large fleet and an army up the river from Louisbourg. Late in 1759 British troops led by James Wolfe defeated a French army commanded by Louis Joseph Marquis de Montcalm de Saint-Véran on the Plains of Abraham, just outside of Québec.

The capture of the fortified city of Québec was the climax of the year of victories for Great Britain. Only Montréal remained in French hands, and it surrendered to British forces in September 1760.

Phase Four: Worldwide Conflict The fall of Canada began the fourth and last stage of the war. Only minor conflicts continued on the mainland of North America. Many of these occurred between British settlers in the Carolinas and Native American peoples like the Cherokee, who had sided with the French to protect their lands.

In Europe, the Seven Years' War had reached a stalemate, with neither the British nor the French alliances able to dominate. On many other battlefronts around the world, however, the British had great successes. The English East India Company captured French trading posts and dominated commercial markets in large sections of India. British forces seized French Senegal in West Africa, the French sugar islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe, and the Spanish colonies of Cuba and the Philippine Islands.

When warfare ended in 1763, William Pitt had left office, but his strategy of attacking the enemies' colonial possessions had extended British power all over the world.

RESULTS OF THE WAR - Warfare ended with the Treaty of Paris in 1763, and the peace terms reflected British military successes. Britain gained control over half the North American continent, including French Canada, all French territorial claims east of the Mississippi River, and Spanish Florida. In return, Britain gave Cuba and the Philippines back to Spain, and France compensated its Spanish ally for the loss of Florida by giving it title to all of Louisiana west of the Mississippi River.

End of the French Empire in North America The French and Indian War had reduced the once-impressive French empire in North America to a handful of sugar plantations in the West Indies and two rocky islands off the coast of Newfoundland. It also ended the century-long threat of a French or Spanish invasion of the American mainland colonies and ensured that British institutions would dominate in eastern North America. But France's desire to avenge its humiliating defeat in the war prompted it to provide financial and military aid to the American rebels during the American Revolution. This aid was instrumental in the loss of Britain's American colonies, but it also contributed to the French financial crisis that climaxed in the French Revolution of 1789.

Reevaluation of the Colonial Relationship - Another result of the war was a British decision to reevaluate its relationship with its colonies. Before the French and Indian War, Britain had not closely controlled its colonies. British leaders regarded the colonial governments as subordinate bodies subject to the sovereign authority of king and Parliament. As long as few serious conflicts of interest arose between Britain and its American possessions, the British government permitted colonial assemblies to oversee enforcement of instructions of the royal governors or to pass new legislation suited to their own needs. In addition, the British did not always enforce their laws in the colonies. For example, the British Customs Service, which was inefficient, understaffed, and open to bribery, did not enforce the Molasses Act of 1733(see Sugar and Molasses Acts). This important measure required the colonists to pay a duty on the molasses they imported from the French West Indian islands. British leaders did not insist on strict enforcement of this tax or other commercial duties because booming American trade was making Britain a wealthy and powerful nation.

British statesman and political theorist Edmund Burke described his country's policies toward the colonies as "salutary neglect" because he believed their leniency was actually beneficial. As a result of this salutary neglect, the colonists developed a political and economic system that was virtually independent. They were loyal, although somewhat uncooperative, subjects of the crown.

The British became concerned about the colonists' lack of cooperation during the French and Indian War. The British initially resented the fact that the prosperous colonists were unwilling to undertake their own defense. Even the generous subsidies voted by Parliament at William Pitt's urging did not cause the colonists to respond as the British expected-colonial assemblies still refused to send their militiamen on expeditions to Canada. The colonists claimed that their militias were needed to defend home territory.

The British also suspected that the assemblies took advantage of the war to increase their own political power. Colonists demanded greater authority over finances and military appointments in return for their approval of war-related measures. The royal governors, under strict orders from the British ministry to support the war effort in America, often gave in to these demands without resistance. While the tactics of the colonial assemblies appeared opportunistic to the British, the actions of many American merchants seemed almost treasonable. British government officials were irate that many Americans continued to trade illegally with France. Smuggling was highly profitable and prolonged the war by sustaining the French sugar plantations in the West Indies and providing the French armies with food and supplies.

The continuation of this illegal trade led to British demands for more centralized control of the empire. American conduct during the war convinced many British leaders that the old imperial system, with its emphasis on voluntary cooperation between the home government and the colonies, had been a dismal failure. The British government also faced pressing financial problems. Britain began fighting in 1754 with a national debt of approximately 75 million pounds, but the war effort caused the debt to soar to 133 million pounds by 1763.

Americans had benefited substantially from these military expenditures. They had received a million pounds in direct subsidies and millions more in contracts for food, supplies, and transport for the British military forces in America. After these huge expenses, Britain was reluctant to offer additional subsidies for the peacetime defense of the colonies. Money was needed to maintain the British troops who occupied the conquered provinces of Canada and Florida and who defended a chain of western frontier posts.

Given the size of the British debt and the extent of American prosperity, British leaders saw no feasible alternative to taxing the colonists. For the colonists, the French and Indian War increased their concern over the permanent presence of a British army. They believed that a standing army threatened liberty and representative government. These fears intensified as the British demanded imperial reform, imposed direct taxes, and stationed army units in the colonial port cities. Britain's demands soon led the colonists to active resistance and paved the way for the American Revolution and the creation of the United States of America.

The Treaty of Paris - 1763

On February 10, 1763, the Treaty of Paris ended the Seven Years War. The Treaty was signed by the Kingdom of Great Britain, France and Spain with Portugal in agreement. Together with the Treaty of Hubertusburg, it ended the French and Indian War and the Seven Years' War. The treaties marked the beginning of an extensive period of British dominance outside of Europe.

In general, all conquered territories were restored to their pre-war owners. Preferring to keep Guadaloupe, France gave up Canada and all claims to territory east of the Mississippi to Britain. Spain ceded Florida to the British but later received New Orleans and Louisiana from France, and Cuba was restored to Spain. France retained Saint Pierre and Miquelon and recovered Guadeloupe and Martinique in exchange for Grenada and the Grenadines going to the British. In India the French lost out to the British, receiving back its factories but agreeing to support the British puppet governments as well as returning Sumatra and agreeing not to base troops in Bengal.

Britain returned the slave station on the isle of Goree to the French but gained the Senegal River and its settlements. Britain agreed to demolish its fortifications in Honduras but received permission from Spain to keep a log wood-cutting colony there. Britain confirmed in the treaty the rights of its new citizens to practice the Roman Catholic religion and received confirmation of the continuation of the British king's right as an Elector of the Holy Roman Empire.

It is sometimes claimed that the British King George III renounced his claim to be King of France by the treaty. However, this a historical myth, and it is also falsely attributed to some of the treaties of the French Revolutionary Wars. Such a renunciation is nowhere in the text of the treaty, and in fact George III continued to be styled "King of France" and used the Fleur-de-lis as part of his arms until 1801 when Britain and Ireland united. It was dropped then because it was simply regarded as anachronistic, not because of French pressure.

August 25, 1755 - Acadian Deportation

noreply@blogger.com (Lucie LeBlanc Consentino) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 11:53:00 +0000

The Boston Gazette -Weekly Journal Boston
August 25, 1755

By a vessel arrived here last Wednesday, and another the Day following, both in 4 days from Halifax, we are informed, that a 50 and 20 gunShip were arrived there from Virginia; and that 19 + Men of War were in that Harbour when they came away. That a number of Transports were preparing to sail for the Bay of Fundy, which were to be convoyed by Capt. Rous, in order to carry off the French Inhabitants from Nova Scotia.
That a School was arrived there in 6 weeks from England ; but bro't nothing material. War was not declar'd when she sail'd.

By Capt. Bacon, who arrived here last Evening in 8 Days from Chignecto, we are informed, That the French Neutrals (Acadians) were lading a schooner and a Sloop up the Bay Vert, with Provisions, in order to send to Louisbourg: That upon Intelligence thereof to Col. Monckton he immediately dispatched away 250 Troops to said Bay by Land, but when got there could not find any Boats or Canoes; and upon asking the Neutrals whether they knew of any, they said they did (or would) not know; but the English threatening to hang two or three of them if they did not tell, thy soon procur'd them two, which 13 o four men took and went off to the above Vessels, but while they were going, they were constantly fir'd upon from the Vesssels with Swivels and Small-Arms, but those brave Fellows not minding their firing boarded and took them, with 13 Head of Cattle on board, and bro't them safe to Chignecto, without receiving any Damage.

That Col. Winslow had march'd with 400 Men to Pisguit [Pisiguit] in order to take off the Neutrals (Acadians) there; and from thence he was to proceed with them to Halifax.

Acadian & French-Canadian Ancestral Home Blog

2011 - Present

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Acadian & French-Canadian Ancestral Home Web Site
2007 - Present

Interesting Facts

noreply@blogger.com (Lucie LeBlanc Consentino) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 08:10:00 +0000

Did you know? Did you know that the what appears to be a middle initial on an Acadian time is more than that? Actually, when researching Acadian ancestors, that middle letter often tells us who this ancestors father was or what the ancestral line itself is. When searching for my grandfather Damien LeBlanc, on my father's birth record in New Bedford, MA I found him listed as Damien S. LeBlanc - I haven't found that on any of the other 16 children's birth records. What that S really stands for is Damien's father's name, Sylvain and so it goes.

Interesting Notes on a Symbol of Acadia

On August 15, 1995, the star studded blue, white and red Acadian Flag was recognized by the Govenor General of Canada as a historic flag of Canada being the official symbol of the Acadian people since 1884. Thus antedating the Canadian flag by exactly 80 years and 6 months. The grant of arms and flag to the Société Nationale d'Acadie specifically names the Acadian standard as the National Flag of Acadia and it is now depicted and entered on page 74 of Volume III of the Public Register of Arms, Flags and Badges of Canada The Acadian flag originated in Miscouche 116 years ago and it may be the oldest existing emblem of a French people in North America, antedating the flag of Québec by 65 years, and the Acadian flag of Louisiana by nearly 81 years. The Acadian flag is not the French flag as some mistakingly call it. It was chosen by the people of Acadia gathered in Miscouche 11 years after Prince Edward island entered confederation. It is a made in Canada flag. What makes it purely Acadian is the gold star on the French colours of blue, white and red, which represents the Acadian patron saint, Our Lady of the Assumption, much the same way as Saint George, Saint Andrew, and Saint PAtrick represent the patron saints of England, Scotland and Ireland respectively. Acadians chose their patron saint in 1881, Pope Pius XI confirmed it by a decree on January 19, 1938. (From the Journal Pioneer, August 2000, "The Flutter of Flags - a Healthy Pride" by David LeGallant and sent to me by James Perry who lives on Prince Edward Island.)

This is a list of where the Acadians were deported from and where they were exiled to in 1755.

PLACE
EXILED FROM
Annapolis Royal

Minas Basin(Les Mines)
Chignectou
Pisiquid
Pré des Boudreau
Grand-Pré
Halifax
Port-Latour
Cap-Sable

PLACE
EXILED TO
So. Carolina/Massachusetts/Connecticut
New York/Ile St-Jean
Virgiania/Maryland/So.Carolina/Connecticut
So. Carolina/Pennsylvania/Georgia
Maryland/Virginia/Massachusetts/Pennsylvania
Connecticut/Virginia/Massachusetts
Maryland/Pennsylvania
North Carolina
Massachusetts
Massachusetts

In 1758, the British wanted to expatriate the Acadians from Ile St-Jean/Prince Edward Island. Three ships that sailed from Ile St-Jean for France were lost at sea and all of its human cargo perished. These ships were the Duke William, Violet and the Ruby.
OTHER INTERESTING FACTS

NEW BRUNSWICK

The Village of Memramcook was incorporated by Order in Council 95-343 on 8 May 1995. This village takes in the former Village of Saint-Joseph; and the Local Service Districts of Breau Creek, Cormier's Cove, La Hêtrière-McGinley Corner, Memramcook, Memramcook East, Pré-d'en-Haut, Shediac Road, and a portion of the Parish of Dorchester.

NOVA SCOTIA

Although applied first on September 29, 1621, when Sir William Alexander (1567?-1640) received a grant of "the lands lying between New England and Newfoundland ... to be known as Nova Scotia, or New Scotland", the name did not become fixed on the map until after the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. Prior to this, the name Acadia was generally used by the French to denote the Maritime provinces along with adjacent portions of New England and Quebec. The origin of the word Acadia is in dispute. It is generally accepted to be from Archadia (Acadia), assigned by Giovanni da Verrazano in 1524 and suggested by the classical name for a land of rustic peace. The claim that it is of Mik'maq origin is probably coincidental. The Micmac word Quoddy or Cady was rendered by the French as cadie and meant a piece of land or territory.

Source: Hamilton, William B. (1978): The Macmillan book of Canadian place names, Macmillan of Canada, Toronto, p. 129.

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND

The island appears under the name Île de Saint Jean in Champlain's narrative (1604) and on his map (1632); however, according to Ganong, the name is of earlier origin. After its acquisition by the British in 1759 the island was known as St. John's Island until the name was changed in 1798 to honour Prince Edward, Duke of Kent (1767-1820), father of Queen Victoria, then in command of the British forces at Halifax. Separated from Nova Scotia in 1769, Prince Edward Island entered Confederation on July 1, 1873.

Source: Hamilton, William B. (1978): The Macmillan book of Canadian place names, Macmillan of Canada, Toronto, p. 215.

How Did The Canadians Travel to Michigan?

In the days of Cadillac and thereafter for awhile they traveled by canoe. It is believed that they basically followed the St. Lawrence into Lake Ontario into Lake Erie and then here. Near the end of that century I have no idea how they changed things. After that there was no one pattern that they followed. I have gone to conferences the past few years to learn that info and the speakers don't really seem to know themselves. I know when the train arrived around 1850 the Grand Trunk went from the Riviere-du-Loup area to Sarnia. They have a good drawing of that in a museum I visited in Montreal. But I also know there was a pattern from the Isle Verte area to Belle River (near Windsor) then to Michigan and to Bay City and then to Alpena. I think there were a lot of different routes they took. Source: Gail Moreau, Researcher from Michigan

Oh Canada!

CALIXA LAVALLÉE (1842-1891) was initiated to the piano, violin, organ, and cornet by his father, a musical instrument maker. By 1855 he was studying piano in Montreal with Paul Letondal and Charles Wugk Sabatier. In 1857 he left Canada to perform as a musician in the USA and later toured in South America. After serving in the US Civil War he returned to Canada in 1863 to teach and give concerts in Montreal. During 1865-66 he spent some time in California, then married in Lowell, Mass. He settled in Boston, then moved to New York where he was appointed music director of the Grand Opera House from 1870-72. He returned to Montreal and a public subscription allowed him to spend 1873-75 in Paris where he studied piano with Marmontel, and composition with Boieldieu fils. Returning to Montreal Lavalleé opened a teaching studio with the violinist-composer Jéhin-Prume and served as choirmaster at St. James Church 1875-79. Best known as the composer of "O Canada", he was one of Canada's most active and versatile musicians of his day. His career eventually took him to Boston, where he remained until his death.

© Lucie LeBlanc Consentino
Acadian & French Canadian Ancestral Home
1998 - Present

Saint Nicolas des Champs, Paris, France

noreply@blogger.com (Lucie LeBlanc Consentino) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 11:53:00 +0000

Saint Nicolas des Champs
Church of the Abbey of Saint Martin des Champs

In August 2007, I traveled to Europe with daughters Sarah and Rebecca. A highlight of our time in Paris was finding the church of Saint Nicolas Des Champs, the place of origin for some of our ancestors before leaving France for Quebec, Canada.

At the time of its founding in 1067, the Abbey of Saint Martin des Champs was outside the walls of the City of Paris. It was incorporated into the city in the 14th century when it was enclosed by the new City wall constructed under the management of the Prefect of Paris, Etienne Marcel.

The church of Saint Nicolas des Champs was begun in 1420 and enlarged significantly in 1541.
In 1615, another building project was completed that gives us the church we see today.

The Church of Saint Nicolas des Champs was a center for charitable works and a refuge for pilgrims until its closing at the time of the French Revolution.

Closed in 1793, it was re-opened in 1795 as a temple dedicated to Faith.

In the 19th century it underwent a restoration and many works of contemporary artists were added to the interior along with works donated from other Paris churches.

The following ancestors lived at St. Nicolas Des Champs:

FRANCOIS BONNET was born abt. 1565 at St-Nicolas Des Champs. His date of death is unknown as is the name of his spouse. His granddaughter would be the first of his family to sail for Quebec some time after her marriage.

JEANNE BONNET was born Abt. 1600 in St-Nicolas Des Champs, Paris France, and died 23 April 1646 in St-Nicolas Des Champs, Paris France. She married NICOLAS RICHARD Abt. 1620 in Paris, France. He was born Abt. 1600 in St-Nicolas Des Champs, Paris France, and died Abt. 1632 in St-Nicolas Des Champs, Paris France. Their daughter MARGUERITE RICHARD (JEANNE1 BONNET) was born Abt. 1630 in St-Nicolas Des Champs, Paris France, and died 23 April 1708 in Lorette, Québec, Canada. She married JEAN (DIT LAVIGNE) LEVASSEUR 23 April 1646 in St-Nicolas Des Champs, Paris, France, son of NOEL LEVASSEUR and GENEVIEVE GAUCHER. He was born Abt. 1622 in Bois Guillaume, Rouen, Normandie, France, and died 31 August 1686 in Quebec, Canada.

The Architecture of the Church

The Church of Saint Nicolas des Champs is dominated by a beautiful tower which dates from the 15th century, the top portion dates from the 17th.

Parts of the nave date from the first construction of the present building in 1420. The Renaissance portail on the south side was built in the 16th century and was inspired by a drawing by Philippe de l'Orme, the architect to King Henri II.

Philippe de l'Orme was also responsible for the early design and beginnings of the Palais de Tuileries.

Although it now has a fairly rough exterior owing to its long life and to the rise and decline of the area, the interior of the church of Saint Nicolas des Champs is quite remarkable for its light and beauty.

Twenty five large windows account for the luminous quality and add greatly to the richness of the interior decoration.

The Works of Art

There are many wonderful masterpieces in the Church of Saint Nicolas des Champs from across the centuries attesting to her once prominent place in the life of the City.

Among these are:

Saint Vincent Taking the Place of the Condemned Mine Worker

This work was created in 1863 by the City of Paris and executed by the artist Leon Bonnat and tells of an episode in the life of Saint Vincent, the helper and protector of the poor.

The Baptism Of Christ

A work of the 16th century by Gaudenzio Ferrari, this painting is rich in allegory and symbol, retelling the story of Jesus' baptism in the river Jordan by John the Baptist.

Our Lady of Sorrows

The work of Georges Lallemant painted in 1620, depicts the scene of Jesus being taken down from the cross.

Saint Augustin

This work of Hilaire d'Olivet from the 18th century was for years attributed to another artist until the end of of the 19th century when a cleaning and restoration revealed the original signature and the error was rectified.
It is a wonderful painting depicting an episode in the life of the early 4th century saint and bishop of Hippo in present day Algeria.

Saint Nicolas Calming the Storm

The artist Jean-Baptiste Pierre was the First artist to the King in 1770. This painting was made to imitate a bas relief sculpture. It depicts one of the many miracles attributed to the great Saint.

Our Lady of Victory

This work by Frans Pourbus was painted in 1618 and is a magnificent and imposing work.

The Apostles at the Tomb of the Virgin and The Assumption

The retable is the work of the master Simon Vouet and was created in 1629. It depicts two scenes from early Christianity, the Burial of Mary and her Assumption into heaven. It is a remarkable work from the 17th century.
As can be seen from this wide array of works, this was once the center of a vibrant parish life and continues to this day as a presence in the area.

All photos the property of Lucie LeBlanc Consentino

Taken August 2007

Acadian & French-Canadian Blog & Web site

http://www.paris-walking-tours.com/saint-nicolas-des-champs.html

Acadian History by Placide Gaudet

noreply@blogger.com (Lucie LeBlanc Consentino) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 10:36:00 +0000

Acadian History by Placide Gaudet

Bridgetown, Nova Scotia

July 18th, 1922

The homestead of Antoine Belliveau, born in France in 1621, and married about 1651 to Andrée Guyon, was about one mile below the Allen river. Jean his only son, born at Port-Royal about 1652, married Jeanne Bourque about 1673 by whom he had three sons and two daughters. Jean Jr., his eldest son married in 1696 Madeleine Melanson and died September 13, 1707 of a wound he received in fighting the English, at the second attack of Colonel March against Port-Royal. He left three sons, of whom two settled at or near Carleton Corner opposite Bridgetown. Of these two I will speak, after I have related an episode relating to Charles, the eldest of the sons who was born in 1697, and married at Grand-Pré, November 3, 1717, Marguerite Granger, by whom he had ten children, of whom two where sons. Charles inherited his father's farm, and besides being a farmer, he was a ship carpenter and a good mariner. What I am going to say about Charles Belliveau, related to the year 1755, at the time of the Expulsion of the Acadians.

Writing on board his flagship the Torbay, then at St-Helen's, November 15 1755, to John Cleveland, Esq. Secretary to the Admiralty, Vice-Admiral Edward Boscawen, speaking of the removal of the Acadians, says: I appointed the following ships to convoy the transports that were to carry them: the Syren, captain Proby, from Chignecto to Georgia and the two Carolinas; the Nightlingale, captain Diggs, from Mines to Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, and then proceed to his station at New Yhork; the Baltimore, captain Owen, from Annapolis Royal to Newe York; the Hornet, captain Salt, from Annapolis Royal to Boston, and then the Spithead; the Mermaid, captain Shirley, to Connecticut. Captain Rous, of the Success, to assis in embarking them and to look into the St. John River.

Being short of provisions and the transports expected from Halifax not having yet arrived at Annapolis, captain Washington Shirley, commander of H.M.S., the Mermaid, sailed from Annapolis for Boston, with Sloop Hornet, captain Salk, November 10, and left T. Owen, captain of the Sloop Baltimore, in charge of the transports, five of which arrived at Annapolis Royal, between the 14th and the 17th of November. But the Pembroke Snow, with the provisions, having lost her main mast in a storm only reached Annapolis Royal between November 25, and December 1st.Her disabled mast had to be replaced, and Charles Belliveau was ordered to make a new one which he did. When it was finished he asked to be paid but on the refusal of the captain to do so, he at once lifted up his carpenter's axe and threatened to cut the new mast, and the captain had to pay him the price asked. But irony of fate he was embarked on board the Pembroke to be deported.

The Pembroke was of 42 tons, victualled for 139 days; she had on board 33 men, 37 women, 70 sons and 92 daughters forming a total of 232 persons. She sailed from Goat Island, December 8, 1755, bound for North Caroline. The other transports were the Helena, 3323 persons, for Boston; the Edwards, 278 persons, for Connecticut; the Two Sisters, 280, for Connecticut; the Experiment, 200 persons, for New York; the Hopson 342 persons, for South Carolina, and a Schooner, for South Carolina, with 9 persons. The grant total on the seven vessels was 1664 Acadian prisoners. With the exception of the Pembroke the transports reached their destination and landed their human cargo. The Baltimore convoyed them as far as New York, and Captain Owen approaching the Pembroke said to her captain: Be on your guard; on board your vessel you have some very able men and some good mariners, and so saying the captain of the Baltimore took another direction, whilst the Pembroke, which was only manned by eight persons went on her course towards North Carolina.

The 232 Acadian prisoners were kept in the hole of the Pembroke.

Just think of it, 232 persons packed in that part of the vessel where there was no ventilation of any kind! Was that an act of humanity, or of barbarity? I will not dwell on that subject; it is too heart rending. In order to prevent the unfortunate prisoners dying of suffocation, six at a time were allowed to come on deck every half hour alternatively. At last Charles Belliveau chose five of the strongest men among them, and told them what thy were to do, when the hatch-way would be opened, and instructions were also given to others to act promptly, at the proper moment. As soon as the half hour was over, and the six on deck ordered to go down in the hole, and six others called on deck, Belliveau and his five chosen companions came out quickly, and before the hatchway was closed they had mastered the captain and crew by stunning them with strong blows from their fists, and as the hatchway was left open many others came on deck to help their companions, if need be. At once Charles Belliveau took charge of the vessel, and as he was an expert mariner, he soon turned the direction of the Pembroke. The wind was very strong and the captain cried out: Stop! you are going to break the main-mast! To this Belliveau answered promptly: You lie; I made this mast and I know it will not break. Alternatively Captain Fontaine called Beaulieu and Belliveau, and some others were at the wheel. The Pembroke had sailed from Goat Island, December 8, 1755, and on February 8, 1756, she entered the port of St. John, New Brunswick where its human cargo was landed.

There are several documents relating to the capture of the Pembroke but the following extract of a letter from Governor Lawrence to Governor Shirley, of Massachusetts Bay, bearing date, February 18, 1756 is here appropriate. Here is what Lawrence says:

I lately sent a part of Rangers in a schooner to St. John River, as the men were cloathed like french soldiers and the schooner under french colours, I had hopes by such a deceit, not only to discover what was going there but to bring off some of the St. John Indians. The officer found there an English ship, one of our transports that sailed from Annapolis Royal with French inhabitants aboard bound for the Continent, but the inhabitants had risen upon the master & crew and carried the ship into that harbour, our people would have brought her off but by an accident they discovered themselved too soon, upon which the French set fire to the ship.

Amongst the Acadian prisoners onboard the Pembroke, besides Charles Belliveau and Captain Beaulieu, there were families of Boudreau, Dugas, Guilbeau, Granger, St-Seine, etc. There was also Prudent Robichaud, born in 1669 at Port-Royal, son of Etienne Robichaud and Françoise Boudreau, both natives of France. Prudent Robichaud married in 1691, Henriette Petitpas, and they had a family of twelve children, of whom five were sons. He was one of the prominent inhabitants of Annapolis Royal and rendered services to the English garrison, and yet notwhithstanding his old age - he was then eighty-six years old - he was embarked in December 1755 on board the Pembroke. In the summer of 1756, some of the 32 families left St-John River for Quebec. Robichaud was with them and died on the St-John River on his way to Quebec. On April 16 (N.S.) 1727, Lieutenant Governor Lawrence Armstrong had appointed him a Justice of the Peace for Annapolis, and on December 12 (N.S.) 1733, the same Lieutenant-Governor had given him the commission for collecting his Majesty's rents, etc., within the Banlieue of Annapolis Royal.

As to Charles Belliveau he succeded in reaching Quebec where he died in January 1758. His wife had predeceased him eight years and was buried at Annapolis Royal May 2, 1750.
Charles Jr. the eldest of the two sons, was born October 12, 1731, and on January 10, 1755, he married Osithe Dugas. He was deported in 1755 to Massachusetts Bay, and in 1767, he was permitted with his family to go to the province of Quebec, settled at St-Jacqaues de l'Achigan, where he died August 10, 1796, leaving several children, whose descendants are today numerous. As to Pierre, the youngest of the sons of Charles, the ship carpenter and mariner, he was born May 16, 1734, and therefore he was twenty one years old, at the time of the deportation which he escaped by taking to the woods, and succeeded in reaching, with others, an Acadian settlement at Coverdale, a few miles from Moncton. Amongst his companions in flight from Annapolis river, were three brothers, namely: Joseph, Charlitte and Bonaventure LeBlanc. They were all unmarried. They are, with Pierre Belliveau at their head, connected with the capture of the schooner in the summer of 1756, at Sackville, Westmorland County, New Brunswick. The Acadian families who had taken refuge, at the Acadian Village at Coverdale, about five or six miles from Moncton, being short of provisions Pierre Belliveau and the three LeBlanc brothers offered to go in search of cattle in the Chignictou district if a guide was given them. Cyprien Gautreau, a native of that district, offered his services which were acepted.

Pierre Belliveau and his four companions on arriving at Tintamarre River, at or near the town of Sackville, noticed at the bottom of the river, it was low tide, a schooner which Pierre Belliveau recognized at once, as belonging t his father, the hero of the Pembroke, and resolved to capture her. Having explained his plan to his companions, the five of them boarded the schooner on the pretext to buy some tobacco. The captain with a crea of four men had been sent from Annapolis, in search of Acadian fugitives, and to capture those he would meet. He therefore was delighted when those five young men went onboard of his schooner, and gave them free plenty of tobacco. But as the tide began to rise, Pierre Belliveau who could speak English well enough to make himself understood, thanked the captain and pretended to leave the vessel, but the captain told him that he and his companions were his prisoners, and then ordered three men of the cre to throw them into the hole. But this was not to be effected. Charlitte LeBlanc, on eof the three brothers and who had the strength of four ordinary men, had been told to keep himself close to windlass, and to make us of the windlass bar when ordered, consequently before the order of the captain could be obeyed, the cry of Strike, Charlitte, was heard, and the heavy bar of the windlass fell alternatively on the heads of the three sailors, who were killed outright. Then the captain called his first mate - a mighty strong man - who at the time was in the cabin, and ordered him to throw in the hole these Acadians whom he qualified with epithets unproper to be repeated here. Again was heard Strike, Charlitte! and the first mate fell overboard, holding Pierre Belliveau. The latter was promptly rescued, and the mate received another blow which finished him. Then came the turn of the captain who begged of them on his knees not to kill him but without avail. Having been told to recommend his soul to his Maker, he received a fatal blow from the hands of Charlitte LeBlanc. The schooner was taken up the Petcoudiac River, and hidden in a creek at Coverdale.

It was in the seventies of the last century that at Memramcook, I learned this last episode from the lips of some of the descendants of those who captured that schooner. Some twelve years later, Pierre Belliveau and the three LeBlanc brothers settled on the west side of the Memramcook River, where they died leaving large families. The descendants of Gautreau are at Barachois, near the town of Shediac.
Pierre Bellieveau was born 16 May 1734 and married Abt. 1760, Anne Girouard, and died at Memramcook, Febraury 16, 1820, and his wife on April 5th, 1823. They had a family of seven children whose descendants are today very numerous.

As I have said, two sons, of Jean Belliveau (who died in 1707, from the wounds he received at one of the sieges of Port-Royal by Colonel March) and brothers of Charles Belliveau of the Pembroke fame, settled at Carleton Corner after their marriage. Jean, the eldest of the two, born in 1699, married November 13, 1730, Marie-Madeleine Gaudet, and died at Belliveau's Cove, Digby County, Nova Scotia. He was the great-grandfather of Julie Vitaline Belliveau, wife of the late Luc LeBlanc and mother of the Right Reverend Dr. Edouard A. LeBlanc, Bishop of St-John, New Brunswick.
Pierre Belliveau, brother of Jean, who died at Belliveau's Cove, was born August 4, 1706, and on January 21, 1723, he married Jeanne Gaudet, sister of Marie-Madeleine, wife of his brother Jean. These two sisters were the daughters of Bernard Gaudet and Jeanne Terriot.

Pierre Belliveau had the surname Piau (pronounced Peeo) and was the uncle of the Pierre Belliveau who with four others made the capture of his father's schooner at Sackville, New Brunswick. This Pierre Belliveau surnamed Piau was the grandfather of my father's mother. Like his brother harles and Pierre, his nephew, his adventures at the time of the Expulsion deserve to be related.

Towards the end of August 1755, on the arrival of the first vessels ordered from Halifax to Annapolis Royal to transport the Acadians, all the French inhabitants residing above the fort fled to the wood. A few days later many returned to their dwelling houses, and there remained until they were embarked, on December 4, onboard the transports, but not on those which had arrived from Boston in the month of August. These had to be sent to Minas Basin where vessels were waiting to deport the population of that district.

But Pierre Belliveau surnamed Piau and several of his neighbors and a few families,from both sides of the river, below the fort, who had fled to Gaudet Village, thought it more prudent to abandon their homes and seek a temporary place of refuge, where they would be in in safety from the pursuit of the soldiery. Acordingly they took with them as much of their effects as they could conveniently carry, crossed to the North Mountain, and went to New Hampton, then called Anse de la Croix (Cross Cove). Here were several large fishing boats hidden there by the heads of the families living below the fort who fled to Gaudet Village. It must be remembered that Major John Handfield, commanding officer at Annapolis Royal, had ordered by a proclamation, dated July 12, 1755, that all fire arms, boats of all kinds belonging to the Acadians should be delivered at the fort, without delay. Fortunately for Belliveau and his companions this order was not unanimously carried out, and this is the explanation why fishing boats were hidden at Cross Point. These boats were used by Belliveau's caravan to ascend the bay, some twenty-four miles, till they reached a little port which afterwards was called French Cross on account of a cross erected there by Bellieveau and his Acadian companions but is now known as Morden. It is situated on the Bay of Fundy shore, and lies about seven miles from Hampton station, in a direct line. Here they remained until about the 9th dy of December, awaiting with great anxiety to learn what would be the fate of their compatriots who had returned to their homes in the beginning of September.

From their hiding place they noticed one day, about the middle of October, a fleet of ten ships, convoyed by an armed vessel, going down the bay. did they dream that onboard of these there was a human cargo of 1,045 Acadian prisoners from Chignictou district? There is no record to tell us. This fleet had sailed from Cumberland Basin, on the 13th of October, bound for Georgia, North and South Carolina, and put in the Basin of Annapolis, whence it sailed again on the 27th, which day, another fleet composed of thirteen vessels, convoyed by the frigate Nightengale, also sailed from Minas Basin, with 1,505 prisoners from that locality, and 1,100 from Pisiguit. These also, as they went down the bay, were noticed by Bellieveau and his companions.

At last they got information through some Indians met by their watching party, that the people of Annapolis had been shipped off on a fleet which sailed from Goat Island on Monday the 8th of December at five o'clock in the morning. this human cargo consisted of 1,664 Acadian prisoners.
Had Belliveau and his companions remained a few weeks longer in their hiding place, they would have seen other transports going down the bay with human cargoes, one on the 6th of same month with 150 prisoners, two on the 13th with 350 Acadians, and on the 20th December, two other vessels left Minas Basin with 230 prisoners.

Summing up the above figures, we have a total of 6,080 Acadians of Annapolis, Kings, Hants, Colchester and Cumberland counties, who were shipped off in thirty-four vessels. Minor deportations took place from time to time for several years.

What a terrible catastrophe had fallen on the Acadian people. Pastors and flocks were being tossed at the same time on the rolling waves of an angry sea. The members of families were separated and embarked on different transports. Their houses and churches were given to flames. The inhabitants of the peninsula who had escaped deportation were wandering in the forest and shivering with cold and exposure, whilst the perpetrators of these misfortunes and miseries were rejoicing over the result of their inhuman and cruel work. The heart-rending sufferings of the unfortunate Acadians were nothing to Lawrence and his associates. They thought the Acadian race was forever banished from Acadie. How great mistaken they were!

About the 9th of December, 1755, after having erected a cross as a momento of their sojourn at Morden, Belliveau and his companions left their hiding place at French Cross to seek a safer one. Fortunately, they had the few fishing boats which I have already mentioned, and having embarked onboard, they coasted the shore of the Bay of Fundy as far as Digby Neck, and then enterred by Petit Passage, nearly opposite Ste-Anne College, at Church Point, into St-Mary's Bay, which they ascended as far as the entrace of Belliveau's Cove, five miles from Petit Passage. Here there was then a small island, and they decided to land and encamp on it for the rest of the winter. When I first visited that locality, in February 1885, that island was called Ile-à-Piau (Piau's Island) by the old people of the neighbourhood. that name is now in oblivion, and the island itself is no more, it has since joined the mainland and forms a part of the picturesque landscape now called Major Doucet's Point. With Church Point this is the most historic spot in the whole municipality of Clare or French Town, as the Acadian settlements on the estern shore of St. Mary's Bay were formerly known to their English-speaking neighbors. As several deaths occurred among Pierre Belliveau's caravan, soon after their arrival and during the winter 1755-6, they were buried here. This spot was in September, 1768, the cradle of Clare Settlement by Acadians. For twenty years, from 1771 to 1791, the first Acadian settlers of Clare buried their dead alongside of those interred there during the winter of 1755-6, and thus Piau's Island became the first Acadian burial ground in Digby County.
I will not endeavor to portray the sufferings and miseries the Acadian fugitives endured during that winter. They are more easy to be conveived than to be described. One of their cares was to build rough huts. This I know by family tradition. These unfortunate one, poorly clad, sleeping on bed of fir twigs spread on bare ground for pillows, often covered with snow after stormy nights, destitute of proper food and starving, were often visited by the angel of death, which mercifully ended the sufferings of many. Thus passed the bleak winter of 1755-6.

Spring came at last and Pierre Belliveau and his companions bade adieu to the small island which had given them shelter, and embarked in their fishing boats to seek another place of refuge. Having crossed to the other side of the Bay of Fundy they followed its shores to Chignictou Bay which they ascended, entered Shipody Bay then Petcoudiac River went to its bend, now Moncton, and proceeded to the Acadian Village at Coverdale. Here they found every one in complete misery and that decided them to seek another refuge. They went through the woods to Cocagne, and on foot reached Boishebert's camp, at Nelson, on the Miramichi River, a distance of nearly one hundred miles. The caravan found here as much miseries if not more than at Coverdael. The Acadian refugees there were daily dying of starvation, and many of Belliveau's caravan were buried at Nelson. Belliveau and his companions soon left the place and went to Ristigouche where they remained a few years and then returned to Coverdale. Thjis was before Captain McKenzie's raid at Ristigouche in 1761.

About the year 1768, Pierre Belliveau surnamed Piau, with his son Joseph, settled on the western side of the Memramcook River, nearly opposite where is now the University St-Joseph (today in 1999 a museum exists here). For many years that locality was called Le Village-des-Piaux, (Piaus' Village) but now it is St-Joseph. A few years later, Joseph Belliveau became one of the first settlers of Belliveau's Village on the eastern side of the Petcoudiac river, and it is there that his father died in 1800, and himself in 1840, both of them approaching one hundred years of age. Their descendatns are very numerous

Placide Gaudet ended this presentation by saying: Dear Denis Gaudet, first settler of this locality, may you rest in peace. Your race shall never become extinct, since your numerous descendants are to be found in nearly every province in the Dominion and even in the United States. Placide Gaudet
SOURCE: La Société Historique Acadienne, le 30ième Cahier, Vol. III no. 10, January, February, March 1971.

© Lucie LeBlanc Consentino
Acadian & French Canadian Ancestral Home
1998 - 2004

Amesbury Public Library - October 29th, 2011

noreply@blogger.com (Lucie LeBlanc Consentino) — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 15:29:00 +0000

Dear Cousins and Friends,

On Saturday, October 29th, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. I will be speaking at the Amesbury Public Library. Topic: Acadian History & Genealogy - I will also speak about the Acadians exiled to Amesbury from 1755-1763.

To register please go to the library site at:

http://www.eventkeeper.com/code/ekform.cfm?curOrg=AMESBURY&curApp=events&curID=50162&tEvt=2242512

I hope to see you there!

Lucie

Acadians of Tintamarre

noreply@blogger.com (Lucie LeBlanc Consentino) — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 13:09:00 +0000

Sometime around 1708, the sons of Pierre Gaudet l'aîné [meaning the elder] along with his sons Pierre, Abraham and Augustin, were the pioneers of Tintamarre. This became the center of the whole settlement on the Tintamarre River.

They would later be joined by their Gaudet cousins as well as Germain Girouard who had left Port-Royal. The Haché, Bernard, Bourg and Richard families would pioneer other villages downriver. About 1717, the Arsenault, Poirier and Chiasson families would do the same upriver.

Building dykes to reclaim the fertile soil of the marshlands, they planted crops and raised livestock. Around 1723 they built a chapel. Once the deportation of the Acadians was underway, the British and New England military from Forts Cumberland [Beauséjour before it fell to the British] and Lawrence destroyed the surrounding villages, including Tintamarre in September of 1755. Despite all odds, the Acadian culture has survived and remains an important part of today's Tantramar's history. Map used with permission of the Tantramar site - "Yes, by all means use the map from the Tantramar Historic Sites web site for your own Acadian site. - Best wishes, Charlie Scobie.

Acadian & French Canadian Ancestral Home
Blog & Website

2006 - Present

Third Anniversary of the Acadian Ancestral Home Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Lucie LeBlanc Consentino) — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 12:03:00 +0000

Time certainly does fly when we enjoy what we are doing. I cannot believe it has been three years since this blog was launched.

Sincere thanks to all who have supported me over the years in all of my endeavors be it the Acadian & French-Canadian Ancestral Home web site, this blog as well as my other two blogs Lucie's Legacy and Whispers Through The Willows.

Deepest gratitude to my family for the all of their support and a shout out to our oldest daughter Rebecca who one day while home from college suggested I start a web site, gave me a few tips on how to do that and I've had an online presence for some fifteen years when I launched my first web site. Another shout out goes to our daughter Sarah for all of her encouragement as well as my husband Tony. Without all of their encouragement and support I probably would have never "dared" to try the Internet..goodness it seemed so overwhelming all those years ago when the best email (and almost only) was with AOL and the best free web sites were with geocities.

With time, I became an Internet "grown up" and no longer feared what might go wrong if I did this or that and I then purchased server space with ICDSoft in 2002 as well as a domain name. Without realizing it I guess those of us with early web sites were sort of pioneers - I remember when my web site was only one of perhaps 4 or 5 Acadian sites.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention our son-in-law Tyler who has been my computer guru when something went wrong and I couldn't figure it out. He always came to the rescue. I now have two sons-in-law. So I also tap Corey once in a while when I have questions.

Since the day I came online I've met cousins I never knew existed and have made some good friends. I love being online. All in all, it is just wonderful to be doings that I love to do at this time in my life. I'll be doing lots of blogging so stay tuned.. admittedly, I take some time off during the summer months but it is September and I am back with lots of discoveries to share.

Lucie LeBlanc Consentino

Acadian & French-Canadian Ancestral Home

6 September 2011

Acadian Ancestral Home

Some Massachusetts Town Records

Acadians Exiled to Philadelphia in 1755

© Lucie LeBlanc Consentino Acadian & French Canadian Ancestral Home Web site & Blog 2005 - Present

1755 Deportation from Grand-Pré

Bibliography: Collection of the Nova Scotia Historical Society 1870-1884 ~ Journal of John Winslow volumes 1-4.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Acadians Deported from Beaubassin Acadia in 1755

Acadian History by Placide Gaudet

© Lucie LeBlanc Consentino Acadian & French Canadian Ancestral Home 1998 - Present

Speaking at NARA 21 Februrary 2013

Welcome/Bienvenue!

Free National Archives Program Explores

Acadian History and Genealogy

Thursday, February 21, 2013 6 P.M.

Consentino’s engaging presentation is intended for the general public; teachers can receive professional development credit. Welcome/Bienvenue!

What Became of the Acadians?

I. TO THE FRENCH COLONIES IN GUYANA

II. AT BELLE-ILE-EN-MER

III. AT POITOU

IV. IN LOUISIANA

V. TO CANADA

1752 Acadian Census

January 1752 General List of Inhabitants of French Acadia By Names, Families, Villages and number of Boys and Girls in Each Family

1752

VESKAK

PRÉ DES BOURGS (BOURQUE)

DES RICHARDS

TINTAMARRE

LA COUPE

LE LAC

LA POINTE À BEAUSÉJOUR

MEMERAMKOOK(MEMRAMCOOK)

PETKOUDIACK(PETITCODIAC)

CHIPOUDY

January 1752 General List of Refugee Families by Their Names, Villages, and Number of Boys and Girls in each Family

GASPARAUX [Gaspereau]

BAYE VERTE

PORTAGE

POINTE BUOT

LA COUPE

LE LAC

LA POINTE DE BEAUSÉJOUR

VESKAK

LA PRÉ DES BOURG

DES RICHARD

TINTAMARRE

MEMRAMKOUK [Memramcook]

CHIPOUDY

PETKOUDIAK

© Lucie LeBlanc Consentino Acadian & French Canadian Ancestral Home 1998 - Present

October 16, 1755 - Acadian Deportation Has Begun

The Proclamation of Acadian Deportation - 1755

© Lucie LeBlanc Consentino Acadian & French Canadian Ancestral Home 1998 - Present

Acadians Die At Sea on the Duke William

British Ships in the Stormy Sea

April 19, 1759

Key Figures In The Fall of Acadia - Part IV

Key Figures In The Fall of Acadia - Part III

© Lucie LeBlanc Consentino Acadian & French Canadian Ancestral Home

Key Figures in the Fall of Acadia - Part II

Key Figures In The Fall of Acadia - Part I

Wars and Battles Pertaining to Acadia

The Wars to take Acadia

The Acadian People

The Wars including the French & Indian War

I. The French and Indian War (1754-1763) was the last of four North American wars waged from 1689 to 1763 between the British and the French.

The Treaty of Paris - 1763

© Lucie LeBlanc Consentino Acadian & French Canadian Ancestral Home 1998 - Present

August 25, 1755 - Acadian Deportation

Interesting Facts

Interesting Notes on a Symbol of Acadia

PLACE EXILED FROM Annapolis Royal Minas Basin(Les Mines) Chignectou Pisiquid Pré des Boudreau Grand-Pré Halifax Port-Latour Cap-Sable

PLACE EXILED TO So. Carolina/Massachusetts/Connecticut New York/Ile St-Jean Virgiania/Maryland/So.Carolina/Connecticut So. Carolina/Pennsylvania/Georgia Maryland/Virginia/Massachusetts/Pennsylvania Connecticut/Virginia/Massachusetts Maryland/Pennsylvania North Carolina Massachusetts Massachusetts

Saint Nicolas des Champs, Paris, France

Acadian History by Placide Gaudet

© Lucie LeBlanc Consentino Acadian & French Canadian Ancestral Home 1998 - 2004

Amesbury Public Library - October 29th, 2011

Dear Cousins and Friends,

On Saturday, October 29th, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. I will be speaking at the Amesbury Public Library. Topic: Acadian History &amp; Genealogy - I will also speak about the Acadians exiled to Amesbury from 1755-1763. To register please go to the library site at:

© Lucie LeBlanc Consentino

Acadian & French Canadian Ancestral Home

Web site & Blog 2005 - Present

© Lucie LeBlanc Consentino
Acadian & French Canadian Ancestral Home
1998 - Present

January 1752
General List of Inhabitants of French Acadia
By Names, Families, Villages and number of Boys and Girls
in Each Family

January 1752
General List of Refugee Families by Their Names,
Villages, and Number of Boys and Girls in each Family

© Lucie LeBlanc Consentino
Acadian & French Canadian Ancestral Home
1998 - Present

© Lucie LeBlanc Consentino
Acadian & French Canadian Ancestral Home
1998 - Present

© Lucie LeBlanc Consentino
Acadian & French Canadian Ancestral Home

© Lucie LeBlanc Consentino
Acadian & French Canadian Ancestral Home
1998 - Present

PLACE
EXILED FROM
Annapolis Royal

Minas Basin(Les Mines)
Chignectou
Pisiquid
Pré des Boudreau
Grand-Pré
Halifax
Port-Latour
Cap-Sable

PLACE
EXILED TO
So. Carolina/Massachusetts/Connecticut
New York/Ile St-Jean
Virgiania/Maryland/So.Carolina/Connecticut
So. Carolina/Pennsylvania/Georgia
Maryland/Virginia/Massachusetts/Pennsylvania
Connecticut/Virginia/Massachusetts
Maryland/Pennsylvania
North Carolina
Massachusetts
Massachusetts

© Lucie LeBlanc Consentino
Acadian & French Canadian Ancestral Home
1998 - 2004

On Saturday, October 29th, from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. I will be speaking at the Amesbury Public Library. Topic: Acadian History & Genealogy - I will also speak about the Acadians exiled to Amesbury from 1755-1763.

To register please go to the library site at: