History & Genealogy,
Early French, Abenaki & American Ancestors
Acadia and Penobscot, Maine, U.S.A.
1613-1721
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St-Castin Coat-of-Arms
from the official website of St-Castin village, near Oloron and Pau
http://perso.orange.fr/saint-castin/histoire.htm
On the families of d'Abbadie de St-Castin, d'Aulnay, LaTour,
d'Entremont, Bélisle / LeBorgne and many more by Danielle Duval Lemyre
ddlemyre@yahoo.com
Please, reader, remember that there is a "Links Page" to consult,
where you can learn a lot more about the subjects I merely touched on...
To be included in the LINKS page, submit your site to me
You are welcomed to Sign the Guestbook or VIEW our Guestbook
INTRODUCTION:
This story covers the 17th century in Pentagouet (Castine) Maine.
Many early French ancestors who came to the New World were of previously Protestant creed
and came from the Béarn principauty, a Huguenot stronghold.
Before we start with the story of Pentagöet, I would like to say a few words about
Vincent d'Abbadie, 3rd Baron de St-Castin,
for he inflames the mind of so many people, that I find it preferable to first speak of him.
Nevertheless, I repeat, he is but a small part of my story.
Jean-Vincent d'Abbadie, born around June 1652, was a child of the plague.
He was a true survivor, pithed against difficult odds.
The Plague took his Mother's life, Isabeau de Bearn-Bonasse, on November 17 1652, at age 24,
when she died at the home of her parents in Arette, in the valley of Barétous;
she had been married three years and she now had three children.
The plague of 1348 had killed a third of the occidental countries
including the major part of France, but it had spared the Béarn.
Now in 1652, it was the last plague epidemic, perhaps the most virulent,
and it raged in the Bearn from 1652 to 1654
Isabeau, mother of three children ages 2, 1 & 4 months old,
was one of the few buried in the cimetery of l'Église St-Pierre,
near the family castle, when most people were simply incinerated with their possessions.
Yes, Isabelle was a noblewoman whose family had intimate links with the Crowns of Navarre and France,
relationships which in the past had produced some children in the Royal fold.
On his Father' side Jean-Vincent d'Abbadie was also cousin to the Kings
of Navarre and France, third baron of Saint-Castin, a title first belonging to his gr.gr.grand-mother, Jeanne de Forbet.
His parents lived in Escout, canton d'Oloron, near Pau,
and Jean-Vincent was probably born there, as also had his brother Jean-Jacques in 1651
and his sister Marie who was baptized on January 25th 1650 in St-Vincent d'Escout.
Their Father, Jean-Jacques d'Abbadie,
was seigneur de Saint-Castin, d'Escout, d'Escou and Herrère.
ORIGINS of the FAMILIES of
D'ABBADIE de St-Castin and the BEARN-BONASSE
D'Abbadie
Jean-Vincent's branch was the D'Abbadie of the House of Maslacq
(from Orthez in the canton of Lagor)
as opposed to the d'Abbadie d'Arboucave,
the d'Abbadie de Saint-Germain,
the d'Abbadie de Canou
and the d'abadie de Bastannès,
all of which were descendants of Bertrand d'Abbadie who was lawyer (avocat général) to the King of Navarre;
Bertrand was seigneur of Baléon, Lignac, Tartoin and he married Jeanne de Florence, d'Oloron.
Bertrand was gr-gr-grandFather of Jean-Vincent.
The d'Abbadie were a long line of lawyers and jurists.
Bertrand and Jeanne had 10 children.
It was their son Jean-Pierre d'Abbadie (1537-1609), also a jurist for Henri IV,
who married Bernardine de Luger, dame de Saint-Castin, heiress to the St-Castin estate;
they married in PAU on May 30, 1581.
The Luger family was an important one dating back further than the 15th c.;
they were lawyers & jurists, like the d'Abbadie.
Bernardine was the daughter of Martin de Luger, seigneur de la maison de Pesbeig d'Escout
and of Jeanne de Forbet, dame de Saint-Castin since 1527.
Jean-Pierre and Bernardine had three children,
and it was their son Bertrand who became the first seigneur de Saint-Castin, etc.
and married Marie de Bidou (d'Orin),
daughter to the nobleman Forticq de Bidou and Marie de Parage.
Bertrand and Marie were married c. 1619 and were the grand-parents of our
Jean-Vincent(1652-1707).
Bertrand and Marie's son, Jean-Jacques d'Abbadie was born November 1st 1620; he was the father of Vincent.
Jean-Jacques married Isabeau de Bearn-Bonasse by contract on February 4 1649;
it was signed at the House of Bonasse in Arette.
Isabelle was the daughter of nobleman Jacques de Béarn, seigneur de Bonasse
and of Magdeleine de Laas (Làas) and they were a more important family than the d'Abbadie family.
Jean-Jacques and Isabeau were married three years and they had three children:
Marie(1650),
Jean-Jacques(1651)
Jean-Vincent(1652).
Isabelle died of the Plague in 1652.
The house where Jean Vincent was born in Escout does not exist anymore.
It was sold by his elder brother four or five years before he inherited the title in 1674, after his brother died.
A new building replaced it immediatly on the old foundations.
On the other hand, for those who want to see some of their earlier roots, the two houses belonging to Jean-Vincent's two grandmothers still stand, and he would have visited there, as they helped raising him.
His d'Abbadie paternal grand-parents' principal residence was in Escout, canton d'Oloron (near Pau)
while his Bearn-Bonasse maternal grand-parents lived in Arète, in the valley of Barétous, both in the Béarn.
Though they did not usually stay there, the d'Abbadie also owned the land where the St-Castin village stood.
The St-Castin village and it's location on a map of France
from the st-Castin village website = http://perso.orange.fr/saint-castin/ecole.htm
Béarn-Bonasse
The Bearn-Bonasse of the House of Foix-Grailly was allied with the House of d'Albret in 1484
when Capitaine Francois Bonasse helped Jeanne d'Albret, Mother of the futur Henri IV;
the Béarn-Bonasse counted as ancestors:
- - Jean de Grailly who received his sword from the King of France Jean le Bon
and was made prisonner in 1356 at the Battle of Poitiers
- - Bernard de Béarn (1382), the bastard of the comte de Foix, who became sénéchal de Lannes;
- - Gaston de Foix had a child with Agnes, daughter of King David of Navarre.
This site on heraldry at www.heraldica.org/topics/france/peerage2.htm says
"Foix (1458, C F): for Gaston de Foix. Passes to Albret 1517, Bourbon 1572. Unit. 1589."
CLICK HERE
for more on the History and Genealogy of the Béarn and the Ancestors of Vincent's parents
ADVENTURE in NEW-FRANCE
Vincent d'Abbadie de St-Castin arrived in New-France on June 19 1665,
as an "Enseigne" (Ensign) with the Carignan (Sallières) Regiment.
He was around 12-13 years old.
A few months his arrival, a peace treaty was signed between France & England,
and after spending a few weeks with the Micmacs and Etchemins First Nations, he returned home to France but finding the New World and the First Nations attractive,
he decided to come back and explore it more in depth, arriving in Pentagouet, on the Penobscot River, Acadia, (now in Maine, U.S.A.) in 1670 with gouverneur d’Andigné de Grandfontaine, followqing the Bréda Treaty. At the same time, Philippe Mius D’Entremont (born c.1601- died c.1699) (son of Claude (a.k.a. Nicolas) Muis Antoine De Meuillon DE MONTAUBAN (1572 in Flanders - 1602) and Countess Beatrice DE COLIGNY D'entremont, daughter of Admiral Gaspard DE COLIGNY II and Jacqueline DE MONTBEL D' Entremont, who married June 17 1600. Beatrice was born on 21 Dec 1572 in Savoy, France and died in 1671 in Savoy, France.) Philippe was made "procureur du roi" in 1670 for 18 years. Philippe would live many years in Port Royal but he died in GrandPré around 1700, living with his daughter Marguerite Melanson. Vincent lived with the Abenaqui First Nation, near the Badagucce river, near Pentagouet.
Castine, Maine, on the Atlantic Coast
and leading to it, the narrow strip of land which separates the Bagaducce River from the Penobscot River.
Photo was on the website of the Town of Castine at
www.castine.me.us/display.phtml?catid=8&PHPSESSID=18eab5ecfcffc1de0886afd32df52bb1
"Castine, a small coastal village of approximately 7.9 square miles, is located on a peninsula in the East Penobscot Bay Region of Maine, 1 hour from Bangor, and 1.25 hours from Camden and from Bar Harbor. The town, on the National Register of Historic Places, consists of two distinct geographic areas referred to as the Village and "off neck," a narrow strip of land that separates the Bagaduce River on one side from the Penobscot River on the other."
// EXCERPT FROM:
http://www.castine.me.us/display.phtml?catid=8&PHPSESSID=18eab5ecfcffc1de0886afd32df52bb1
This area on the Atlantic shore enjoyed a mild weather in winter and it's summers where beautiful, reminding him of France because of the apple trees which grew there, planted by the Jesuits around 1611-1613 and later on by Charles d'Aulnay. At that point, in 1670, the Abenaki Sachem, Madocawondo, liking this young man and
knowing he intends to go back to France,
gave him all his daughters as wives (3), in an attempt to keep him in the Penobscot bay area.
Soon, Mathilda or Pidianske or Pidi8ammisk8a, elder sister to his future wife Melchide, gave him a daughter, Claire, in 1671, Thérese (born prior 1677). He also had a son, Robardis,(c.1671-1672) either from a third sister (unknown name) or Pidianske; Robardis chose not to 'mix' with the European community.
Around 1684, after his return from a trip to France, he married the youngest,
Melchide de Nicosquoué in Old Town, a small island near Bangor, Maine.
Melchide gave him 10 children: Cécile, Bernard-Anselme, Joseph-Marie, Francois-Xavier, Anasthasie, Ursule, Brigitte, Jean-Pierre(born 1692- died while at Quebec's College, in 1701), Bernard, Barenos
On October 14 1689, Louis XIV (France), awarded him a large concession on the St.John River, close to the D'Amours fief, but he remained mostly in Pentagouet and Port-Royal, and in 1696 he became chief of the Abenakis when Madockawando, his Father-in-law died.
He had to go back to France around 1704 to answer charges of trading with the British in Boston, even though rights to that effect had been granted earlier on, and he died there in late 1706 before he could come back.
His son, Bernard-Anselme, was elected as Chief of the Abenaki tribe.
Both Vincent and Anselme were instrumental in preserving both the rights of the Abenakis in the U.S. and saving the lives of several families by getting land concessions for them in Quebec (St-François-de-Sales, near Quebec, then St-François-du-Lac (Odanak) near Sorel in Nicolet)
.
SYNOPSIS:
This is the plan of the story:
1) 1704: Anselme d'Abbadie de St-Castin's return from France
2) 1707: Anselme's marries in the important D'Amours family, (Charlotte Guyon Damours)
3) 1686: Charlotte's parents story
4) 1711: The cloak-and-dagger story of Louise Guyon D'Amours, who raised Charlotte
5) 1609: de La Tour, the first people living in Acadia
6) 1635: Razilly dies and the Chevalier D'Aulnay inherits Pentagouet,
and the tale of Francoise Jacquemin (LaTour) who dies a heroine.
7) 1650: Alexandre LeBorgne steps in Acadia as Governor
8) 1654: Children of Charles de LaTour and Jeanne Motin, widow of D'Aulnay
9) 1665: Arrival of Jean-Vincent D'Abbadie
10) 1670: Family and life of Vincent D'Abbadie de St-Castin
11) 1707-1711: Louis XIV, Anselme de St-Castin and Pierre Morpain
12) 1714-1720: Louis XV : Family of Anselme d'Abbadie and Charlotte Guyon d'Amours:
their daughter Marie-Anselme receives the title for her husband and cousin, Pierre (D’Abadie de Bastannès) de Bourbon
13) 1746-1750-1755: Acadian stories of the Deportation of the French by the British and the St-Castin / Meunier involvement.
FRENCH SYNOPSIS:
Vincent d'Abbadie, troisième baron de St-Castin, cousin des rois de Navarre et de France, de par sa mère les Béarn-Bonasse et de son père, arriva en Nouvelle-France le 19 juin 1665, comme Enseigne au Régiment de Carignan (Sallières), agé de 13 ans.
Bientôt, la paix entre la France et l'Angleterre lui permit d'explorer la Nouvelle-France,
et il s'établit en 1670 à Pentagoët, qui faisait partie de L'Acadie (et se trouve maintenant dans le Maine, U.S.A.)
où le Sachem des Abenakis Etchemin de la baie de Penobscot, Madocawondo lui donna toutes ses filles comme épouses.
Vincent eut comme enfants, entre autres, Claire, Thérèse et un fils, Robardis de l'une des ses femmes, Pidi8ammisk8a ou Mathilde, mais il épousa vers 1684-5 la plus jeune des soeurs, Melchide, de qui il eut 10 enfants, dont Bernard-Anselme, Anasthasie, Ursule, Jean-Pierre(né 1692- décédé 1701 au Collège à Québec), Joseph, Barenos
En 1687, le Roi Louis XIV lui accorda une large concession à la Rivière St-Jean, près de celle des D'Amours.
En 1696 il devient le chef de la tribu des Abenakis à la mort de son beau-père Matakando.
Il fut forcé d'aller en France vers 1704 pour se défendre d'allégations d'avoir "négocié" avec les Britanniques, bien qu'une entente eut été faite à ce sujet quelques années auparavant. Il mourut en France à la fin de 1706 et son fils Bernard-Anselme fut élu chef des Abénakis.
Le père et le fils furent responsables de la retention des droits des Abénakis aux Etat-Unis, et de l'implantation de plusieurs familles Etchemin Abenakies au Québec, dont à Odanak, St-François.
Dear Reader: My name is Danielle and I find enthralling the stories which are tied to these early settlers of North America, over-lapping each other so many times, that the story of one becomes the story of his neighbour, child or ennemy; men marrying widows of those who had betrayed them, as did Jeanne Motin with Charles Latour, d'Aulnay's arch ennemy.
Such is the history of many of those living in the Penobscot Bay area of Maine, who used to be part of Acadia and New-France.
So much in this story is conveluted, I chose to first give you an overlay, then let you wander where your heart choses.
Some like to read about their ties to the Kings of Europe, others to the First Nations, others again to the women who were our Mothers and caregivers, and most people love the stories of fearless pirates who roamed the seas in those years.
This story has them all, the French, English and Indian foes and friends, where friendships overlaid so many lives, the forays into the French Court life during the reigns of Louis XIV
and Louis XV or the ties to the Kings of Navarre.
The seventeenth century saw the exod and difficult beginnings of Europeans trying to adapt to different lifestyles, often fleeing persecutions, jumping from the frying pan into the fire, as it were...
The numerous First Nations preferred way of life was also going to undergo massive changes, as disturbing as those of the newcomers.
D'ABBADIE de ST-Castin
The D'Abbadie were intrepid, courageous and loyal, they made steadfast friends.
Jean-Vincent was around thirteen when he first came, either on "Le Brezé" or it's companion, "Le Téren", which left LaRochelle on Mai 6 1665 to arrive in Percé on June 30 1665 with the Carignan-Salières Regiment under le marquis Henri de Chastelard de Salières.
Soldiers of the Carignan-Salières Regiment - 1665
As he would all his life, Vincent was travelling with his man servant, Renaud de Bordenave.
This man even became Godfather to his son Bernard, on October 15 1688. As it was, France and England soon signed a peace treaty in July 1667.
After going back to France, he returned on July 17, 1670 aboard the Saint-Sebastien which arrived in
the Bay of Pentagoet, under the command of M. Chadreau de la Clocheterie;
there were 40 soldiers (some of which were his fellow-mates of the Carignan-Salieres: Jacques de Chambly, Pierre Joybert(seigneur de Soulanges et de Marson), Sebastien de Villieu),
13 officers and several gentlemen from the Académie Royale des Sciences who were supposed to help
Hector d'Andigne, chevalier de Grandfontaine.
In coming back, Vincent had decided to see more of New France.
First linking to one group of First Nations, the Micmac, he soon got into contact with the Etchemins,
and from there it was but a step to meet the Penobscot Abenakis who spent their winters in Pentagouet (c.1671)
Pentagoët was a site where a Jesuit Mission had been established around 1613, which Charles de Bienville, Claude and , Charles de LaTour had fought for at the beginning of the century, under LOUIS XIII of France and Charles 1st of England.
Around 1682-85, Vincent married the Abenaki Princess, Melchide, sister of Pidiwanskie(Matilda).
He had several sons of which Anselme St-Castin & Joseph Robardis were better known, and finally his many grandsons, including Louis St-Castin and Joseph Meunier.
Most of them were major players in the development of Maine and Acadia, which was then part of New-France, moreso from 1665 to 1725, and they were instrumental in preserving Abenaki lives and their rights, both in U.S.A and in Odanak, Canada.
Vincent and his family lived in Pentagoet, Penobscot peninsula, with their extended family, the Etchemin Abenakis.
This story talks about many ancestors and their descendants, including families of the D'Amours, the La Tour, the d'Aulnay, the Bélisle, the LeBorgne, the Mius, the d'Entremont, Colonels Winslow, Lawrence, Murray who all took part in the 1755 Acadian Deportation of Grand Pre and Beaubassin, which descendants of Vincent, some Meunier, some St-Castin, tried to stop.
ANSELME D'ABBADIE DE ST-CASTIN (1685-1728)
1704
In 1704, when Anselme d'Abadie, the Fourth Baron of Saint-Castin
was nineteen, he bought a ship and became a privateer against
the British on the Atlantic shores of the New World. He had been raised and still lived at Pentagoet, in Maine, but it was part of New France at that time.
Yes, he was 19 when he became a privateer at the request for help to defend Port Royal in Nova Scotia, a request which came directly from the French Governors Vaudreuil and Subercase, but it was also the time of the official beginning of his adult life,
which would prove itself useful and dedicated to helping the underdog.
Nevertheless, he had started to do so much earlier,
and by the time he was ten years old
he had had many adventures.
Bernard-Anselme d'Abbadie, baron de St.Castin
was half French by his Father, a nobleman from
the French Court of LOUIS XIV
and half pure Penobscot Abenaki by his Mother,
Marie-Melchide, a true Indian princess,
daughter of Chief (Sachem) Madockawando (ou Matakando).
Anselme became the leader of the First Nation of the Pentagouet Abenaqui tribe in Penobscot after his Father died in 1707
though he refused to lead them in raids involving civilians.
Anselme would be responsible for the Treaty signed by the
Penobscot Abenaki tribe to get recognition for it's rights in the United States,
but this was circa 1717 and 1727.
Earlier on, for the Abenaquis of Penobscot and Pentagoet Maine, in 1676, the times were getting difficult because of the English settlers of New England who began encroaching on their lands in New-England and Acadia, and after some face-offs, some of the Abnaki and Etchemin families began emigrating to Quebec,(where they were responsible for introducing more apple trees, which were and still are abundant in Pentagouet since the 1613 Mission of the Jesuits, d'Aulnay and then St-Castin introduced them) and these Abenaki individuals usually returned often to visit their beloved Penobsot Bay home, especially during their mild winters, but as it was, many being tired of the incessant fighting where their women and children were killed or kidnapped started relocating in Quebec, going first, around 1676-1680, to St-Joseph-de-Sillery, then on July 1st 1683, the Conseil Souverain of Nouvelle-France, under Governor Charron de la Barre granted the Jesuits land for the Abnakis and they moved on to St-Francois de Sales and to La Chaudiere (where the tribe had been coming to for several generations already), and in 1700, in the final move, the Abenaquis were directly given land across St-Francois du Lac, near Sorel and Nicolet, in ODANAK, where they still thrive and where you can visit a Museum which retells of their past.
In the book I wrote about the Damours-St.Castin, I chose the title "St-Castin, bridging to worlds" because St.Castin was an expert in all the "TWO WORLDS" existing these days when the new world was being colonized.
Where most towns inhabitants were untried European newcomers, St-Castin shined. Yes, he stood out advantageously, not only because he was a native of the land (spent most of his early childhood either at his Mom's Penobscot River abenaki village in Pentagouet, Maine, or at the nobleman Vincent d'Abadie de St.Castine, his Dad's, spread, near the D'Amours, close to Madawaska on the St-Jean River in New Brunswick, which had been granted by King Louis XIV for his services with the Carignan Regiment, both places being under French dominions) but because he had the experience and advantage of understanding the two worlds involved, both the American and the European worlds,(he lived in towns of New-France, in Indian villages and at the French Court of Versailles), the French and the English way-of-life, the "whites" and the "red skins" beliefs' systems, the catholics and the protestants' religions (the St-Castin had been Protestant Huguenots in previous generations), the French and Indian tongues, and a smackering of the Dutch and English tongues... and even Men's vs. Women's worlds, for he had had four sisters and many half sisters... yes, Anselme knew more than most people how to navigate between different currents...
As it was, in 1707, at the request of first Vaudreuil, then Subercase, he lead 250 Abenaki and French men overland to rescue Port Royal and he was successful in defending Port-Royal, dealing with the British in Acadia.
First it was in June 1707, then again in August, both times at the official request of the French Governor, against Colonel March's offensive in Port Royal a.k.a. Annapolis Royale, the confrontation was won by the French. During the same year, Anselme got married to
Charlotte D'Amours de Chauffours
on October 31st 1707, in Port-Royal, Nova Scotia, Canada.
More details here on the important family of the D'Amours
CHARLOTTE GUYON D'AMOURS de CHAUFFOURS, BARONNE de SAINT-CASTIN
Her patrimoine was desirable: her Father was a Marsolet D'Amours, her Mother a Guyon a.k.a Dion, some of her parents' first cousins were:
- Elisabeth Marsolet-Guyon, daughter of Michel Guyon du Rouvray and Genevieve Marsolet
who was married to Jean-Baptiste LeMoyne de Martigny (related to LeMoyne d'Iberville)
- Therese Guyon, was dame Lamothe-Cadillac,
- Marie-Anne Lemire born May 26th 1669, the 6th daughter of Jean LeMire and Louise Marsolet, who had for Godmother Marie-Anne de Lauzon, standing-in for Madame de LaPeltrie,
who was married to Gedeon de Catalorgne, the famous King's Engineer, MapMaker, Architect.
- Marie Lemire was dame Pierre Moreau, sieur de la Taupine
- Philippe D'Amours, sieur de la Morandiere, born in 1679,her Father's brother and the 7th son of Marie Marsolet and Mathieu D'Amours
was married successively to Madeleine Menage and Marie Anne Louise Juchereau de More
- Bernard D'Amours, Sieur des Plaines, title received from his Great-GrandMother's family,
Marguerite des Plains, mother of Nicholas Marsolet, and later on Sieur de la Fresneuse,was married twice: 1. Jeanne LeRoyer 2. Elisabeth Couillard
Bernard had several children (and sons) who married in the Boucher, Montbrun, Valeran, Joncas families.
St. Castain, having spent his childhood in Pentagoet, Maine, which had belonged to New-France on and off since prior 1610, during the years of d'Aulnay, Charles de Latour and Emmanuel LeBorgne, went to College in Quebec city, c.1694, was back from France, in 1704, a few months after the famous February Deerfield Attack
(read the minister John Williams' account of his and
another 100 people's survival in
"The Redeemed Captive returning to Sion".)
So on his return from France, in 1704, St-Castin outfitted a ship.
With this ship, he would go to the Port Royal harbour, the only safe place where
a French ship could safely go at the beginning of the 18th century,
when the British were trying to establish dominance and
there, Anselme would meet his friend, the San Domingo buccaneer,
Captain Pierre MORPAIN (Mospain) 1686-1749
who would marry his wife's sister,
Marie-Josephe D'Amours de Chauffours
on August 13 1709.
Before this would occur, serious events would come to be, moreso in 1707,
when at age 22, Anselme would become the Leader of his Penobscot Abenaki tribe.
Let it be said that the authors of the outrages pepertrated in Indian warfare in those years were instigated by religious Europeans, holy crusades against heretics, carried out by Indian warriors on the lines of Indian warfare, but yes, engineered by both English and French in the continuation of their European Declaration of War of May 4th 1702.
First it was Sebastien Rasle, a French Jesuit who was well-loved by the tribe and stood vigourously for it's rights but Anselme, more "au-fait", and better aware of the implications, refused to participate in any punitive expeditions, as he and his son Louis St-Castin also refused years later when another Frenchman, a priest, LeLoutre, also called "Moise" by the French, because he had sworn that he was going to lead the Acadians back to their "Promised Land", egged on the Abenaki tribe continuously to go on savage raids against the British.
Le Loutre (1709-1772) was a.k.a.Monsieur de Luther in the region of Halifax. He definitly played an important, if sinister, role in the fight for Nova Scotia, between the French and the British, especially in the years 1738-1755.
After Anselme died, his half-brother and cousin, son of his Father, Joseph Dabadis (or Robardie), who had never mixed with the European socity, took over the leadership of the tribe.
ST.CASTIN - D'AMOURS - GUYON - MORPAIN CONNECTION
Anselme and Pierre, friends & brothers-in-law, born one year apart, both with
roots in FRANCE, living in the New World and sharing not only a tongue,
but same interests as lovers of the Sea, one a Privateer, the other one a Buccaneer,
would help each other often in times of need.
Their wives were both daughters of Louis Damours, son of Mathieu D'Amours and Marie Marsolet, and of Marguerite Guyon, daughter of Simon Guyon and Louise Racine.
The wives of Pierre and Anselme, Marie-Josephe and Charlotte D'Amours de Chaufours, were raised by their Aunt, Louise Guyon D'Amours de la Freneuse,
with their three cousins, Joseph, Louis and little Mathieu-Francois,
after their Mother, Marguerite, died in 1696.
So the families of Pierre and Anselme were frequent guest of each other.
Yes, Marie-Josephe D'Amours de Chaufours Morpain and Charlotte D'Amours de Chaufours de St-Castin were quite adventurous ladies to chose to be married to such reckless husbands. Those two girls were the most representative of the MARSOLET-D'AMOURS-GUYON alliance sharing twice over each of their great grand-fathers:
Louis D'Amours, Nicholas Marsolet and Jean Guyon.
Again, they were:
Louis D'Amours councillor to Louis XIII, King of France,
Nicholas Marsolet a forming hand in the peaceful internal politics with
the Montagnais and Algonquins, who, alongside with Etienne Brule was unfairly accused of treason with the KIRKE's Brothers and married to Marie (LeVillain) LeBarbier, tru their first daughter, Marie Marsolet
Jean Guyon Father to their Father, Simon Guyon,
and of Michel Guyon, sieur du Rouvray, husband of Genevieve Marsolet,
and of Francois Guyon, sieur des Pres and his wife Madeleine Marsolet
(Beaubassin and Grand-Pre in Acadia were their fief)
Then, on October 2nd 1662, they were the two Guyon brothers marrying the two Marsolet sisters.
D'AMOURS
Family of Charlotte (Guyon) D'Amours, wife of Anselme
LOUIS and MATHIEU D’AMOURS
October 1686
TWO DAMOURS BROTHERS MARRY TWO GUYON SISTERS:
Charlotte's Father was Louis (Marsolet)d'Amours, grandson of Nicholas Marsolet and first living son of his parents.
Louis and Mathieu Damours, first and second sons of Marie Marsolet and Mathieu D’Amours, had lives so inter-twined that we must talk about them jointly; their two families were raised together, indiscriminatly.
LOUIS , the eldest son of Marie Marsolet and Mathieu Damours, was named after his paternal Grand-Father. He married Marguerite Guyon the same day as his brother Mathieu married her sister Louise Guyon (who was already a young widow), on October 1, 1686.
It is a fact that Villebon when Governor of Acadia accused the boys of the Damours household to be unproductive and interested only in pleasure, and Mathieu was a young man who on the surface was charming, fun, listening to the person in front of him, never at a loss for a word, loved by everyone around him, but it was unfair to call him unproductive, as his farm on the St-John River was THE model per excellence... and he was very dependable, hard working and was grateful for both his parents and children, which were not fickle qualities.
All the boys had been raised by their Mother, Marie Marsolet de Saint-Aignan. She had yet to learn austerity and rigidity. Her greatest quality was to be a loving and giving person. Marie was tall for a woman and quite striking, and she was an effervescent, changeable, inventive, impulsive, headstrong, empathic lady who liked to gossip, enjoyed travelling and defended her children like an ogre. It was not conducive to her boys having a calm or boring demeanour. You had to be fast on your toes with this Mom, as she might change her mind in a blink...
It is a certainty that Mathieu's Father would have been heartbroken by his early death, he had been the "chosen one" to follow him on the Conseil Souverain in 1689, but he was spared this since he died before his son. Still, Mathieu's death in 1696 was a blow to the whole family, especially for his brother Louis who carried a grudge against the English who had killed him and had also been responsible indirectly for his own wife Marguerite's death the same year and he devoted the rest of his life to getting some revenge.
When Louis Damours, Sieur des Chaufours, seigneur de Jemsee, Acadie, lost both his brother, Mathieu, and his beloved wife Marguerite Guyon, in 1696, 10 years after their wedding, he was heartbroken and never remarried. They had had several children but only his two daughters Charlotte and Josie survived to adulthood. He bought a ketch captured by the famous Pierre LeMoyne d'Iberville and his vessel took part in the attack on Fort Pemquid in 1696 with d’Iberville, his cousin-in-law (d’Iberville’s brother, Lemoyne de Martigny married in the Marsolet-Guyon family), and his friend Vincent de St-Castin and he was later captured by the English and made prisonner at Boston for over 2 years. Eventually, LOUIS D'AMOURS de CHAUFFOUR's daughter Marie-Josephe (b.1694) D'Amours married Pierre Mospain (Morpain) and his daughter Charlotte (b.1690) married in 1707 in Annapolis (Acadie) Anselme d'ABBADIE de St.Castin, son of Vincent.
As it was, LOUIS continued sailing his ship and being a privateer for the French. In 1696, the care of his two daughters, Charlotte and Josephe, was left to his large family, including to Louise Guyon, Marguerite's sister and widow of his brother Mathieu, who was widowed the same year as he was, in 1696. His brother, Mathieu, died following wounds received during an English assault by Colonel John Hathorne on Fort St-Joseph, NAXOUAT (Nashwaak) on the St.John River, which was the Headquarters of General Joseph Robinau de VILLEBON. Mathieu D'Amours, the youngest, contributed to the it's defense and victory, but his own farmhouse was burnt with it's 150 fowls, 50 hogs and 22 cattle heads stolen or destroyed by the British. Despite Villebon's unfair accusations of feckleness, Mathieu did not hesitate in going to his help when the British attacked him. Until 1696 Mathieu's farm was a great example of the possibilities in farming in the New world. His brother Louis had helped him build also a sawmill there. As it was, his two girls, Charlotte and Josie (Marie-Josephe), and his brother's three sons, Joseph, Louis and little Mathieu-Francois, both lost a parent that year, one a mom, the other a dad. These children, double-cousin, were all of the same age, and were raised together in their wide extended families.
LOUISE GUYON D'AMOURS
LOUISE GUYON d'AMOURS, where love, scandal, courage and fame meet:
When Mathieu married Louise Guyon, she had been a widow, but he swayed her off her feet and she settled with ease with her life with him, giving him several children in their ten years of marriage, but only three boys survived( Joseph, Louis, Mathieu-Francois). After Mathieu's death in 1696, though keeping an eye on both her own children and her sister Marguerite's two daughters, Charlotte and Josie (Marie-Josephe), she simply resume an active, pleasurable social life. Because of her caring disposition and beauty, she had always been welcomed everywhere and it continued to be so. Though she had many affairs, she never re-married, and the offers for her hand must have been many, for not only was she eminently presentable, but she was a woman of means. For several reasons, she was one of the most "talked about" lady in New France. Whatever she did, wore, said, was reported again and again, gaining something in the saying.
Louise Guyon was a very beautiful woman and she eventually went to live in Port-Royal, becoming the mistress of its governor, Jacques-Francois Mombeton de BROUILLAN, and it is reported, as well, at the same time, as of Sieur DENYS de BONAVENTURE. She was desirable and wanted by people she came in contact with, and many (most) people loved her... Yet, she was still taking an active interest in all her children's welfare, including Charlotte and Marie-Josephe (Josie) as their subrogate Mother. Years later, in 1708, in Quebec, Louise GUYON d'AMOURS de la FRESNEUSE was still received in the most closed circles of the capital.
Louise Guyon had great courage and in 1711, she was also part of the daring plan (which failed) of retaking Port Royal from the British which was designed by her son-in-law, Anselme d'Abbadie, baron de St-Castin, risking her life acting as a spy, arriving alone with her second son and one Abenaki, in the middle of winter, in a canoe, crossing the Bay of Fundy and asking shelter to the British Commander of the town, which was granted... and soon after the English fell in a trap at the Bloody Bridge Battle and she escaped with the French. The story is told further down.
1687 - 1692
Children of LOUISE GUYON D'AMOURS & MATHIEU D'AMOURS
Surviving CHILDREN of Mathieu D'Amours and Louise Guyon (widow Charles Thibaut):
Joseph (1687), sieur de LaFresneuse Dujour, commandant of the ship "La Renommee" in 1736
Louis (1689) who would marry Ursule de St-Castin, sister of Anselme
Mathieu-Francois (1692), married in Qc on Oct. 17 1726 Angelique Coutard.
None of these children had any sons to pass on the titles, which went to nephews.
1686
DOUBLE WEDDING
Two Damours brothers marry two Guyon sisters
At the 1686 joint wedding ceremony of Louis & Marguerite and Mathieu & Charlotte was their quadruple cousin, Suzanne Guyon Despres, daughter of Madeleine Marsolet and Francois Guyon des Pres. A family drama would unfold when in 1701 Suzanne fell in love with Philippe-Olivier Morel de La Durantaye, Sieur Du Houssay, and bore him a child out-of-wedlock, Marie-Henriette, who died two weeks after birth. The couple was in love with each another and was going to be married but Suzanne and Philippe would be counted in the 103 people who died in January 1703 in the city of Quebec during the smallpox epidemic.
You can read this story as told by Dan Cote in his French website at ww3.sympatico.ca/jokanaan/archives/guyonmorel.html
1707
Wedding of Charlotte (Guyon)D'Amours & Anselme d'Abadie de St Castin
Anselme de St-Castin married Charlotte D'Amours on October 31st 1707 and
Pierre Morpain married Marie-Josephe D'Amours on August 13,1709.
The two daughters, Charlotte & Marie-Josephe (Josie), had been raised both in Quebec
and at their home in Riviere-St-Jean (New-Brunswick).
Until their Mother's death (Marguerite Guyon d'Amours) in 1696, their New-Brunswick farm had been prosperous and the children would help in feeding the numerous chickens, pigs, or in the milking of their 2 dozen herd of cattle.
(Read the 1695 Acadian census in Links)
It was a down-to-earth prosperous life, with some fun,
as in most large families, as theirs were, indeed,
their Father alone had 44 first cousins, many of whom had children.
Daddy taking them on short trips on his ship, going to Quebec once in awhile,
or bringing back their cousins to visit them at regular intervals during the summers, or simply at home, on the sea shore, on the look-out for ennemy ships... Quite an exciting life for young children,
over just a little too soon, because before Charlotte was seven and Josie three years old, their Mother, Marguerite Guyon D'Amours de Chauffours had passed away. Since the five children of Marguerite Guyon and Louise Guyon were raised together in a variety of settings, they soon developped independant traits. Josie remained the fragile one, her health was often compromised and she did not have children of her own, though she did take an active interest in her sister's children, Marie-Anselme, Louis, Brigitte and Louise dÀbbadie de St-Castin. Marie-Josephe (Josie) married for love with Pierre Morpain.
1631
Charles d'Aulnay, Charles de LaTour,
LeBorgne (Bélisle) & William ALEXANDER
Before we can clearly go on, one must go back a century to talk at least a little, for it could be realms, about La Tour and d'Aulnay, LeBorgne and William Alexander.
1609 - 1623
CLAUDE de LA TOUR
Claude La Tour was a French Huguenot nobleman who was forced to leave France in 1609 because of his Protestant creed.
The La Tour family were kin to the French Kings: Godefroy d'Auvergne, Bertrand IV de La Tour d'Auvergne, Bertrand V, Bertrand VI.
The great Catherine de Medicis was from that family tru her Mom: Madeleine de La Tour d'Auvergne (1501-1519) married Laurent II de Médicis, and she was the grand-daughter of Jean III de La Tour d'Auvergne and his wife Jeanne de Bourbon-Vendome.
Claude de La Tour's son, Charles, to all intent, was a Catholic and came with his Father to the Americas in 1610, a seventeen years old youth. Claude (and Charles who was now twenty) fought with Bienville, son of Petrincourt, against Argall, a freebooter, in 1613 and they won. 1625 - Jeanne de LA TOUR
Martin de Martignon d'Apprendisteguy
In 1624, Charles not only received Bienville's succession, but he married a native woman of the First Nations and he had a daughter, Jeanne de LaTour, born in 1625, who married c. 1655 Martin de Martignon d'Apprendisteguy, a Basque who raised his family in La Rochelle, France. Charles had previously had other children including a son by another Indian woman who was named Stephen La Tour.
1628
de La Tour & Kirke brothers
1631 - ENGLISH TITLES
In 1628 or 1629, Claude de Saint-Etienne sieur de LA TOUR was one of those captured by the Kirke brothers in the Gulf St-Lawrence and he was brought back to England. The great Scot and English King James had died in 1625 and his successor, Charles 1st renewed William Alexander's patent for New Scotland (Nova Scotia). Sir William Alexander, Earl of Stirling (where he was born) had the advantage of his closeness to the Scottish / English Court to be aware of the'soon-to-be' 1629 Convention of Suza. He also knew that the British King was about to marry Henriette de France, sister of Louis XIII, so settlement was imminent: the Treaty of St.-Germain-en-Laye of 1632 ended hostilities between the two old antagonists and also provided that the British return Acadia to the French. In 1631, Sir William offered Claude de LaTour and his son Scottish titles of nobility in exchange for the outposts they controlled in Acadia. Claude accepted against Charles protestations. It was a betrayal of sort. After all, those titles and claims had mostly been gotten from de Bienville, who had retained them from his Father when Poutrincourt was killed in France in a bloody civil war. Poutrincourt had been in business with Pierre Du Gua De Monts, Grave du Pont, Champlain. The rights had been won in 1613-1614 when De Bienville and a handful of other settlers, including Claude de Saint-Etienne de La Tour and his son Charles, refused to abandon Acadia even when a greater menace came sailing up the coast, flying the flag of England: Samuel Argall, a Welsh freebooter and the dangerous right arm of Jamestown's new marshal, Sir Thomas Dale, sailed from Virginia and destroyed the infant settlement on Mount Desert Island then in November he returned and fell upon Port Royal, looted and burned the settlement, dispersed its people, and destroyed its livestock. It was in return for the help received in those years that Bienville had granted Charles Latour his concessions.
Now Charles Latour had seen the rich potential of the trade in furs and was determined to supply the wealthy merchants of La Rochelle with the precious commodity. Also, he had many children from First Nations women, hardy boys, including Stephen Latour, helping him in in fur trade and as his contacts, as was reported in 1625:
"Charles Latour travelled the woods with 18 or 20 men, mingled with the savages and lived an infamous and libertine life, without any practice of religion, not even bothering to baptize the children they procreated and instead abandoned them to their poor, miserable mothers as the coureurs de bois still do today. These half-breed children, called METIS by the French, became some of the staunchest allies of the first French families of Acadia. Many of them were baptized by French missionaries and clung to the faith of their fathers. They diligently pursued the trade in furs that sealed the relationship between the worlds of their fathers and their mothers."
The local Indians' efforts with the Fur trade made it all possible. So Claude Latour was made a baronet of Nova Scotia by Sir William Alexander in 1631. Charles went along, he was already a "seigneur d'Acadie" by de Bienville's will. Also in 1631, Louis XIII of France grants Charles LaTour a concession at the mouth of the St.John River, now in New Brunswick, where he builds Fort Ste-Marie in Jemseg. In 1634 he is Governor of Acadia, but a feud has developped with d'Aulnay which culminates in 1645 when, as we will see below, d'Aulnay burns down his property, kills his men and is responsible for his second wife's death. Charles, at this point is effectively ruined (but not for very long!). 1593
Claude de La Tour
& Chevalier d'Aulnay
Charles Amador de Saint-Etienne sieur de LA TOUR was born in 1593 in Champagne.
His natural ennemy and contender was
Charles de Menou de Charnizay, known as Chevalier d'Aulnay,
a friend of Nicholas Denys and Isaac de Razilly, Governor-in-chief of Nova Scotia, settled at La Heve1640-1645
A heroine: Françoise-Marie Jacquemin
In 1635 or 1636, when Isaac de Razilly died, his brother Claude de Razilly assigned his rights in Acadia to Charles d'Aulnay who had chased the New Englanders and occupied Pentagoet (he had four or five children with Jeanne Motin), while his personal ennemy, Charles de La TOUR had a place further up on the St.John River, Fort Latour (a.k.a. Fort Ste-Marie), of which his second wife, Francoise-Marie Jacquemin, of Mans in France, whom he married in 1640, became the heroine. They had one son (who did survive the ordeal). In 1645 after LaTour's wife had gone to France to help her husband's request at Court, she finally managed to returned to Fort LATOUR, via a ship detour in the St-Lawrence for which she was awarded 2,000 pounds in damages. Knowing her husband was in France, d'Aulnay attacked the Fort. Francoise-Marie held on with determination. Twice he attacked and was repelled. Finally, he convinced her to capitulate under guarantee to let everyone live. When she did so, only she and a man (a Swiss spy) used as a hangman were spared, she was paraded with a noose around her neck and still wearing it, she watched each of her people killed. She died three weeks later, it is said of grief and shame, but it was only d'Aulnay words, who knows what experiences were hers, she was his prisoner. He admitted taking 55,000 $ of worth of furs and probably got her 2,000 pounds also. D'Aulnay also had the decency of sending her baby back to France after her death. 1650
MARRIAGE LATOUR - MOTIN
Five years later, when d'Aulnay died in 1650 Charles Latour married his widow, Jeanne Motin (with whom he had five children who grew to marry: Marie, Jacques, Charles, Anne and Marguerite) and got all his property, though LeBorgne arrived from France, a creditor of D'Aulnay, to enforce his claims becoming Governor in 1667, but also later on, becoming his son-in-law, marrying his daughter Marie de LA TOUR. 1657
LEBORGNE de BELLE ISLE
LEBORGNE de BELLE ISLE from Acadia & Louisiana, 17th century
Some Leborgne are also known as Belisle in Canada & the United States
As per the "Dictionnaire biographique du Canada, vol.1":
Alexandre LEBORGNE de BELLE-ISLE was one of fourteen children of Jeanne FRANCOIS and Emmanuel LEBORGNE, sieur DU COUDRAY, rich merchant of La Rochelle, originally from Calais, who financed expeditions for Acadia, in return for becoming Governor of Acadia in 1657. He sent his son Alexandre to represent him. Alexander LeBorgne was wounded at La Hève in 1658 became prisonner of the English in London, but became Governor of Acadia in 1667 then simple "seigneur de Port Royal" (today Annapolis Royal,Nova-Scotia), having married Marie de St-Etienne de La Tour, daughter of Charles de La Tour and his third wife, Jeanne Motin. Alexandre died in Port-Royal around 1693. 1675 - 1690
CHILDREN of Marie de La Tour & Alexandre LEBORGNE de BELLE ISLE:
1. Emmanuel LEBORGNE b.1675 married in 1697 Cécile THIBODEAU
2. Marie LEBORGNE b.1677 married 1696 Alexandre GIROUARD, son of Jacques & Marguerite GAUTEROT
3. Alexandre LEBORGNE b.1679 married 1707 Anastasie de ST-CASTIN
4. Jeanne LEBORGNE b.1680-d.1711 married 1698 Bernard d'AMOURS
5. Marie Françoise LEBORGNE (soeur Ste-Elisabeth, Hospitaliere)
6. Charles LEBORGNE b.1684
7. Anne LEBORGNE b.1690 married 1707 Jean de FONDS dit RODRIGUE
1654
LEBORGNE prisonner of Sedgwick
Charles de LaTour claims British rights of 1631
In 1650, Le Borgne first attacked Denys at Chedabucto and took him prisonner, then sent him to France, where Denys got restitution of his land in 1654. Before LeBorgne could move on, Major Sedgwick in command of British troops sent by Cromwell, in 1654, took the Fort at Penobscot, Fort Latour and Port Royal where LeBorgne was staying. Sedgwick was then sent to Jamaica where he died in 1656. La Tour then used the fact that in 1630 his Father had been created a Nova Scotian baronet and received grant from Sir William Alexander, a great favorite of James I, who, in 1621 had given him a patent for Nova Scotia, which was renewed by Charles 1. Now, on August 10 1656, after becoming English subject, Latour received patent letters from the English Court making him Sir Charles La Tour, joint owner of Acadia with Sir Thomas Temple and William Crowne. Very shortly afterwards La Tour sold his interests to Temple but stayed in Acadia where he died in 1666. As mentioned, Charles had several children with Jeanne Motin, the widow of d'Aulnay and those who survived, married well:
1654-1665
FIVE CHILDREN OF CHARLES de LA TOUR and JEANNE MOTIN (widow d'Aulnay):
- Marie de Latour b. 1654, which was the year before Jeanne de LaTour, her half- sister got married Martin d'Apprendisteguy, married Alexandre Le Borgne of Belle-Isle, son of Emmanuel Le BORGNE & Jeanne FRANCOIS, Governor of Acadia 1667.
- Jacques de Saint-Etienne de LATOUR, b. 1661, m. Anne (Dugas)Melancon and they had seven surviving children: Jeanne (1688), Marie (1690), Agathe (1691), Jean (1693), Francois (1695), Philippe (1696),Charles(1697)
- Charles, b. 1663 married c. 1688 Jeanne-Angelique LAUREAU. All his life he fought in the troups of New France, including being wounded at the fall of Port Royal in 1710. He was made Chevalier St-Louis in 1728 and was buried in Louisbourg in 1731. Angelique, his widow was still alive in 1762, still living in France in Chalais, Saintonge.
- Anne, b.1664, married Jacques Mius d'Entremont, de Pobomcoup, (brother of Abraham and Philippe), sons of Philippe Mius d'Entremont and Madeleine Elie (born in Calvados in 1626)(daughter of Jacques Hélie du Tillet (1583) and Françoise Faucon (1590). Jacques' brother, Philippe Mius married Therese de St-Castin, daughter of Jean- Vincent d'Abadie de St-Castin and Melchide (or perhaps of Matilda-Pedicwanmiskwe ... ?), daughter of the Great Chief Madockawando (or Matakando), Therese was the cadette of Bernard-Anselme who was married to Charlotte (Guyon) d'AMOURS, and Therese's younger sister, Ursule de St-Castin married Charlotte's cousin, Louis (Guyon) d'Amours, son of Mathieu (Marsolet) d'AMOURS.
- Marguerite Latour, b.1665, married twice:
1st: Abraham Mius dit d'Azit, son of Philippe Mius d'Entremont & M. Elie
Second: François Villate in Port Royal in 1705.
LeBorgne faded in the picture until 1667. LaTour died in 1666. Vincent de St-Castin made his appearance in New-France in 1665 and in Acadia in 1670: A new leaf was turning.
1665
JEAN-VINCENT D'ABBADIE (1652 - 1707)
THIRD BARON OF SAINT-CASTIN
After Jean-Vincent's arrival in Pentagouet, Maine, in 1670, Madockawando Sachem of the First Nation of the Etchemins Abenaqui gave him his four daughters and he had children with them. His first child was a daughter, Claire, then he had a son, Joseph Robadis, who never wanted to mix with the Europeans. Eventually, having to make a choice for his European superiors, Vincent married the youngest of his wives Marie Melchide, sister of Mathilde Pidicwanmiskwe who had born children to Vincent herself; Melchide gave him several children, including a son, Anselme d'Abbadie, and a younger one who died at the Quebec College at 12 in 1704.
This son, BERNARD ANSELME D'ABBADIE DE SAINT-CASTIN was born in 1685, first son of Marie-Melchide, and he had four sisters, one of which,
Ursule, married Louis D'Amours, the first cousin of his wife Charlotte, whom she had been raised with and who had inherited
her Father's title of "de Chauffours".1687-1688
Sir Edmund Andros & St. Castin
Anselme's Father was Jean-Vincent d'Abbadie, baron de Saint-Castin
and we can see an interesting account by Craig J. Brown
of how the escalation for future Indian agressions
was caused by earlier British actions, namely during the
War against King William in 1687-1688:
as depicted on the Ne-Do-Ba website
for Western Maine Abenakis at www.avcnet.org/ne-do-ba/or94_02.html
where we can read:
"...Sir Edmund Andros, Governor of the Dominion of New England, sailed the H.M.S. Rose into the harbor at the mouth of the Penobscot River. Once anchored, Andros sent his lieutenant ashore at Pentagoet to summon the Baron de St. Castin.
St. Castin was a French army officer, who had established a trading post at Pentagoet near the mouth of the Penobscot. He married a daughter of Madockawando, the highly respected principal chief of the Indians living along the Penobscot River. As the son-in-law of Madockawando, St. Castin enjoyed considerable influence among the Indians. The English, not wholly without merit, blamed the current Indian troubles on St. Castin. When the lieutenant returned with word that St. Castin had fled, Andros promptly seized the trading post. All movable goods were conveyed to the Rose, leaving behind only the vestments in St. Castin's chapel. Many historians point to this raid as the beginning of King William's War in the colonies."
It was the prelude of the 1694 Oyster River Plantation Massacre, as researched by Craig J. Brown at
www.avcnet.org/ne-do-ba/menh_or94.html
We see there the political situation at the time of
Vincent de St Castin's early years in Pentagouet.
1671-1688
CHILDREN OF VINCENT SAINT-CASTIN & Melchide ( & MATHILDE) :
Vincent had been given all Modokando's daughters as wives.
A son (Robardis)was born c.1671, a few months after the birth of his daughter Claire, born to Matilda, PID8WANMIS8E, an elder sister of his future wife Melchide.
CLAIRE ST-CASTIN 1671, dame Paul Meunier
(son of Jean-Joseph Meunier and Marguerite Housseau):
their son Joseph Meunier(c.1689) went to live to Grand Pre
their daughter Catherine Meunier (1688) was married in 1700 to Claude Boudreau
their daughter Marie Meunier was married to Rene Martin
Vincent went back to France for a few years to receive permission and rights in Acadia
He had ten children with Melchide, was born after his return from France, in 1685, BERNARD ANSELME D'ABBADIE DE SAINT-CASTIN
Vincent & Melchide (or Matilda?) also had THERESE ST-CASTIN, 1687, dame Philippe Mius, of Pobomcoup, third son of Philippe Mius d'Entremont(c.1609-c.1701) and Madeleine Élie (or Hélie) Du Tillet, born in 1626. Philippe was the youngest brother of Jacques Mius(b.1659)(m. Anne St-Etienne de Latour) and brother of Abraham (b.circa 1661)(married Marguerite St-Etienne de Latour, sister of Anne).
Their fourth child, MARIE-ANASTASIE de SAINT-CASTIN, 1692, dame Alexandre LeBorgne, of Belle-Isle,
son of Alexandre and Marie Motin St-Etienne de Latour;
Their fifth surviving child, URSULE DE ST-CASTIN, 1696,
dame Louis D'Amours de Chauffours,
son of Mathieu D'Amours de la Fresneuse and Louise Guyon
They had a son, Joseph D'Amours de Chauffours, 1718, from "la Riviere St-Jean" who married Genevieve Roy of Pisiguit. Joseph was held in Halifax in 1763 and we find him in Miquelon in 1767, with all his family and his Mother, Ursule, who was then 71 yrs old.
Antoine de SAILLANT
Therese St-Castin's sister-in-law, Anne (d'Entremont) Mius de Poubomcou (Pobomcoup) (1694-1778) was the daughter of Jacques Mius d’Entremont, second Baron de Pobomcoup, and of Anne de Saint-Étienne de La Tour. Anne would have three husbands and she first got married at age 13 to Antoine Saillant, a few months before Anselme and Charlotte's wedding, but Anne's experience is a good example for us, reflected by so many before her, especially in these chaotic years:
she was widowed seven weeks after her wedding, in September 1707: the Chevalier de Saillans was a young French officer, a muskateer.
(De Saillant's life was the one of a 18th c. soldier, makes for a sad and short story; Anne was a local girl whom the young officer married on the 18th of July 1707; he died of his battle wounds on September 8th, 1707 in the Port Royal (Annapolis Royale) offensive, the battle against Colonel March. The English had 22 ships, including a two war ships (54 guns and the other, 45), 5 frigates (from 18 to 30 guns), 8 brigantines and 7 transports.
The English landed their forces (1600 besides ships' crews) on August the 22nd.
It is said, Governor Subercase did not stay behind his walls; he aggressively went out
and met the enemy with cannon at both the east and west sides of
the Annapolis River (then known as Rivière Dauphin).
During this fight Antoine de Saillant, a muskateer, was outstanding in courage, judged by the survivors as an exceptionally brave fighter, as were also commended Subercase and the young Baron Castin)
Saillant's wife, Anne d'Entremont, would remarry in Port Dauphin on February 12 1716, Philippe Pastour de Costebelle (Anne d'Entremont was his second wife, his first wife was Anne de Tour, daughter of Germain de Tour and step-daughter of Le Gouès de Sourdeval; there was a child from his first union, Anne-Catherine Pastour de Costebelle who would marry on Sept 2nd 1719 Jacques de Bertaut, a salt-taxes collector in France, and after becoming a widow she joined the Carmelite order at Trévoux, principality of Dombes). Philippe was Governor of Isle Royale (Newfoundland). He also had a child from his second union: Marie-Josèphe de Pastour de Costebelle born in Paris on April 11 1717, baptized at St-André-des-Arts, who married in January 1737, François de Rivière, Marquis de Giscaro.
After Philippe de Costebelle died in October 1717, Anne d'Entremont, left destitute, went back to France to plead her cause at Court for monies owed to her by different people. The new King was about eight years old; she went to the Béarn to await the settlement of her affairs and met the Chevalier Laurent de Navailles, Baron of Labatut, a seigneur of Béarn in comfortable circumstances, which she married on 20 Aug. 1719.
Jean-Vincent d'Abbadie from the BÉARN
Jean-Vincent, son of Jean-Jacques d'Abbadie and Isabelle de Bearn-Bonasse, was third baron de Saint-Castin. They were related to Henri III de Navarre, who became Henri IV, King of France from 1589 to 1610, and Vincent's aunt, dame Marie D’Abadie de Bastannès was the wife of Jean de Bourbon, seigneur de Chotton et de Charre
As many families in the New World which would become his relatives,(Lajus, Catalorgne, Damours, Chouteau, Dulongue) he came from the Bearn, a Huguenot stronghold which had been developped by Childeber, son of CLOVIS in the Medieval years.
1665 - Vincent in New France
Jean-Vincent arrived in Canada in 1665 and married c. 1684,
Marie-Mathilde (Pidicwanmiskwe),
the daughter of Madockawando (or, as the French called him, Matakando)
chief of the Penobscots who died in 1698 and was
followed by his son-in-law, Vincent, as Chief of the tribe.
Vincent d'Abbadie, baron de St.Castin was Bearnese (France)
and had come to Canada as ensign in the Carignan Regiment.
Finding, like other Frenchmen, a charm in forest life, after returning to France in 1667, he signed to come back to Acadia and learned the language and the ways of his friends, lived as an Indian with the Indians, becoming their leader after his Father-in-law, Madockawando, who was known for his wisdom, was killed under a parley truce by the British. Vincent was incensed at this treachery.
He went with d'Iberville at the 1696 siege of Pemaquid and
as a reward the King of France granted him a land concession of two leagues along
the St.John River, in New-Brunswick, Canada.
Recapitulation: in 1670, after a trip back to France, he established himself at Pentegoet,
near the site of the old Fort, where Castine now stands
and raised his family until his death in 1707, when his son Anselme,
who had been away for a few years, studying at the Quebec Seminary,
took over the leadership of the tribe
Yes, in those days when England and France
were at war, Vincent raided and he was raided.
In time of peace making money by trade, in times of war joining in the border forays on the side of the French.
For Pentagoet was the Southernmost station of the French,
standing on soil claimed by the English and
granted by Charles II, duke of York.
There had been a claim to the forts of Penobscot and St.John
in Acadia and Nova Scotia by the Netherland West India Company
which are in the Government Records of the Hague dated Oct.27 1678,
and with it,also, a request that they may be allowed to remain in quiet and peaceable possession thereof.
Similarly to Pentagoet's location, Pemaquid, near the Kennebec,
established in 1677, was the Northernmost post of the English;
and if there was a line between the two nations,
it was between Pentagoet and Pemaquid.
But French influence extended to the Kennebec river and there were Indian converts of the French near Pemaquid.
Vincent opened a trading post in Castine in 1687;
the town is a port of entry S Maine,
on the East side of Penobscot Bay 35 miles South of Bangor.
The region was the site of an important Penobscot village
which was early known to the Europeans; in 1613 it was the site of a Jesuit Mission and
Nicolas Marsolet an interpretor mainly to the Montagnais First Nation at Tadoussac
who could speak Dutch and who was also Charlotte's Great-Grandfather, would have travelled there during these years.
It was occupied by the British in the Revolution and also in the War of 1812
There had been several forts erected there, but still standing at the turn of the 20th c. were Fort George(1779) and Fort Madison (1811)
Vincent remained there for over 30 years, a leader in charge of Indian affairs, as far as the European community was concerned, a leader to the Abenaki tribe of Pentagoet until his son Anselme took over in 1707, a busy year for the young man if there were any.
ANSELME DE ST-CASTIN & PIERRE MORPAIN
1707
Anselme de Saint-Castin was renowned for his sense of honour, strength, valliance and in June 1707 the Governor, Subercase asked him for help in fighting the army of Colonel March who had come from Boston to conquer Acadia. They came by way of land and repelled the attack.
Again, in August 1707, at the request of the Governor de Vaudreuil,
with 150 of his braves, he did the same again.
Pierre de Mospain was both a Captain in the Army of la Nouvelle-France and a Sea Captain with Le Choiseul, having worked as a buccaneer from the port of San Domingo for the Marquis de Choiseul,
and his brother-in-law, Anselme de St-Castin was the famous leader of the Penabscot
Abenaki tribe who came to the first rescue (June 1711) of the Port Royal villagers
when the English had taken Port Royal in 1710, even though, overall, his action did not prove successful.
Having learned that the English Garrison had been reduced by half, tru sickness,
deaths and desertions during the 1710-1711 winter, the Acadians of Beaubassin and
Grand Pre entreated Anselme de St-Castin to come to their help.
France and England were still at war with each other.
St.Castain, leading French and Penobscoet Abenakis (Maine) was able to win
and rout out the English in the famous BLOODY BRIDGE BATTLE.
At that point the Governor of Canada decided to send 200 soldiers
to help and the Governor of Plaisance, Terre-Neuve (Newfoundland)
agreed to send Canons and Artillery along with some ships
with Pierre Morpain as Anselme and Pierre had made plans:
Anselme St.Castin would attack Annapolis-Royal, again coming by land,
behind ennemy lines, with French and Abenakis fighters,
while Pierre would attack with the ships.
Sadly to say, their plans went awry, for on his return voyage Pierre de Mospain's ship was sunk by the English in a three hours battle at sea.
He did not die, but was unable to come back to help Anselme.
In the meantime, the Annapolis garrison had received
English soldiers reinforcements from Boston.
Thereof, the second Port-Royal/Annapolis offensive was cancelled, the men sent by Governor Vaudreuil turned back to go home.
The 1713 Treaty would give Acadia (which the French was thought to mean Port-Royal/Annapolis) and Newfoundland to the English, but Ile-St.Jean (Prince Edward Island) and Ile Royale (Cap-Breton) would remain French.
The definition of ACADIA was not clear in the Treaty:
the French were sure it meant Nova-Scotia,
the English were sure it meant both Nova-Scotia and New-Brunswick.
It would create the future war of 1735 (the fall of Louisbourg)
and the subsequent 1755 Deportation of the French Acadian people
to Louisiana and to the Northern & Southern States.(see end of article)
1710-1714
ANSELME d'Abbadie de St-Castin
After the 1710 fall of Port-royal/Annapolis,
the Governor de Vaudreuil granted St-Castin a Lieutnant commission in Pentagoet, as rewards for his 1707 exploits,
so he was at the same time, Leader of the Abenakis and
Officier in the French Army, officially posted there, as well as having had a child, a daughter, and a few years later, around 1713, a son.
Leaving their children with Charlotte's family in Quebec, Anselme and Charlotte went twice to France, once in 1714, staying for awhile with Pierre Mospain and his wife Marie-Josephe, Charlotte's sister, who did not have children of her own,
then in 1716-7, to get his "Lettres de Noblesse" as Fourth Baron of St-Castin (contended by his uncle) confirmed by the Court, which proved longer and more difficult than anticipated since LOUIS XIV died in 1715 and the new King, LOUIS XV had to assume his new role.
In 1716, Charlotte and Anselme had a daughter born in Pau, France,
Louise d’Abadie de St-Castin, dame Bertrand de Sarthopon.
In 1717, Anselme received his title as Fourth Baron of Saint-Castin.
In 1721 he became prisonner of the English and spent 5 months in Boston. He possibly died at this time, but if not he certainly went underground for his brother Robardis asked the French governor that his pension be continued to be paid to his two brothers (or half-brothers). Another young brother had died during an epidemic while at College in Quebec in 1704
In 1725, his tribe having been severely weakened, a St-Castin (probably Anselme)negotiated a peace treaty with the Anglo-Americans.
He probably died of the Smallpox epidemic of 1728-1729, and after his death, around 1728, his wife Charlotte returned to France and fought for her rights in a trial at the Parlement of Navarre, which she won in 1729, by reaching an agreement whereas their eldest daughter, Marie-Anselme' would marry her French cousin whose Father had been contending for the St-Castin title before his own death.
Charlotte Guyon D'Amours de St-Castin died in Pau on February 27 1734, at 45, and was burried the next day in the Notre-Dame Church in Pau, by the great doors in the vestibule.
She had the pleasure of seeing two of her daughters Marie-Anselme and Louise, marry two Frenchmen, whereas Brigitte appears to possibly have become a nun with the Ursulines of Quebec.
1730
Marie-Anselme & Pierre de Bourbon
Anselme's title was not passed on to Louis. Instead, it was given to Anselme's first daughter, Marie-Anselme, who was given in marriage to her French cousin, Pierre de Bourbon, son of late nobleman Jean de Bourbon, seigneur de Chotton et de Charre et de dame Marie D’Abadie de Bastannès, and her husband took the title of Baron de St-castin and the Bearn holdings, until their children got them.
They had six children, one, Henri de Bourbon, who received the Letters of Nobility which should have gone to her brother, Louis de St-Castin, born in 1713, who did not bother to fight for his title of fifth baron of St-Castin. Henri de Bourbon died without posterity and the title went to his sister Henriette de Bourbon’s husband Jean de Dufau de Lalongue, seigneur de St-Castin and of the Bearn Lands.
1708-1716
CHILDREN OF CHARLOTTE GUYON DAMOURS DE CHAUFFOURS and ANSELME D'ABBADIE de St.CASTIN:
• Marie-Anselme d’Abbadie de St-Castin, born in Quebec, around 1711, married her cousin, in the church of Faget, d’Oloron, on June 23 1730, noble Pierre de Bourbon, Lawyer at the Parlement of Navarre, son of late nobleman Jean de Bourbon, also Lawyer at the Parlement of Navarre, seigneur de Chotton and de Charre and of Lady Marie D’Abadie de Bastannès.
By this marriage, Pierre de Bourbon was granted the Lands and States of Béarn, and was given the nobility title of Fifth baron of St-Castin, on JULY 10 1731, as seigneur de St-Castin. He died before April 10 1768 and Marie-Anselme D’Abbadie died ten years later in his household in the town of Marcadet, in Oloron, on JULY 18 1778, at 67 years old.
Marie-Anselme and Pierre had six children.
Their son Henri de Bourbon, born in Oloron, on May 29 1731, first received the title of Sixth Baron de St-Castin on APRIL l0 1769, with the Lands which his Mother gave him on March 29 1769, the year after his Father's demise. He died without posterity, and his sister Henriette de Bourbon became baronne de St-Castin.
Henriette had married messire Jean de Dufau de Lalongue five years after her Father had passed away, in the Church of Ste-Croix, d’Oloron, on JULY 6 1773.
Her husband, Chevalier of l’Ordre Royal and of the Order of St-Louis, retired Captain in the Régiment de Normandie, received the title of Seventh baron de St-Castin for the States of Béarn, held in trust for his wife, on January 12th 1774,
Henriette and Jean had a daughter, Marie-Anselme de Dufau de Lalongue, who married Mr Pierre Reyau and whose descendants allied themselves to the families of Reyau, Lavielle, Nicolau, Coulomme, etc.
• Louis d’Abbadie de St-Castin, born in Quebec in 1713, did not contest the judgement reached by his mother and did not claim the Letters of Nobility which he was entitled to; he is remembered for helping the people of Beaubassin and GrandPre escape the British in 1755
• Brigitte D’Abbadie de St-Castin, (born between 1708 and 1714) studied with the Ursulines of Québec and does not appear to have married, though it is not as yet certain.
• Louise D’Abbadie de St-Castin, who had been held by her sister Brigitte on the Baptismal Font in the Church of St-Martin in Pau, on February 23 1716, married on June 23 1735, in Pau, Me Bertrand de Sarthopon, a lawyer, practising Law at Accous, in the Valley of the Aspe.
LOUIS d'Abadie de St-Castin
The story of how Louis de St-Castin, born in 1713,
and his cousin Joseph (St-Castin) Meunier helped the people of Beaubassin and GrandPre escape the British three separate times, in 1746, 1750 and in 1755
during the Great Deportation of the 7,000 Acadians are stories of their own and go like this:
1746 - GRAND PRE (Acadia)
COLONEL NOBLE
First event where St-Castin were mentioned during The Troubles (reported by the historian Sir Charles Lucas): in December of 1746 Governor Shirley of Massachussetts sent Colonel Noble with 500 men to Grand Pre in an effort to make the supposedly NEW subjects of his British Majesty understand their new position, and these troups occupied the village. They were quartered throughout the village, taking no sufficient precautions against surprise; De Ramezay who had been wounded in an accident sent Coulon de Villiers to lead an attack on the British at the end of January 1747, with the inside help of people from the village, including Joseph (St-Castin by his Mother) Meunier, b. 1689, and his family who were residents of the village, including Louis de St Castin (b.1713, son of Anselme) who was often living in the household of this cousin who had been raised with his Father to which he was very close. Under the cover of night, on February 10 1747, one party and another attacked the detached houses where the English were lodged; Colonel Noble and over seventy of his followers were killed, sixty were wounded, fifty-four were taken prisonners. The rest capitulated on condition of safe return to Annapolis and were marched out on February 14.
1750 - BEAUBASSIN (Grand Pré)
MAJOR LAWRENCE
The second event took place in April 1750: the French had occupied a hill called Beausejour, just across the bay from Beaubassin (Grand Pre) and Cornwallis sent 400 men under Major Lawrence to occupy a position in Beaubassin, directly in front of the French, but when they arrived in the town, Lawrence and his men found Beaubassin in flames,(a few dozens of houses) a fire set by LeLoutre and the Abenakis (still under a St-Castin and Meunier) in an effort to stop the British and to force the remaining French to cross over the French lines. The commandant of the French Fort at Beausejour was De Vergor, son of Duchambon, with LeLoutre at his side. This fire in Beaubassin was a precursor of the larger one set this time by the same Lawrence and his men in December 1755, when over 600 houses along the coast were burnt down.
1754 DEPORTATION figures
In 1749 the Acadian population was still around 13,000 souls, but five years later, it was down to 9,000 souls because of the emigration of the residents to other French locations.
1755
BEAUSEJOUR - PISIGUIT - GRAND PRÉ
MAJOR LAWRENCE - ST-CASTIN - BOISHEBERT
The third event involving a St-Castin happened in August 1755:
During the month of May 1755, Lawrence takes away all light crafts and all arms from the people of Port Royal, Grand Pre and other towns. Also the people are kept ignorant of the June/July capitulation of the French Fort Beausejour, and of the July French victory at Fort Duquesne (Pittsburg), lost by Major Edward Braddock, defeat which stung and humiliated the British greatly. On August 1st 1755 Lawrence arrests the last three priests still left in Acadia: L'abbe Chaulvreux of St-Charles-des-Mines in Grand Pre who had preached subsurvience to the British to his flock; l'abbe LeMaire of La Riviere aux Canards who first went to each of his large region chapels to eat the Holy Emblems before giving himself up on August 10 at Fort Pisiguit, and l'abbe Daudin from Annapolis Royal who is arrested as he is saying Mass, though permission is given him to finish it.
When the ordinance to gather on August 9 1755 was given to the people, they were suspicious, but no one expected what had been arranged. They were told that "this convocation by the Governor of Halifax is about the conservation of your land". So four hundred individuals did go, as ordered, to Fort Cumberland to listen to the reading of this letter of the Governor and were immediatly put under arrest and made prisonners. Since most people of Beaubassin, Chipoudy, Petitcodiac and Memramcook had taken to the woods (being also helped by the Micmacs and Abenakis) on the advice of l'abbe LeGuerne, there was room for the 400 prisonners on the few ships from Massachussetts and for another 140 individuals (mostly the wives of the prisonners who chose to go on board voluntarily rather than be separated from their loved ones).
On August 26, 1755, French Lt Boishebert, commandant at Miramichi, with 30 soldiers, 100 settlers or men, including a St-Castin, and several Abenaquis, encountered 200 men under Major Frye who had just finished burning the Church of Chipoudy and 181 houses near it, and was now just about to set fire to 250 houses in Petitcoudiac. Boishebert attacks the British as they set fire to the Church of Petitcoudiac and the British retreat, leaving 50 dead and 60 wounded. This was how over 200 families escaped the Deportation and took to the maquis. Most went to St.John River or Quebec and those who spent the winter hiding in Shediac and Cocagne helped by the tribes of the First Nations, went to Miramichi in the spring, whereas many followed the advice of l'abbé LeGuerne and went to "Ile St-Jean" (P.E.I) by the way of Green Bay, still others went up to the Baie des Chaleurs.
September 2nd 1755
Colonel WINSLOW's PROCLAMATION
Proclamation by Colonel John Winslow:
It's Excellence Lt-Governor Lawrence wishes to make known the wishes of Her Majesty in a convocation to all people, men, women, children and elderly on September 5th 1755 in the Church of Grand Pre at 3 PM. No excuse shall be permitted.
The same letter was also distributed by Captain Alexander Murray in Pisiguit and Cobequid but there were few people still there, they had run away to P.E.I. or the St.John River.
So, there, one month after the beginning of the transports, the same scenario was being reenacted:
On Friday September 5th 1755, 418 Acadians gather in the Church of St-Charles-des-Mines.
They are told they are prisonners: the speech by Winslow is translated in French by Deschamps, a Protestant Huguenotclerk for the storekeeper MAUGER.
Five transports arrive on Sunday September 7 to start boarding the prisonners on Wednesday September 10 at la Riviere Gaspareaux, a mile and a half from the actual Souvenir-Church at Place Evangeline. At that time, Grand Prée and Le Bassin des Mines had almost 8,000 cattle, 9,000 sheep, 4,000 pigs and 500 horses.
Winslow's journal of the events was found in the Archives of Boston in 1825. In it he tells how the authorities were worried by the agitation, restlessness and secrecy between the people, so they called their best interpretor, le père Landry (François) and explained how they would be separated in groups of fifty per ship, starting with the young men, in the five ships. First they refused to go without their fathers, but when bayonnets were pointed to their families, they went slowly, praying, singing while crying
By September 19, Winslow informs Lawrence that he has 530 prisonners, of which 230 are in the ships bowels. Because of the delays to get more ships, Winslow allows the wives and children to bring foodstuff to their men on the ships. On October 8 1755, Winslow in Grand Pre and Murray in Pisiguit decide to "pile in" as many bodies and to set sail. Eighty families were then brought on board in GrandPre, but another 98 families of 600 souls were still awaiting shipment. On October 27 1755, fourteen transport ships of Grand Pre, Riviere-aux-Canards, Pisiguit and Cobequid, which is a total of 2,900 souls, meet the ten other ships which have been waiting for them for a month, in the Bay of Fundy(la Baie Française), the previous 1900 souls from Beaubassin area, which are dying by the day from mal-nourishment and pestilence.
Many of the ships had been requesitioned: they were old and in need of repairs. Because of the lenghty proceedings, when expected ships did not arrive on time, especially bad management, the lack of foodstuff killed many who simply died of hunger and the pestilences had easy preys. Yes, there were some ships who shipwrecked and some bodies thus survived and
there is at least one instance, the Pembroke where the crew was subdued, as reported by l'Abbe Casgrain, when a strongman (Casgrain said: Beaulieu, but it was Charles Beliveau) overpowered the Captain, opened "l'écoutille" and after subduying the ship landed it's 32 families (225 people) who came from the Port Royal region at the St.John River. But, in general, it is a certainty, only a fraction of the prisonners survived the first five years of captivity, whence conditions changed when France lost it's foothold in North America in 1759 and the survivors of the Deportation were included in the 1763 Treaty of Paris. In 1785, permission would be granted to any deportee who had survived the Deportation, or their descendants, to go to Louisiana. At that time, many tried to go back to Nova Scotia, and few of those who made it back chose to remain because everything was changed: the English settlers were now occupying the area. Still they did form Acadian nucleuses, here and there, with old customs mixed with curious ones brought back from wherever they had lived.
On the positive side, this awfull mess was a lesson to the British government which forged future better living terms for the colonists; the British were probably more careful of their handling of the situation. Also, when in 1759 England gained these new possessions, these 1755 tragic events were certainly conducive to a greater obedience from the general population of the newly conquered New France.
In 1755 the population had been dispersed along the Atlantic seacoast, Louisiana and the Seaward Islands or sent to English prisons in Falmouth, Liverpool or SouthHampton, then resettled in France, in regions like the Poitou or in towns like Bordeaux or Belle-Ile-en-Mer which was the personnal property of LOUIS XV,
an island off the coast of Brittany where Alexandre LeBorgne had once lived. READ BELLE-ISLE.
The great kindness of countless French small towns and their inhabitants helped the survivors and many chose to remain there after 1785.
* * * * * * * *
So, altogether, in 1755, two thirds of the inhabitants of Beaubassin and the isthmus of Chignectou
escaped Lawrence's men during the actual Great Deportation.
RECORDS
On the other hand, all the Church records were burnt and there were usually no name records of the people who were on each ship, so genealogically, for the next ten years the families had to rely on oral records, stories transmitted to their children during the next thirty years.
Indeed, on the National level, 3000 souls would escape the English during 1755-1756 Deportation and of the 11,000 people who were supposed to be taken away, only 7,000 were sent to the other states, including Louisiana, or held three years (if they survived it!) in England in the prisons of Falmouth, Liverpool, Southampton and/or taken to be re-settled in Bordeaux, France.
The re-settlement was helped by the great kindness of countless French small towns who would make room for 5-10 families, as on the Island of Belle-Ile-en-Mer, off the coast of Brittany which was the personnal property of Louis XV and which extended welcome to 78 Acadian families in their four villages, or the lands which were given in the Poitou in later years.
The stories of heroism (as depicted in Longfellow's novel of Evangeline) in these years were screenplays on our heart which remembers. "...Remember, so slow were the days, fraught with anxiety and insecurity and so fast were the nights gone, alone together in the warm blankets, so secure, and yet with such an early daybreak standing behind the window..." ddlm
Much Info taken from:
"Columbia Encyclopedia", Columbia University, 1942
"Histoire de l'Acadie"
by Bona ARSENAULT, 1978
"Maine, Resources, Attractions and it's People, a History"
Compiled by Harrie B. COE,
The Lewis Historical Publishing Company, 1928
"Historical Geography of the British Dominions: Vol.5 Canada"
by Sir Charles LUCAS, Oxford, 1923
"St-Castin, baron français , chef amérindien, 1652-1707"
Marjolaine SAINT-PIERRE, Septentrion, 1999
"Une seigneurie béarnaise au temps d'Henri de Navarre: Corisande d'Andoins dame de la "Capdelarie" d'Escout", Bernard CHÉRONNET,"Revue de Pau et du Béarn", No 12, 1984, pp 95-119
"Le baron de Saint-Castin, chef abénaquis" by Pierre DAVIAULT, Ed. de l'A.C-F, Montréal, 1939.
"Fort pentagouet, Castine, Maine, 1635-1674: An Archeological and Historical Perspective of Anglo-Canadian Frontier" by Gretchen Fearon FAULKNER, a Thesis, Un. Main at Orono, 1984
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Danielle Duval LeMyre
Writer & Researcher
LINKS
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NOTE FROM THE AUTHORI have been to beautiful Castine in Maine, the long narrow peninsula filled with stately New England homes,
where the low shores, bays and the river are as peaceful as they could have ever have been in times of peace.
It is still as beautiful.
The abundant apple trees, everywhere, are the only true reminiscence of the old days, left behind by the French,
the Jesuits first, then d'Aulnay followed by St-Castin.
If you are interested in the First Nations of the Abenakis which were living at one time in the Penobscot Bay area (it was their winter residence), you can find them in Old Towne, just above Bangor in Maine, where they have reproduced faithfully their Pentagouet/Castine village setting when they were forced to leave it. You can also find several descendants in the village of Odanak, Quebec, near St-Francois (Sorel/Nicolet) where a Museum was developped by it's residents.
About myself what can I say but that I love this planet and it's people, it's plants, forests, children and animals. I know it may sound corny, but I relish every breath and also hope to have a long fruitful life.
Apart from writing and being a French-English Translator, I do love to travel, read and watch movies. I like observing the world. I work in a women's centre dedicated in finding employment to women over 50, as I am.
Another of my interests is filming videos of Community events, people and places especially those with ethnic flavour, for I have a great thirst for knowledge and its dissemination. After all, our heritage helps us in it's stead.
I am a French-Canadian born in Montreal.
My Mother is Olga Drouin Obry
and my Father is Salluste Duval LeMyre.
I divide most of my time between Quebec, Sutton,
Montreal, Vancouver, Sherbrooke and Maine.
If you are interested in buying one of my books
from the 9 volumes Serie
"We were there! Canadian, American... Roots"
about the History of the New World in the 17th-18th century which starts with
"Nicholas Marsolet(1587-1677), the French interpretor to the Montagnais First Nation of Tadoussac",
and follows with
"St-Castin (1685-1728) and Charlotte Guyon Damours,
Bridging two worlds"
you can put your name on the waiting list
by going on the Internet at
http://www.oocities.org/daniellla.geo/achat.html
Danielle LeMyre
Montreal,
Quebec, H2X 2L2
Messages: (514)236-0422
I welcome your opinions. Thank you. Danielle.
