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From: "Fredrica Givan" <>
Subject: Re: Acadians of Coquebid
Date: Wed, 5 May 1999 10:45:58 -0300


>Don Landry >
asked:

>But what about the Acadians of Coquebid and the lesser known Acadian
>settlements? >Who will tell their story? >Is there a story to tell?

Much has been written on the history of the
Acadians and the deportations in 1755. However,
there are many stories of groups and families
from other regions in Acadia that were not
deported at that time. Many Acadian families
along the Saint John faced different trials and
tribulations. For many of you on the list without
access to several local histories of New Brunswick,
I have used a variety of sources to give a 'brief'
overview of the story of some of those Acadians
on the Saint John River in New Brunswick.

"It will be remembered that at Grand Pre, during the
expulsion of the Acadians, nineteen hundred
and twenty-three French men, women and children,
were peaceably removed; but at Chignecto,
Sheopdy, and other places, resistance was offered,
and large numbers of the inhabitants from these
parts fled to the River Saint John. Boisherbert,
the French officer in command of the river, was at
one time at the head of as many as fifteen hundred
of these French fugitives. The French, thus reinforced,
were able to hold the mouth of the River St. John, and
they had a fortified post at St. Anns, ninety miles up
the river, on the site of the present City of Fredericton.
The destruction of both posts, and the entire removal
of the French from the river, were the objects to which
the attention of the English was now directed. At all
events it was clear that the fort at the mouth of the river
must be reoccupied.

Accordingly in the summer of 1758 three ships of war
and two transports with two regiments, one of Highlanders
and the other of provincial troops, were despatched from
Boston to re-take Fort LaTour. They landed and cut a road
through the woods to the place which was then used as a
vegetable garden by the French. From this point they
advanced against the fort in the order of battle. They
captured three hundred prisoners, and the rest of the
garrison escaped up the river. Many, however were
killed by the shots of the attacking party. The French
lost over forty men. This ended their occupation of the
mouth of the River St. John, and soon after they were
driven entirely from the river, with the exception of a
few families who continued to reside near St. Anns."
[source: Acadiensis,"Oct. 1905, vol. v, no.4 -
David Russel Jacks]

"Many of the Acadians on the St. John retired to Quebec
upon the destruction of their settlements by the English.
Some of them, however, who lived at the village of Ste.
Anne's remained, vainly trusting that they were
sufficienlty remote to escape molestation.

It seemed that in spite of the efforts of Monckton and
Hazen to dispossess the Acadians, they had not entirely
withdrawn from the river, but remained in seculsion
at various places above and below Ste. Anne's. There
was quite a large settlement on the Oromocto river and
there were other locations where they yet lingered."

There were a couple of encounters between the Acadians
and English during this period, but the English were not
successful in driving them out.

"On the 18th. of October, 1759, the English garrison at
Fort Frederick, at the mouth of the Saint John, learned
of the surrender of Quebec. The news was brought by three
Frenchmen, who came to the fort under a flag of truce.
They were the bearers of a proposal from about 200 of
their compariots to submit to the British government.
They desired permission to remain on their lands on
promise of fidelity to the King of England. Col.Arbuthnot
made answer that they must all come down to the fort and
remain until he could communicate with the authorities at
Halifax. The Colonel made a hasty trip to Annapolis to
obtain a small vessel and assistance. On Nov. 4th. it
was announced by a Lieut.Hutchins that the French were
coming in as fast as they could. The following day a
single family arrived, and two days later Col. Arbuthnot
arrived with thirty families in charge. A few others
came in afterwards of their own accord.

The Acadians quartered at Fort Fredrick were a forlorn
little community. Whether they were residents who had
lingered in their retreats on the St. John,or people
lately come from Quebec, is not clear. They were mostly
fugtives who wished to return to their beloved Acadia.
They had exhausted their resources and were in no state
to return to the woods, where they would have died of
hunger. They produced letters from Gen. Monckton and
Judge Cramabe recommending them to protection. Governor
Lawrence decided that the letters had been obtained
through misrepresentation, and ordered them to be sent
to Halifax as prisoners. The action of Lawrence was
endorsed by Amherst, who wrote: "The pass you mention
the two hundred inhabitants of the Saint John River to
have from Mr. Monckton, was by no means meant or
understood to give the French any right to those lands;
and you have done perfectly right not to suffer them
to continue there, and you will be equally right in
sending them, when an opportunity offers, to Europe
as Prisoners of War."

The deportation at so late a period as this of two
hundred people from the valley of the Saint John
is an incident of some importance. Not long
afterwards the Governor and Council of Nova Scotia
assembled at Halifax to consider the caseof the
Acadians at Fort Fredrick. Their decision was,
"That His Excellency do take the earliest opportunity
of hiring vessels for having them immediately
transported to Halifax as prisoners of war, until
they can be sent to England; and that the two Priests
be likewise removed out of the Province." Vessels
were accordingly sent from Halifax, and these hapless
people, after a sojourn of twelve weeks at the fort,
were put on board. " source:[ "The River Saint John,
W.O. Raymond (1853-1923)]

As an added insight into this deportation are these
comments taken from the Hon. Senator Pascal Poirier's
work, "Le Pere Lefebve et L'Acadie",found in a portion
reprinted in an article translated into English,
'The Acadians Desolate', "The NB Magazine", (circa1899)

"Article 37 of the capitulation of Montreal (1760)
proposed by Vaudreuil, stipulates that no Frenchman
remaining in Canada shall be afterwards transported to
England or to English colonies. Amherst writes on the
margin: "Granted, except as regards the Acadians."

There is a similar restriction to article 54 which
proposes that "the officers of the militia, the militamen,
and the Acadians who are prisoners in New England be sent
back to their lands." - "Granted except as to the
Acadians."

"Despite attempts to dislodge then, a few Acadians had
continued to live on the Saint John. A document made
from rolls sent by exiles, and dated Nov.22nd.,1763,
was found in the Archives of the Minister of Foreign
Affairs in Paris. It reported the number of Acadians
in English colonies, and for the Saint John river gave
19 men, 17 women, and 51 children." [source Dr. Emile
Lauviere as quoted by Lillian Maxwell,"Hist. of Cent. NB"]

Acadians received permission to return in 1764.

"In 1766 eight hundred gathered in Boston and separating
into two groups started on a slow trek towards their old
home south of the Bay of Fundy. One group followed the
coast going through the forests, the other went north
to the St. Lawrence and then down the St. John. Most
of the French who settled above the present Fredericton
were of the latter group."[ source Dr. Lauvriere as quoted
in, "History of Central New Brunswick", by Lillian
Maxwell, (1937)]

In conclusion,' the following narrative of this exodus,
published in 1859, by the late Louis A. Surette, an
Acadian, dwelling at Concord, Mass:'

"In the spring of 1766 many set out for their beloved
Acadia. This weary and lonely six months' journey
through wilderness, dreary swamps and barren wastes
- extending as it did upwards of nine hundred miles
through what is now Maine and New Brunswick, round the
head of the Bay of Fundy, thence down along its southerly
side for nearly two hundred miles - no pen can adquately
describe. It is a well known fact that young and tender
children were carried alternately by father and mother
the whole of this toilsome journey. Other children were
born immediately after the arrival of their parents in
Acadia. Who can describe the trials and sufferings of
these mothers during the dreary days and nights of their
pilgrimage, exposed alike to the scorching hear and the
fury of the passing storm - hungry, thirsty and heartsick."
[Surette was quoted by Placide Gaudet,"Acadian Fugutives",
NB Magazine, 1898]

Fredrica Givan

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