Pierre Doucet was born around 1621, someplace in France, to unknown parents. It was believed for a very long time that his father was Germain Doucet dit Laverdure, which is why Pierre is often listed with that dit name. However, Germain is not his father.
There is evidence in the form of dispensations for consanguinity in subsequent generations that Pierre’s mother may have been a Bourg. I question this, though, because Pierre married Henriette Pelletret about 1660, daughter of Simon Pelletret and Perrine Bourg, whose parents are unknown. Acadians had only been in Acadia for one generation. If Pierre’s mother was a Bourg and closely related to his wife’s mother, their marriage could not have occurred. Of course, there could have been two completely different Bourg families in Acadia, but given how small the population was, and that Charles d’Aulnay had recruited many, if not most, of the families from his mother’s signeury in France, the chances are slim. The ongoing discussion can be viewed on Germain Doucet’s WikiTree page, here, and Pierre Doucet’s page, here.
The 1649 will of Charles de Menou d’Aulnay, Governor of Acadia and one of the original founders of the colony, was discovered a few years ago and indicates that Germain Doucet was caring for his nieces and nephews.
D’Aulnay specifically left Germain 200 livres in recognition of his many years of “loyalty and affection.” Doucet and his wife also received a promise of free food and 50 écus of rent per year for the rest of their lives. Additionally, d’Aulnay left Germain additional funds for the help Germain had given his “nephews and nieces”, which can only mean Pierre, Marguerite, and their unknown sister, Inconnue Doucet.
Therefore, Pierre Doucet was the nephew of Germain Doucet, and Pierre’s father was Germain’s unidentified brother. We don’t know if Pierre’s father (and mother) died after arriving someplace in Acadian as early settlers, or if they died in France and their uncle brought the children along to raise. It appears that Germain had no children of his own, although, based on Y-DNA results, he may have adopted a Native American child who was his namesake.
There is speculation about where in France Pierre was born, but no one has produced any evidence or sources. If we knew where Germain was born, or married, that would assuredly help, but we don’t know that either
It’s possible, in fact probable, that Pierre Doucet’s unidentified parents arrived in Acadie at the same time as his uncle, Germain Doucet dit Laverdure, as early as 1632 with the “300 elite men” brought by Razilly. Families began arriving in 1636. Regardless, Germain was there by 1641 when he is listed as the “Captain at Arms” living among the families residing in Pentagouët, Acadie.
Fort Pentagouet in present-day Castne, Maine, along the Penobscot River, was built in 1625 and served as the first capitol of the French colony of Acadia, serving as both a military outpost and trading center.
An archaeological dig in the 1980s revealed the fort’s remains in the yard of the Our Lady of Holy Hope Catholic Church, marked by a cross today.
You can see the outline of part of the fort, above.
We know that Germain Doucet was there in 1640, when Pierre would have been about 20, just a few years after families had begun to settle both here and at La Have.
If Pierre was at this remote outpost with his uncle, and perhaps his parents, he came as a child or teen. Just think what a great adventure this would have been for a young boy.
If they arrived in 1636, the family would have spent time at Le Have (LaHave) where the Fort Point Museum is located today..
His parents could have died and been buried in the cemetery at Fort Ste Marie de Grace at Le Have near Razilly, Fort Pentagouet, or Port Royal before 1649. Based on d’Aulnay’s will, it sounds as if Germain has been helping his nieces and nephews for some time.
It’s fairly clear that Pierre arrived with his parents, because his siblings were in Acadia too. Pierre’s sister, Marguerite, born about 1625, married Abraham Dugas about 1645, another very early settler who lived beside the fort in Port Royal. Another sister, whose name is unknown, married Pierre Lejeune about 1654. She was probably born about 1634.
Acadia was still tiny in 1654 – the Port Royal area only had about 270 people, and most of those lived at Port Royal, with a few across the river. Families didn’t move “upriver” until after 1654, hoping for more safety.
Pierre apparently knew d’Aulnay, and fairly well. In 1687, several Acadian men signed an attestation regarding the work of d’Aulnay, and Pierre was among the signers, which also suggests he was in Acadia for several years before d’Aulnay’s death in 1650.
Steven Cronier in Acadians in Grey tells us that Germain was a minor nobleman and “captain at arms,” born in the mid-1590s and came to Acadia with Isaac de Razilly and d’Aulnay in 1632. He was master at arms at Pentagouët in 1640 and testified in an inquiry against former governor Charles La Tour that year.
D’Aulnay moved the seat of Acadia from Le Have to Port Royal sometime between 1635 and 1640.
The men would have worked together to dyke the marshes. It took three years for the salt to be washed clean so the fields could be farmed, but when farming commenced, the land produced fantastic yields. Port Royal was a good choice for multiple reasons. It addition to fertile land, it was also protected somewhat from the sea and was less likely to be embroiled in constant warfare like Fort Pentagouet – or at least it would appear that way.
Germain Doucet and d’Aulnay were apparently quite close as Germain was appointed guardian of d’Aulnay’s children after his death in 1650.
Germain was commanding Fort Anne in Port Royal in 1654 when the English seized Port-Royal, defeating the French.
If Germain was raising his nieces and nephews, including Pierre, this suggests that they would have been living with Germain, probably in the fort in the commander’s quarters.
In 1654, when Port Royal was lost, per the capitulation agreement, Germain would have been required to return to France. If Pierre, who was still unmarried at that time unless there was an earlier marriage we know nothing about, had been Germain’s son, it’s very likely he would have been forced to leave too.
While Pierre and his sisters would have bid a tearful goodbye to their uncle, all three remained in Acadia. Germain returned to France and we know nothing further about him.
By this time, Pierre would have been in his mid-30s. He assuredly fought side by side with his uncle in 1654 to defend Acadia against the English, but to no avail. French settlement ceased immediately, and the Acadians began refusing to sign a loyalty oath to the English King – much to the chagrin of the English. The loyalty oath, its language, how it was written, and what it meant was a constant source of turmoil for decades.
Pierre married much younger Henriette Pelletret about 1660. She was 19 and he was about 39.
They began their family in 1661 and over the next 24 years, had 10 living children and probably four who perished.
In 1670, the French regained control of Acadia through the Treaty of Breda. The following year, the first census was taken, tallying a total of 392 people. There were more than twice as many cattle and sheep than humans.
Although France was now officially in control, France pretty much ignored and neglected Acadia, fostering a culture of stubborn independence among the Acadians.
The Census
We would be entirely lost without the Acadian censuses, especially given that no church records in Port Royal exist before 1702.
The 1671 Census:
Pierre Doucet, bricklayer 50 (so born about 1621), wife Henriette Peltret 31; Children: Anne 10, Toussaint 8, Jean 6, Pierre 4, and 1 daughter 3 months; cattle 7, sheep 6 and 4 arpents of land.
Thanks to this census, we know that Pierre was a brick or stone mason.
The houses in Acadia were almost always wood, but they all had stone fireplaces and bake ovens outside.
This is a reconstructed Acadian home in the historical gardens in Annapolis Royal, formerly Port Royal.
Baking was done outside, but cooking in a pot or kettle was done inside in the fireplace.
Through the house and out the “back door” here, you’re viewing the Allain River and on the other side, Abraham Dugas’s land.
Homes were generally one room and relatively small, overlooking the marshlands and fields. The roof was thatch, which made them particularly vulnerable to fire, and a second story provided sleeping quarters in the rafters for children.
Sometime in the 1670s, Father Pettit established a school at Port Royal, but it was probably only for boys. The Sisters may have opened one for girls in 1687.
The 1678 Census:
Pierre Doucet and Henriett Pelletret, 1.5 arpents of land, 10 cattle, 1 gun, 5 sons, 17, 12, 14, 6, and 3, 2 daughters, 10 and 3.
The census enumerator was going back and forth across the river because Pierre is enumerated “beside” Abraham Dugast and Marguerite Doucet, Pierre’s sister, who lived by the fort, and “beside” Antoine Bourg who lived adjacent to Pierre’s property on the north side of the river.
In 1682, Acadians began to settle along the Bay of Fundy in the Minas Basin and at Beaubassin, but Pierre chose to remain at Port Royal. Probably, in part due to the fact that he had posession of good land that was well drained and producing what they needed. Plus, at about 61, he was no spring chicken. The next generation, younger couples, were in need of land..
In 1684, yet another new Governor arrived who described the Acadians as having a simple, pastoral existence stating that they lived better than Canadians … for they never lacked bread or meat. But they weren’t as industrious, and never put away harvests in case of a bad year. The dowries were usually less than 20-25 francs in goods, a cow in calf, a ewe and a sow. Well-off families sometimes included a feather bed.
The 1686 Census:
Pierre Doucet 55 (should be 65), Henriette Peltret 40; children: Toussaint 23, Jean 20, Pierre 18, Magdelaine 16, Louis 12, Jeanne 10, Pierre 8, Marguerite 6, Mathieu 1; 2 guns, 5 arpents land, 8 cattle, 12 sheep, 6 hogs.
The family was doing well.
We are fortunate to have a 1686 map and I was able to place the Doucet property from 1707 and later maps.
This map also shows the Catholic church that they attended and the neatly fenced cemetery. The legend indicates that the fort is in ruins. “Un fort ruine.”
In 1688 the governor noted that both labor and manure (for fertilizer) were in short supply, as were untapped tidelands that could be dyked and drained – noting that as the reason why 25-30 mostly younger people had moved to Minas in the past six years.
Whoever thought of manure being in short supply.
Here’s a contemporary view. It’s necessary to understand the lay of the land. The land farmed by Pierre, and later his son Rene, lay acros the river directly from the fort.
The 1690 Attack
1690 was a terrible year. Acadia, and more specifically, Port Royal was caught up in the tide of escalating warfare between France and England.
The Acadian governor, Meneval, only had 100 soldiers in the garrison at Fort Anne.
Phipps, the English commander from New England sailed up the river, arriving with 7 ships and 700 men. He had more soldiers than the entire population of Acadia.
The Acadians’ goose was cooked. The Doucet land laid directly across the river Dauphin, and Pierre’s sister was married to Abraham Dugas, whose land lay directly beside the fort.
The English struck, burned 28 homes, probably every home in Port Royal and across the river within sight, plundered anything of value, including from the church that they torched.
They didn’t bother with the upriver farms and for some reason, and they didn’t burn the mills either. Phipps captured Meneval, the Acadian governor, and several French soldiers taking them back to Boston with him. Before departing, he put a council of Acadians in place to conduct business, forcing the Acadians to sign an oath of allegiance.
After Phipps departed, English pirates arrived and burned more, murdering people and killing livestock just for sport.
Indeed, if it weren’t for bad luck, the Acadians would have had no luck at all.
Pierre Doucet, by then 69 or 70, signed the loyalty oath with a mark which tells us he was illiterate. Of course, in that time and place, the priests read the Bible and interpreted its meaning for you. There was little need to read.
The 1693 Census
In 1693, another census was taken which lists Pierre Doucet, widower, 56; Rene 13; Mathieu 8; 10 cattle; 12 sheep; 10 hogs; 8 arpents of land; 1 gun.
Pierre’s age is incorrect. He would have been 72, an odd mistake to make. Sadly, even though Henriette was 20 years younger than Pierre, she predeceased him. Just goes to show that you never know.
Henriette was 40 in 1686. She could have died in childbirth between then and 1693, or she could have been killed in the 1690 depredations, given that they lived within sight of the fort and would surely have been targeted. Of course, she could also have died of something else, but one thing is certain – it wasn’t old age.
Pierre Doucet’s son, Pierre, born about 1667 is also missing after 1686 and before 1693. He would not have signed the 1690 Oath of Allegiance because he was not a head of household, unless he had married. He was living with his parents yet in 1686 where he is listed as age 18. No more records are found for this Pierre, nor is he ever listed as a head of household. He likely died sometime after 1686, but before 1693 when he would have again been listed in a census. It could well have been in 1690.
Pierre Jr. and his mother are both probably buried in the cemetery at Fort Anne. Pierre Sr. would have stood at their gravesides as the Priest spoke, probably wishing it had been him instead.
The 1698 Census
Pierre Doucet, widower, 80; Louis 24, Rene 18; Mathieu 10; Margueritte 12; 12 cattle, 8 sheep, 5 hogs, 16 arpents of land, 40 fruit trees, 1 gun.
The fruit trees are interesting. Acadians are known for their apple trees which still stand as silent reminders along the back roads where their fencelines were and near the marshes where their homesteads used to be.
Anyplace Acadians lived, you’ll find apple trees – many of them very old now.
The 1700 Census
Pierre Doucet, widower, 63; Rene 20; Mathieu 15; 8 cattle, 10 sheep, 8 arpents, 1 gun.
Pierre’s age is vastly incorrect. He would have been 79 or 80.
By now, there were 2000 people in Acadia, but they had scattered between multiple locations. The capitol of Acadia had been in Beaubassin for awhile, but was moved back to Port Royal
The 1701 Census
Pierre Doucet, widower, 80; Rene 21; Mathieu 15; 2 gun; 9 cattle, 6 sheep, 2 hogs; 6 arpents of land.
Clearly, a man of 80 was not doing the heavy part of farming, so sons Rene and Mathieu would have taken over most of the chores.
The Acadians realized they really needed to shore up the fort, but only limited supplies were arriving from France, so they began the backbreaking work by hand, carrying each rock and every barrel of dirt by wheelbarrel or cart.
The 1703 Census
Pierrer Doucet, widow[er] 1 female, 1 arms bearer.
Clearly, Pierre was still considered an arms bearer, capable of defending Acadia.
Rene had married in 1702 but was in all probability farming his father’s land. Mathieu did not marry until 1712, so I have no idea where he was, and Marguerite had married about 1700. Perhaps the female listed should have been a male.
In June 1704, Port Royal came under attack again. The fort was not ready to fully defend Port Royal. Churches were looted again. Dikes were dug down and the fields flooded, meaning no crops could be grown and harvested for another three years.
Based on drawings, it appears that the English ships remained closer to the far side of the river in order to stay out of cannon range. That means they were closer to Pierre’s home.
In 1705, 550 English men arrived in two gunboats, 14 transports, 36 whaleboats and a shallop, killing people and capturing prisoners along the way as they made their way up the Bay of Fundy. Imagine the dread watching all of those vessels sailing up the river towards your home.
New Governor Realizes the Acadians Are in Big Trouble
A new governor, Daniel d’Auger de Subercase arrived in April of 1706 and quickly realized he had years of both mismanagement and neglect to overcome.
The fort was dilapidated and even the old powder magazine was leaky and wet. You can’t fire cannons without dry powder. The fort was in terrible condition and morale was at an all-time low. The Acadians at Port Royal were sitting ducks, but Subercase heroically attempted to rectify the situation as best he could – going so far as to sell his clothes to do so.
The attacks continued. In March of 1707, the governor only had 160 soldiers to defend not only the fort, but the town as well. Of those, many soldiers were inexperienced and had no desire to fight. Essentially, they had been recruited from the “quays of Paris” and likely had no choice in the matter. Many defected to the other side.
Now, all Acadian men who could carry a gun were soldiers defending their homes, families and homeland.
Governor Subercase managed to hold the fort, somehow, against more than 1000 men from New England, but the sheer imbalance foreshadowed the future.
Having no other choice, the governor recruited pirates who were more than happy to assist the Acadians by taking English ships as “prizes.” While France ignored Subercases’s please for help, the Acadians lived off the booty of the corsairs for the next three years.
This did help, but it also enraged New England whose ships were being lost and who could no longer easily access the fishing grounds on the Grand Banks.
On this 1707 map, you can see Pierre’s home (red arrow) almost directly across the river from the fort.
Today, the same location, marked with the red arrow.
From the fort, we can view the opposite shoreline where Pierre Doucet raised his family.
Standing in Fort Anne, Pierre could see his home across the river.
Moving more to the right and viewing Pierre’s land across the wharf where his descendants would be forced to walk and board the ships that would rip them from Acadia in 1755.
A 1733 map shows the location of homesteads.
Two homes are shown on this map where Pierre Doucet had lived. Earlier, they would have been inhabited by Pierre and his son, Rene’s family. By 1733, one would have been Pierre’s son, Rene’s home and probably Rene’s daughter Anne Doucet and her husband, Daniel Garceau.
MapAnnapolis identified the current location of Pierre’s home.
A closer view, along with a “rough patch,” similar to those in other locations that conceal the foundations of original buildings.
No one was safe in 1707. Pierre was an old man with one gun fighting against hundreds of young healthy English soldiers with a lot of firepower.
By this time, many of Pierre’s children had departed for the northern parts of Acadia. He probably wished he had too.
- Marie Doucet was in Grand Pre with Husband Jean Hebert, but would die in 1710 at 49.
- Toussant Doucet married Marie Caissie about 1690 in Beaubassin.
- Jean Doucet married Francoise Blanchard about 1692 in Cobequid.
- Pierre Doucet disappeared from the records between 1686 and 1693 and probably died.
- Magdeleine Doucet married Rene Bernard about 1689 and was living in Beaubassin by 1690.
- Louis Doucet married Marguerite Girouard about 1702 in Beaubassin.
- Louise Doucet married Pierre Chenet about 1691 and remained near Port Royal.
- Rene Doucet married Marie Broussard about 1702 and farmed his father’s land.
- Marguerite Doucet married Alexandre Comeau about 1700 and remained near Port Royal.
- Mathieu Doucet married Anne Lord in 1712 and remained near Port Royal.
In 1707, only Mathieu was left at home, and Rene was literally farming his father’s land. Louise and Marguerite had remained near Port Royal. Unfortunately the Doucet land and homstead was very vulnerable – probably more vulnerable on that side of the river than the houses near the fort because it was essentially undefended.
1710
The worst was yet to come in 1710 as Pierre reached his 9th decade of life.
To begin with, the harvest failed. Then an epidemic drove the corsairs away. While France was ignoring and neglecting her colony, the English were strenghtening theirs.
The English dispatched five ships with more than 3400 troops to Acadia. Subercase had only 300 soldiers, plus Acadian men. According to the 1707 census, there were around 100 male heads of household, plus 72 boys age 14 or over. The entire fighting force was less than 500 men and older boys.
There were more soldiers on those ships than the entire population of all of Acadia, including the northern settlements. The ships sailed up the Riviere Dauphin, right up to Fort Anne – in front of the Doucet home.
The English documented their plan of attack for posterity.
This map shows the fort and the location of the various homesteads and settlements.
Using the English map combined with various Acadian maps identifying the Doucet homestead and that of their neighbors, it looks for all the world like the British came ashore on Pierre Doucet’s land. Pierre’s home is shown with the red outline and the red arrow points to the location that the English labeled, “where our whole body of men landed.” Of course they landed across the river from the fort. Cannon shot could’t reach that far.
What did Pierre do? Did an 89-year-old man go to the fort and either fight or help the soldiers in some way? Did he watch his home burn, again, from the fort? Alternatively, was he put in charge of keeping Rene’s wife and young children hidden and safe someplace?
If I had to bet, I’d wager that if Pierre was physically able, at all, he was right there in the fort with the other Acadian men. Or, was he one of the guerilla fighters in the woods? He doesn’t seem like a shrinking violet to me. Did they have to hogtie him to keep him out of the way?
While the earlier siege had failed – this one would not. They would win by sheer numbers and treachery. Of course, they burned everything – again!.
Miraculously, the overwhelmed Acadian men held the fort for 19 days, but on October 12th, understanding the gravity of their situation, they surrendered. It was surrender or be massacred, along with their families.
Pierre’s sons, Rene and Mathieu were assuredly fighting, as were Pierre’s sons-in-law. Pierre, depending on his health and stamina may have played a role as well – or maybe he simply prayed becasue he could do nothing else.
The Acadian men were permitted to leave the fort with all the honors of war, “their arms and baggage, drums beating and flags flying.”
The exit gate archway still remains, today, and if you stand quietly, you can hear them across the years.
Subercase, begrudgingly, but honorably handed the key to the fort to his English adversary, Francis Nicholson, quipping that he hoped to pay him a visit in the spring, and with that, the English took posession of Fort Anne, Port Royal, and in 1713, all of Acadia.
The surrender agreement stated that the French soldiers would be transported back to France, and they were probably glad to go. The Acadians were in such bad shape that the French couldn’t even provide provisions for the soldiers, so the English had to provision the soldiers for their return trip to France.
Additionally, the English required an oath of allegiance, stating that the residents who took the oath and were “within cannon shot,” which was about 3 miles, could remain for 2 years, but then had to remove their moveable items, meaning furniture and livestock, to somplace else in the French territory. In 1710, the rest of Acadia, like Beaubassin, was still French, as was mainland Canada. Apparently a list given to Nicholson listed 481 people who had taken the oath, although based on the 1707 census at Port Royal, there were less than 200 males that would have been of age, and only about 100 heads of household.
So, now 90-year-old Pierre Doucet had a new problem. Should he stay or go? Was resistance futile? The priests were gathering people beyond the 3 mile perimeter and encouraging resistance, but that did little for the families like Pierre’s, across the river from the fort. Worse yet, his home assuredly was burned for probably at least the third time.
Did he even have anything left to move? Did he want to move?
Unfortunately, there is no census before 1714, and even that one doesn’t tell us anything about livestock or arpents of land – so we are left in the dark about their condition in 1710 and for several years after. It’s difficult to feed your family if your farmland has been ruined by seawater.
We do know that disease ravaged the 450 English soldiers that were left to occupy Fort Anne and between that and desertion, a year later, only about 100 remained.
The Acadians were appealing to the Governor of Canada, asking for his assistance to leave. Another faction was plotting to overthrown the English in Port Royal, resulting in a confrontation upriver in June of 1711 called the Massacre of Bloody Creek in which about 32 English soldiers were killed by “Indians,” although I very strongly suspect Acadians men were involved as well.
Following that successful ambush, a group of about 600 men blockaded Fort Anne. Although they outnumbered the soldiers substantially, and the garrison was small, the Acadians had no artillery, and the fort was accessible from the back side by water.
Ironically, as the Acadians prepared to leave the area, the English began putting up roadblock after roadblock. They had discovered how useful the Acadians were, and they couldn’t feed themselves without the Acadians’ produce. Oh, the irony.
So now the Acadians were willing to go but couldn’t. There was no shortage of confusion, and I’m sure, a multitude of differing opinions. A few younger families did leave, but the majority of Acadians in the Annapolis River Valley had well-established farms and really had no desire to start over by clearing land and creating fields out of marshland. Worse yet, land they were offered elsewhere was rocky and stony and they had no idea how to farm that type of land. They claimed they would starve and wished to stay in Acadia near Port Royal, even if it was under the thumb of the English.
On April 13, 1713, “All of Nova Scotia or Acadia comprised in its ancient limits, as also the city of Port Royal” was ceded to England in the Treaty of Utrecht.
Pierre’s Death
I think of all this upheaval and wonder if Pierre was able to correspond with his children who had relocated along the Bay of Fundy in the late 1600s. Did he know his grandchildren at all? Did he ever visit? Did he, too, consider transplanting himself to the Minas Basin?
Perhaps all this was just too much for Pierre.
In the 1701 census, Pierre was already the oldest person in Acadia by a full decade—a living relic of an earlier generation. By 1713, he was no longer just an anomaly; he was a venerated legend, the exception to every rule, the last thread connecting the present to a distant past. He had endured wars, famine, and disease, outlasting friends, family, and entire communities. While others had fallen to time and tragedy, Pierre remained—a wizened, revered elder whose very survival defied the odds, a testament to resilience in a land where few lived long enough to see old age.
I wonder if he was lonely as he aged and had no contemporaries.
I’m unclear whether Pierre died on June 1, 1713 and was buried the following day, or if he died on June 2nd.
According to the parish register, penned by priest, Justin Durand, Pierre was “nearly 100 years old.”
The Registers of St. Jean-Baptiste, Annapolis Royal, 1702-1755 are held in a collection titled “An Acadian Parish Remembered” by the Nova Scotia Archives. They don’t translate verbatin, but provide the relevant data, as follows:
I asked ChatGPT to translate this, but it introduced language that was not there. A big thank you to Karen Theriot Reader for reading and translating the original document correctly. I have removed the erroneous translation and substitutied hers. Thank you so much Karen!
Pierre
Doucet
[in another
hand]
100 ans!!
Ce deuxieme de Juin de L année Mil Sept cent Treize
Moy Soussigné faisant les fontions curiales a port royal
de L Acadie ay Inhumé Solennellement le corps de
pierre Doucet habitant de port Royal aagé de
pres de cent ans En foy de quoy jai Signé le jour et
an que dessus F. Justinien Durand Recollet Missionnaire
—————————————————————
Pierre
Doucet
This second day of June of the year one thousand seven hundred thirteen,
I the undersigned, doing the curical functions at Port Royal
of Acadia, have solemnly buried the body of
Pierre Doucet, resident of Port Royal, aged
of nearly one hundred years. In witness of which I have signed on the day and
year as above. Fr. Justinien Durand, Missionary Friar
—————————————————————
You may notice that only the burial date of June 2, 1713, is given. However, Stephen A. White’s Dictionnaire généalogique des familles acadiennes has Pierre listed as dying on 1 Jun 1713, buried on 2 Jun 1713 (p. 528).
Pierre was the last man alive who personally witnessed the founding of Acadia. The first seat at La Have, probably the Fort at Pentagouet in Maine, settling and clearing the land across from the fort at Port Royal, building Fort Anne, again and again, losing Port Royal in 1654 and regaining it again in 1670, the brutal attack of 1690 followed by murderous pirates, the incessant demands for loyalty oaths and many attacks by the English accompanied by burned homes and barns and ruined fields, rebuilding his home repeatedly, trying to rebuild the fort by hand without supplies in the early 1700s, and the final blow in 1710 where the Acadians lost Port Royal for the final time.
Amongst all of this, Pierre buried his wife and probably at least six children. I wonder if he even knew that his daughter died in Grand Pre on November 3rd, 1710, less than a month after Port Royal fell. Was there any way to receive notice, especially given the warfare? 1710 was a terrible year, no matter how you slice it.
Pierre was a walking history book. Given that he lived to “nearly 100,” he clearly figured out how to co-exist and get along with the English. I surely wish he had been able to write, and had scribed a journal for us. Just think how invaluable that would be today, not only for family history and genealogy, but for world history as well..
Pierre would have been laid to rest in the Garrison Cemetery, in what had been the churchyard in Port Royal before the English destroyed everything – buried near his wife and at least one child, his namesake, who had waited a very long time for him to arrive.
Their graves are unmarked, destroyed by the English when the Acadians were all rounded up and deported in 1755.
Yet, they are not gone.
They live on.
Rest in Peace, Pierre. You surely deserve it!
_____________________________________________________________
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