Jullien signed his own name as Jullien Lor on a list of men taking a Loyalty oath in 1690. Interestingly, that given name is normally spelled Julien, with one l, but he signed his name with two. Spelling generally, including names, was not standardized at that time. I’ve normalized it to Julien for this article since that’s how you’ll see it spelled in most places.
In following generations, his surname is spelled Lord, among other ways, but there is no official parish record of the Lord surname at all in Port Royal, Acadia. The surname is found in various records for Julien and his sons as L’Or, Lor, Laure, Lore, and his dit name, La Montagne. L’or translates to “gold” in English.
Much about Julien’s life remains a mystery.
What Do We Actually Know About Julien Lor?
Julien was obviously literate, which means he had some level of education in France. He was not an impoverished street urchin and probably learned to read and write in a Catholic school instructed by priests.
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica:
In Catholic countries, such as France, the Roman church retained control of education. Indeed, as monarchy became more absolute, so largely did the authority of the church in matters of education. In France, practically all schools and universities were controlled by so-called teaching congregations or societies, the most famous and powerful of which during the first half of the 17th century was the Society of Jesus. By mid-century, the Jesuits had 14,000 pupils under instruction in Paris alone; their colleges (not including universities) all over the land numbered 612.
We don’t know where Julien was born, although his signature on the petition required of the French Acadians by the British strongly suggests that he is French. In fact, I’d go so far as to say we’ve confirms it.
Not only is his name spelled with the Aigu accent over the e, which is common in French names, but had he NOT been French, he would not have been required to sign that document.
He may well have been named after the Catholic Saint Julian the Hospitaller.
I checked Filae, a site that contains a plethora of French records. There are no Lor, L’or, Lore, or Laur, but there are Laurent and Laurens. Without a subscription, I can’t see more.
MyHeritage records reflect either trees or non-relevant records. Maybe someday!
We don’t know where Julien was from in France or exactly when he was born, but we do have some idea about his birth year.
Bless the Census Takers, For They Have Saved My Sanity
The first actual record we find that includes Julien is the Port Royal 1686 census which was recorded by “Monsieur De Meulles, Intendant of New France and All the People of Beaubassin, Rivière St-Jean, Port-Royal, Isle Persée and other Colonies of Acadia where he himself visited all of the Habitations at the beginning of the year 1686.”
In this census, Julien is shown as age 33, married to Charlotte Girouard, who is 26, with four children. Alexander is 10, Jacques 8, Pierre 5, and Marie, age 1.
This tells us that Julien was born about 1653. It also tells us that he was in Port Royal at least 11 years earlier, by 1675, because he has a 10-year-old son. Assuming that Charlotte’s age is accurate, that means either she was not his first wife, or she was 16 when Alexander was born. Charlotte Anne Girouard is listed as Anne, age 12, in the 1671 census with her family, so he did not marry her in France.
Unfortunately, Julien and Anne are missing from the 1678 census. They are not with her parents, nor are they listed separately. Some things never change about census takers.
When Did Julien Arrive?
That’s a great question.
On a website no longer available, but that I accessed using the Wayback Machine, here, auto-translated by Google from French, Julien Lord is listed by that author as a soldier in the Carnigan company of soldiers. He’s noted as being born in Normandy in 1652, probably based on the regiment’s history. The website states that they reconstructed Julien’s life using the census and his children’s records.
What they don’t say directly is whether they actually found something to suggest Julien was a soldier, or it’s presumed.
Based on a list of the San Sebastian’s crew in 1665, here, Julien is not listed, but there is one person listed under the nickname, La Montagne, that translates as “mountain.” The dit part of the name translates to “said.” In other words, that person is called “mountain.”
Julien and his sons are all listed by the name of “La Montagne” in the 1707 and 1714 censuses. In case there’s doubt about him actually being known by that name, his wife Anne Charlotte’s death record clears that up.
It’s still a leap of faith equating a man listed only as “La Montagne” on a roster as Julien, although it is possible, and he clearly was listed by that name, without a first name, at least twice in the census.
According to information cousin Mark unearthed, several different men over time have been listed by that dit nickname.
What does the website say about Julien?
He was born in Normandy in 1652; He married Anne-Charlotte Girouard (1660/1741) in 1675 in Port-Royal, Acadia, daughter of François Girouard, dit Lavaranne and Jeanne Aucoin. In 1686, he was on the land of François Girouard, his father-in-law. In August 1695, he was among the 47 heads of families of Port-Royal who took an oath of loyalty to William of Orange, King of England. In 1714, the home of Julien Lord was located very close to the fort. He died between February 17 and May 3, 1724. The act of burial remains unfinished.
They do note that Julien, at age 13, seems young for a soldier, but also state that a boy could marry at age 13, boys were found on board fishing and warships by age 9, and the English army included 12-year-olds.
If he actually was 13, he sailed away, never to see any of his family again. How heartbreaking for him.
Information provided about the ship, auto-translated to English:
Embarked on board the ship Le Saint-Sébastien from La Rochelle on May 24, 1665 Arrived in Quebec on September 12, 1665
(117 days of crossing, embarcation included)
According to a letter from Jean Talon au Roy, it would also seem that he made a stopover near Tadoussac and it was only from there that the disease would have fallen on the ship, there are up to 80 patients.
(Sources: Relationship, Talon, Register.)
Return of the Laubias company in 1670:
This company will return with new soldiers and a few old ones, some of whom will settle in New France. According to Colbert de Terron, the soldiers of Laubias’ company embarked on the ship Hirondelle around mid-April 1670 (letter from Colbert de Terron dated May 1, 1670). Moreover, according to the “Report of François Baudry, captain of the Hirondelle, belonging to the king, on fishing on Percée Island and Newfoundland”, p. 25, L’Hirondelle is said to have gone “fishing for dry fish on the isle percée in the new land and would have arrived there quite happily on the seventeenth of June.”
Moreover, Colbert de Terron (in this same letter dated May 1, 1670) affirms that the ship New France would have left towards the end of April (“two days ago” compared to the writing of his letter of May 1, 1670). Moreover, if I believe the “Report of Alain Durand, captain of New France, on his trip to Quebec”, p. 28, New France is said to have left at the end of April 1670 and “would have been to the island breakthrough by order of His Majesty to take soldiers who were there in the name of the island. of two hundred men to lead them to d. place of quebec where they would have arrived on xxj. July “.
After a quick analysis of these sources (attached), it seems to me that the company of Laubias would probably have embarked on the Hirondelle in mid-April 1670 bound for “Isle Percée” and would have docked there towards June 22, 1670. From there, the company of Laubias would have embarked on board New France in destination of Quebec and would have arrived there on July 20, 1670.
Laubias’ company would then have established itself in Nicolet. See Histoire de Nicolet, pp 35 to 50, from Abbé Bellemare:
Research by Mr. Martin L’Epine whom we thank.
Based on the other soldiers, specifically the soldiers who remained, they were in Three Rivers in Quebec, not in Port Royal. How would Julien have gotten to Port Royal?
From the book One Hundred French-Canadian Family Histories by Phillip James Moore, using Google Books, we find the following excerpt.
Moore suggests Julien may have arrived in 1668 when he was 14 or in 1670 when he would have been 18.
If he arrived with any of these groups, he would clearly have been a soldier at Fort Anne.
Seaward view from the ramparts of the Fort Anne National Historic site where Julien likely began life in Acadia.
Karen Theriot Reader weighs in as follows:
Could he be the Julien Lord la Montagne among the names of soldiers in the Carignan-Salieres Regiment? They served between 1665 and 1668. Did he come to Acadia after that?
Residences: While some soldiers and officers of the Carignan regiment did settle in Acadia, they are not included in the soldier-settler list, because little factual information is known about them or their descendants, for lack of records from this area at that time.
From cousin Mark regarding Julien arriving with Carignan:
The list Sylvain (another cousin) referenced and the source cited is the French website. Even if one accepts that a 13-year-old can be a soldier that traveled by ship to Quebec, there is no evidence nor any proffered detail that he later journeyed somehow to Port-Royal. Moreover, I still see no Julien Lord with any similar surname on any of the lists I’ve checked. This includes Peter Gagné’s list at La Société des Filles du roi et soldats du Carignan, as well as from Jack Verney’s book that I have, “The Good Regiment.” Verney lists a soldier identified only by the dit name Lamontagne as with the Loubias company. As Peter Gagné pointed out in his excellent master’s thesis on the Regiment, “Nicknames were not exclusive to one individual” and lists, among other dit names that of Lamontagne for six soldiers across different companies.
Where I think there exists some confusion between what Sylvain wrote and WikiTree, is that Le Saint-Sébastien was also the name of the ship, and possibly the same one from 1665, that carried Hector d’Andigné de Grandfontaine first to Boston and then to Pentagöuet, now Penobscot, Maine, to take possession of the forts the English had previously captured. He sent his second-in-command to Port Royal which surrendered on September 2, 1670. He had been appointed the new governor of Acadia, and there were soldiers onboard with him, possibly including Julien Lord. But again, from what I can determine, and otherwise it would have been of great news for Acadian genealogists, there was no roster or passenger list for that voyage. Sylvain wrote that he arrived with the ship on September 2, so it is this voyage that Sylvain refers to not that of the 1665 voyage of the Carignan Regiment to Québec. Maybe he was familiar with a roster I’m not aware of.
This, from the Dictionary of Canadian Biography on d’Andigné,
In addition to the soldiers and indentured employees who had arrived with the governor, the Oranger brought 60 passengers the following year, among them one woman and four girls, and the court paid 100 livres each for their passage and their setting-up. The soldiers seemed to like the country, for in the following years some 15 thought of settling there. It is impossible to determine exactly how many new settlers took up residence in Acadia at that time, but it was certainly the greatest number to arrive since the time of Razilly and d’Aulnay.
The 1671 Census of Acadia is incomplete as it only listed habitants, not others, including the soldiers stationed there. I do suspect Julien Lord may have been among them. An outstanding researcher of La Rochelle sailings to New France is Guy Perron who writes up his research in a blog that is a gold mine for this type of information.
I’ve quickly searched for the 1670 sailing of the Saint-Sébastien and did not find it, but will continue to look, through his 355 articles and elsewhere.
What Was Happening?
Mark’s comment about the 1671 census omitting soldiers at the Fort is quite important. Julien is NOT found in that census, nor the 1678 census, but we know he was already married by 1675 and had a son in 1676.
So, what was going on in Acadia, the land where Julien arrived, somehow, adopted as his own and lived the rest of his life?
We already know that Acadia was the land of a few French settlers and a few French soldiers, but not many. The British also wanted Acadia. Skirmishes and outright warfare regularly occurred on this maritime frontier, and control shifted back and forth for 150 years or so until the British deported the Acadian families a century later, in 1755.
In 1666, France reportedly stopped sending colonists to Canada, including Acadia, for fear of depopulating the mother country.
In 1667, France regained Acadia through treaty, but the English didn’t actually leave until 1670 when the English forts at Port Royal and Jemseg surrendered. The French were finally back in control of Acadia.
By 1670, Acadia had about 400 people. That’s not very many. By comparison, Massachusetts had about 40,000.
When France regained control of Acadia, another 30 soldiers, and 60 settlers arrived. Their orders were to restore French authority and keep the pesky English out.
Caught in the middle between two powers, England and France, the Acadians were often subject to attack. It may be important to note that they maintained trading relations with people in New England, even though it was forbidden. A century later, long-established family relationships may have helped save their descendants when the English deported them in 1755.
Thankfully, in 1671, the new French governor requested a census that provides us with the first, even somewhat comprehensive, view of Acadia, although some inhabitants were missed.
The official census of 1671 recorded 392 people, mostly in Port Royal. Scholars estimate the real count was probably someplace around 500. That census did not include the soldiers at the fort. This is probably why Julien is not recorded in either 1671 when he was (probably) not yet married, or in 1678. By 1678, he was not only married, he had one child born in 1676, another in 1678 or 1679, and his wife was probably expecting another child. Julien had clearly settled in.
Reconstructing Julien’s Life
Fortunately, we can reconstruct part of Julien’s life through the census. Those records are particularly important prior to the church records that remain dating from May of 1702. Earlier records were destroyed in some warfare event.
The early census documents include the names and ages of children with their families.
I need to stress that I’m using transcribed records, mostly but not exclusively from acadian-home.org, not the originals that would have been recorded in French script. Some of these records are quite confusing, so I resorted to my old standby – a spreadsheet.
Based on that 1686 census, we know that Julien was married to Charlotte Anne or Anne Charlotte Girouard about 1675. While the ages of some people vary widely, her birth year universally resolves to 1660.
The church records don’t exist from the 1600s, so we don’t have their marriage record, nor do we know positively that she was Julien’s first wife. However, their second child, Jacques’s marriage record specifies that Anne Girouard is his mother. Jacques was born in 1678 or 1679.
Julien had at least nine known children and probably several more. I’ve attempted to reconstruct the family as follows, interweaving historical events for a peek into their lives.
- Alexander Lore was born in 1676 and died on October 5, 1740. He married Marie Francoise Barrieau before May of 1702 when existing parish records begin, and probably before the 1701 census. His death record does not show his parents but states his age as 64, so confirms his birth in 1676 which is consistent with the census.
- Possibly a child that died.
- Jacques Lor was probably born in 1679 and died sometime after 1742. He married twice, first to Angelique Comeau on November 19, 1708, and secondly to Marie Charlotte Bonnevie on August 18, 1721.
- Possibly a child that died.
- Pierre Lore was born in 1681 or 1682 and died on January 17, 1738, in or near Port Royal. He married Jeanne Doucet on June 17, 1715.
In 1684, a new governor was appointed, which seemed to be a regular occurrence. He described the Acadians as living simply and pastorally. He claimed they lived better than Canadians, never lacking meat or bread, but weren’t as industrious. He said they never put anything away for a bad year and their dowries were small – a few francs and a cow in calf, a ewe and a sow. Some wealthy families had a feather bed.
This paints a picture of what Julien and Charlotte’s wedding might have been like. Starting life with a pregnant cow, a ewe and a sow. I’m sure the newlyweds didn’t care where they slept.
Another new governor in 1686 reported that the people had scattered and lived far from each other. The homes were built behind the marshes, which were along the river.
- Marie Lore was probably born between 1684 and 1687. One Marie Lore witnesses a baptism record in 1733. We will discuss her records in the next section.
- Probably a child that died.
- Anne Lore was born in 1687 and died on May 21, 1770 in Trois Rivieres, Quebec. She married Mathieu Doucet on June 15, 1712.
A 1688 report states that there was a labor shortage and a shortage of manure necessary for developing the uplands. I never considered manure as a commodity in this way. The report also stated that there was a shortage of tidelands that would be easy to dyke. As a result, 25-30 (mostly) younger people had moved to Minas in the last six years.
The settlers were described as “scattered apart from each other in the space of six or seven leagues, above and below along the banks of the Port Royal river.”
- Probably 2 children that died.
In 1689, Vincent de Saccard said that “there weren’t any settlers below Goat Island, but 29 on the shores of the basin above it. Each settler has frontage of about one and a half to two miles, but not much depth. The largest areas of marsh that could be dyked had more farms. Farms had maybe 100-200 acres.”
I suspect that these families would have been very vulnerable to attack. However, the Mi’kmaq were their friends and sometimes family, so the Acadians were certainly not as vulnerable as they would have been without that liaison.
Photos of repairing dykes at Grand Pre about 1900 can be viewed here, and the labor-intensive Acadian aboiteau dike and sluice gate system, here, including special shoes for horses to keep them from sinking.
Antoine Cadillac, who lived in Acadia in the 1680s as an explorer, trapper and trader wrote, “This place is surrounded by steep mountains, at the bottom of which there is a small valley one league wide and seven leagues long, where there are only prairies on each side of the river, which are flooded by the tides, the inhabitants have made levees, dykes and causeways, so that the dirty water cannot enter.”
Of course, this means that Julien would have known Cadillac who traded in both furs and liquor.
Click to enlarge
This is where Julien lived, at location #12, according to this 1733 survey.
The Fires
On May 9, 1690, Acadia was again attacked, plundered, and burned by the English out of Boston.
English forces under Sir William Phipps attacked Port Royal with a fleet of seven vessels and 700 men. French pirate Pierre Baptiste was among only 85 men defending the unfinished fortification at Port Royal.
After spending 12 days pillaging Port Royal, Phipps’ troops pillaged the rest of Acadia, including Castine, La Hève, Chedabucto, and the settlements at the head of the Bay of Fundy which would have included Julien’s home.
The church and 28 homes were burned, but not the mills and upriver farms. The English were now in charge. Baptiste was taken prisoner along with other Acadians whose names we don’t know, but shortly thereafter, escaped.
Julien clearly knew Baptiste and probably knew him well.
The Acadians in the fort at Port Royal swore an oath of allegiance, hoping to de-escalate the situation. Later, two English pirates, then called privateers, took advantage of the opportunity and burned homes again, killing people and slaughtering livestock. Some people just take pleasure in other people’s misery and being cruel.
A year later, Baptiste, our friendly French pirate who had attempted unsuccessfully to defend Port Royal in 1690, was successfully recruiting men in Acadia.
During this timeframe, Antoine de Lamothe Cadillac explored up the St. Lawrence River, through New France. He wrote about the Acadians, reporting that, “the creolles…travel most of the time by bark canoes. Their wives do the same, and are very bold on the water.” Another man stated that the Acadians used “bark canoes, like the savages, or other small canoes that they themselves make from a hollow tree hole.”
A beautiful birchbark canoe from the Abbe Museum in Bar Harbour, Maine. The rivers were their roads, and Julien’s family lived on what was the Rivière du Dauphin, now renamed the Annapolis River.
In 1590, a century earlier, Theodore de Bry produced this engraving of a John White watercolor, stating this is how the Native people made their dugout canoes, by hollowing logs out using fire. The Acadians learned from the Mi’kmaq and probably did the same.
In 1690, when the houses were burned, Julien had a wife and at least five children to care for. Based on the documentation available, we know that he lived “above” the fort along the river.
The oath Julien signed in 1690 was forced upon the residents in May when the fort was captured. In his own words, the Massachusetts commander reported, “We cut down the cross, rifled the Church, pulled down the High-Altar, breaking their images”; and on 23 May, “kept gathering Plunder both by land and water, and also under ground in their Gardens.”
Julien would have been a strapping man of 38. And probably hellishly angry.
I would guess that Julien sent his wife and boys, ages 14, 11, and 9, and two daughters about 3 and 6, someplace into hiding, perhaps in the mountain range above their home, marked with the red star above. He may have needed to keep his wife’s elderly parents safe too. His father-in-law died sometime during this period.
Perhaps the nearby mountains had something to do with rekindling his nickname, La Montagne.
There would have been safety in the mountains among their allies, the Mi’kmaq people. Julien would have been one of those 85 men defending the fort.
After giving orders to his men to impose the loyalty oath to everyone they could locate, both French and Native, “and upon refusal hereof to burn, kill, and destroy them,” Phipps sailed back to Massachusetts.
No wonder Julien and the others signed.
There are gaps between the known children of Julien and Charlotte. Based on what we know, one child was probably born in 1690, possibly in the midst of the attack. So, Charlotte was either pregnant or had a baby with her during this time. That child died.
- Magdelaine Lore was born in 1692 and married Francois Amiraut on January 16, 1714.
In the 1693 census, Julien is 41 years old, so born in 1652, and is listed with his wife, Charlotte, age 33, so born in 1660, living in the home of his mother-in-law, Jean Aucoin, age 60, widow of Francois Girouard. Julien’s children are Alexandre, 16, Jacques, 14, Pierre, 12, Marie, 6, and Magdeleine, 1, along with 20 cattle, 40 sheep, 10 hogs, 20 arpents (of land), and 2 guns. An arpent of land can either be about 192 linear feet or about .84 acres.
Julien seems to be providing well for his family with an abundance of livestock.
- Probably a child that died, or the age of one of another child is recorded incorrectly.
- Based on the various census records, Louis Lore and Jean-Baptiste Lore appear to be the same person who was born in 1695 and died sometime after 1714.
- Probably a child that died.
- Marguerite Lore was born in-between 1695 and 1698 and died before November 5, 1770. She married Joseph Amiraux on January 30, 1718.
For a relatively small area with few residents, Acadia was a lightning rod of conflict.
In 1696, the English attacked again. By this time, it was a common occurrence, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t devastating to the colonists who had to keep rebuilding over and over. Germain Bourgeois told the English that they had sworn loyalty to the English King. The English pretended it mattered, but it didn’t. Buildings were burned again, animals slaughtered, and apparently not just for food, but sport. This time, the dykes were ruined too, meaning it would be another three years before they could plant again.
In 1697, Acadia was returned to the French in the Treaty of Ryswick.
The 1698 census provides additional information about the family, with the transcribed version recording Julien Lord as 46, so born in 1652, Charlotte as 38, born in 1660, Jacques as 20, Marie as 18 (born 1680), Pierre as 16, Anne as 11 (born 1687), Jean-Baptiste 3, 20 cattle, 20 sheep, 12 hogs, 21 arpents of land, 6 fruit trees and one gun. Location is given as Port Royal.
The fruit trees made me smile. Fruit, probably apples, must have been a wonderful treat. Only people with long-term aspirations and intentions plant trees.
I initially thought that daughters Marie and Anne were the same person called by different names, but on two different censuses, both are recorded, so clearly not one individual.
By 1700 when another census was taken, there were about 2000 Acadians, but they no longer considered themselves “Pure French.”
In the 1700 census, Julien was age 48, so born in 1652, and Charlotte, age 40, born in 1660, are living with her mother, Jeanne Aucoin, age 87 (which is probably actually 67.) Their children are Alexandre, 24, Jacques, 21, Pierre, 18, Marie, 13, Madelaine, 8, Louis, 5, and Marguerite, 2, plus 15 cattle, 34 sheep, 20 arpents of land, and 2 guns (Port Royal)
The 1701 census shows Julien Lord, 50, so born 1651, Anne Girouard (wife,) 41, so born 1660; Jacques, 23, Pierre, 20, Marie, 17, Anne, 14, Louis, 8, Marguerite, 6; 2 guns, 17 cattle, 15 sheep, 12 hogs, 10 arpents of land. (Port Royal). Why is Julien shown with less land?
- Possibly a female child died after 1703
- Possibly a male child born 1701/1702 and died before 1707
- Charles Lore was born in 1703 or 1704 and died on November 21, 1775 in Varennes, Quebec. He married Marie-Josephte Doucet on February 19, 1726.
- Possibly one final daughter according to the 1714 census
By 1702, both sides were preparing for conflict again. The Acadian governor had begun construction of a stone and earth fort the year before which was largely complete by 1704.
The 1703 census shows Julien Lors, wife, 4 boys and 4 girls. Alexander had married but is not listed separately. However, his wife is not listed here. The four boys would be Jacque, Pierre, Jean-Baptiste/Louis, and Charles if he was born by 1703. If Charles was not yet born by the 1703 census, Julien and Charlotte had a male child in 1701 or 1702 that died before 1707. The girls would be Marie, Anne, Magdaleine, and Marguerite.
Julien’s children are VERY difficult to unravel.
Sorting the Children
If Charlotte was born in 1660, she would have been 43 in 1703 when Charles was born, or 44 if he was born in 1704. It’s possible that she had another child or two. If she did, we don’t have any definitive records.
I created a spreadsheet attempting to correlate family information.
I compiled the children and their ages from each census. I calculated their birth year from their age.
In their cell, you’ll see something like 33-1653 which means that Julien was age 33 in 1686, which subtracts to a birth year of 1653.
Some years are confusing. For example, Alexander is missing in 1698 when he would have been about 22, but he’s present in 1700, then missing in 1701 and 1703. He’s enumerated separately in 1714. He clearly lived because we have his death record in 1740.
Click to enlarge
I’ve listed Jean-Baptiste and Louis, colored blue, separately, but if you look at the entries, it’s clear that’s actually one person.
The most confusing entries are for daughters Marie and Anne, colored yellow. I originally thought they were two names for the same person, but they aren’t. In both 1698 and 1701, both names are listed with different birth years. So, there are clearly two people. Sometimes when a child dies, the parents name another child with the same name. However, that’s not the case here either.
If I had the original census documents, I’d check the ages. There is probably one Marie, but the ages vary so widely that I listed them separately. I just don’t know. The last record we have for any Marie is a 1733 record where some Marie Lor is a witness for a baptism. Then, nothing.
Anne, on the other hand, is listed in 1698 but should have been listed in 1693 if she was born in 1687. She was also missing in 1700, but present with Marie in both 1698 and 1701.
Anne married in 1712, but in the 1714 census, her husband is not listed as a head of household.
The 1703, 1707, and 1714 censuses do not list the children by name or age. They list the head of household with the number of children.
In 1703, the number of arms bearers is listed too.
In 1703, Julien had 4 boys, 4 girls and 4 arms bearers. I’ve colored the boys blue and the girls apricot who can be reasonably identified in 1703, 1707, and 1714.
In 1703, by process of elimination, we know Julien was an arms bearer, and so was Jacques, who would have been 25, and Pierre, who would have been 22. Who was the fourth male that was an arms bearer? The youngest males would have been Jean-Baptists/Louis, who would have been 10 and Charles who was an infant. Both were too young to bear arms. Is the other male Alexandre? If so, then where is his wife? Was she not counted because she was an adult and not Julien’s child?
Julien has 4 girls. One would have been Marie, one Anne, one Magdeleine, and one Marguerite, so that works.
In 1707, Julien was listed simply as LaMoutagne (probably actually LaMontagne,) with his wife, 2 boys age 14 or older, 2 younger boys, 3 girls 12 or older, 1 younger girl, 6 arpents of land, 16 cattle, 28 sheep, 18 hogs, and 2 guns. His son, Alexandre, listed as Androu LaMoutagne, wife, 2 girls less than 12, 7 cattle, 15 sheep, 8 hogs and a gun. Notice that Julien now only has 6 arpents of land, and Alexandre has none. Alexandre is listed beside Julien, so they are clearly sharing one farm, so he’s probably the fourth arms-bearer in 1703.
The 1707 census was used to create this wonderful interactive map, here, which is also available in print at the O’Dell House Museum.
In 1714, seven years later, several of Julien’s children had married. Julien himself is again listed as LaMontagne with no first name. This is clearly what he was called. Beside him are both Alexandre LaMontagne and Jacques LaMontagne, both listed in their own households.
Julien is listed with 3 sons and 3 daughters. One son is Pierre who didn’t marry until the next year, and probably Jean-Baptiste/Louis, although we have no records of him beyond 1701. The third son would be Charles was born in 1703 or 1704.
Julien is also shown with 3 daughters. One definitely would be Marguerite. Either Marie, Anne, or Magdeleine could be the other daughters. Neither Anne nor Magdeleine’s husbands are listed as heads of household. It’s very unlikely that Charlotte had another child after 1707, but that’s not impossible either. I justs don’t know.
Lastly, in both 1693 and 1700, Julien and family are living with his mother-in-law, or she is living with them. They are shown with 20 arpents of land. In 1686, Charlotte’s father was still living, but he died before the 1793 census.
So, what do we actually know about Julien’s children?
We know positively that Julien and Charlotte had nine children, assuming Marie is only one person. Seven married. Two disappeared entirely from the records. This could mean that there were either marriage or death records, and the records are missing, or that they never married and were deported in 1755. If so, they never emerged elsewhere, so probably died in exile.
We also know that Julien and Charlotte probably had between another 8 and 10 children that died young. Unfortunately, this occurred often in the 1600s, and the existing church records don’t begin until mid-1703 and are incomplete.
There are reports of two churches, but I’m unclear whether both parish church records survived. Perhaps both churches were actually served by the same Priest, and there was only one register. I don’t know, but I do know that some records are missing and others are incomplete.
More War
By 1704, Acadia was under attack again by the English. Settlements and one of two churches were looted, and the dams were “dug down” supposedly as revenge for Indian attacks in New England, instigated by the French.
When Daniel d’Auger de Subercase became governor of Acadia in 1706, he went on the offensive, encouraging native raids against English targets in New England. He also encouraged the corsairs of Port-Royal, including Baptiste, in their attacks against the English colonial ships. Privateers were very effective. The English fishing fleet on the Grand Banks was reduced by 80% between 1702 and 1707, and certain English coastal communities were attacked.
In 1707, a new French governor arrived with 160 soldiers, three-quarters of whom were young men from the “quays of Paris.”
The next attack, also in 1707, was led by Massachusetts and joined by men from Rhode Island and New Hampshire, but failed. Baptiste, the Acadian’s favorite pirate, fought valiantly alongside the Acadians, successfully foiling the English in their attempted Siege of Port Royal.
Hostilities were clearly still simmering and sometimes reached a boil.
In 1708, Queen Anne’s war began, and the temperature ramped up again between the English and French.
In 1708, Fort Anne’s store was built. Additionally, the Acadians were shoring up their defenses. A new powder magazine and bombproof barracks were built, and the riverbanks were cleared to remove cover for attackers. An additional ship was built, and relationships were established with privateers who welcomed the opportunity to take English ships.
Yea, the privateers loved the Acadians too. Symbiosis.
The Big Guns!
On September 24, 1710, Port Royal was attacked again by the English who had sent five ships carrying 3400 troops. This time, the English were well prepared. In addition to 400 marines from England, Massachusetts provided 900 soldiers, Connecticut 300, and New Hampshire 100. The Iroquois were recruited as scouts.
The Province Galley, above, was one of the vessels that attacked Port Royal.
A dispatch vessel, the Chester, carried deserters from the French garrison who reported that morale was extremely low.
I wonder if the Acadiana had some idea of what was coming.
The Acadians, with their 300 troops, many of whom were poorly trained recruits from France augmenting all local able-bodied men, stood absolutely no chance, although they did manage to hold the fort for ten days before the fort fell into English hands. The Mi’kmaq and Acadians attempted to defend the settlement by firing from homes and the woods, but they were simply outgunned by warships and massively outnumbered. The soldiers were allowed to exit the fort with their dignity and their life before the British celebrated their victory will full pomp and circumstance on October 16, 1710.
That must have been an incredibly humiliating and gut-wrenching day for the Acadians. They had no idea what they would be subjected to.
The episode became known as the Siege of Port Royal and the Conquest of Acadia.
The life story of Julien’s son, Jacques Lor holds a great deal of information about this time period and the life of Julien Lor after 1700.
Confusion Reigns
After the fort and this portion of Acadia fell to the English, again, confusion reigned during the next three or four years. At first, the British required the Acadians to leave, which would have included Julien’s family. Then, after the English realized that they needed the Acadian farmers to feed them, they refused to let them leave.
The Acadians were not only confused, they were furious and characteristically stubborn. I’m sure they also realized that while they “lost,” at some level, they still had some degree of residual power which must have galled the British immensely.
In 1714, the British, thankfully, ordered a census, probably for the purpose of taxation. However, the Acadians refused to pay taxes. Now that they couldn’t leave, they wanted to and had prepared accordingly, not planting their fields. Now what were they to do?
The 1714 census shows “La Montagne” with no first name, and wife, 3 sons and 3 daughters near Port Royal. Julien’s two oldest sons Alexandre and Jacques had married and are shown next to him with their first names and LaMontagne as a last name.
In 1714 Julien’s three sons at home were Pierre, Jean-Baptiste/Louis, and Charles. Magdelaine had married Francois Amiraut and Francois Tourangeau, which could be Amiraut, with a wife was listed beside the three Montagne listings. Julien’s three daughters would be Marie, Marguerite, and another. Perhaps Anne or Magdeleine whose husbands are not shown separately were included? Or had Charlotte borne one last child around 1707 at 47 years of age?
The British also decided that the 1690 loyalty oath was inadequate, but the Acadians refused to sign a new one.
Once again, relationships were deteriorating.
In 1715, the English closed the Fort gates and the Acadians were prevented from trading with the Fort as well as with the Indians. Now, the Acadians wanted to leave, but they couldn’t.
In 1717, Captain John Doucette became the Lieutenant Governor. Doucet is a French name, but Captain Doucette did not speak French and was a career military man from England.
By this time, some Acadians had decided to stay put on peaceful terms. When the Indians learned about this, they threatened the Acadians. Though they had always been friends and many were related, the Indians didn’t want the Acadians defecting to the English side.
Doucette demanded that the Acadians take a new loyalty oath, but they thought doing so would tie them down, and they still wanted to move. They said if they were to stay, they wanted protection from the Indians, and the oath would have to be constructed so that they would not be required to fight their own countrymen. But Doucette demanded an unconditional oath. The Acadians refused.
Julien, now 65 years old, must have been chronically exhausted by this continuous conflict. And it wasn’t going to get better anytime soon.
Playing Chess
General Phillips arrived in 1720 and issued a proclamation that the Acadians must take the loyalty oath unconditionally or leave the country in three months. He also said they couldn’t sell or take any of their property with them, thinking that would force the Acadians to sign the oath. But they still refused, saying that the Indians were threatening them. When the Acadians said, “let us harvest our crops and use vehicles to carry it,” Philipps figured they were planning to take their possessions with them and denied their request.
In response, the Acadians began creating a road northeast to Minas in order to escape by land, but the governor ordered the road stopped. He was convinced that the Acadians wanted to remove their cattle which the English needed. He may well have been right. Furthermore, if all the Acadians left and made their way to Beaubassin, then a fortified French possession, it would strengthen a French colony, giving them an advantage while at the same time stripping the English colony of needed resources.
Phillips said the Acadians were stubborn and ungovernable, directed by bigoted priests. This made me laugh because I suspect that’s exactly what the Acadians wanted. If they couldn’t leave, they would make themselves a HUGE thorn in his side.
The Abenaki and Mi’kmaq continued to defend Acadia, refusing to recognize the treaty with the British, essentially handing over their lands. In 1722, they became heavily involved when Governor Doucette took 22 Mi’kmaq hostage at Annapolis Royal to prevent the capital from being attacked. In July, the Abenaki and Mi’kmaq created a blockade with the intent of starving the British in the capital. They captured 18 fishing vessels and took prisoners. Shortly thereafter, the Governor of Massachusetts officially declared war, launching Father Rale’s War. Raids continued back and forth through 1723 and 1724, when in July, 60 Mi’kmaq and Maliseets raided Annapolis Royal.
Julien would not live to see that, though, or the resolution, such as it was, in 1725.
What Happened to Julien?
Worse yet, we don’t know what happened to Julien, but clearly, something did.
Based on this entry in the parish book, Julien died between February 17th and May 3rd, 1724. It’s confounding why he had no death entry other than his name scribed in the margin as recorded in the Nova Scotia Archive.
He would have been 72 years old. Certainly not aged by today’s standards, but without modern medicine, not to mention constant strife and warfare, 72 is rather remarkable. Having said that, his death entry is baffling.
Perhaps Julien drowned, or something befell him, and there was no body recovered, so no funeral and, of course, no burial. Was he caught up in the warfare?
Why was this entry never completed? Did he die someplace on the road to Minas, or someplace else? Was he attempting to remove his family? Or, did he die someplace in the woods, his body not found, which might be why there’s no death date?
If the entry above his was made on February 17th, and the one below was made on May 3rd, surely someone knew something. They clearly knew he was dead, or his name would not have been written in the margin before the following entry. Furthermore, there is adequate space left for his entry, like someone expected it to be completed.
Why didn’t the priest who made the May 3rd entry complete Julien’s death entry? The handwriting does appear to be different. Who wrote his name in the margin?
This is an assumption, but I’d wager that this means Julien didn’t have a proper Catholic funeral, and he was not buried in consecrated ground in the churchyard. If he had been, surely the priest who performed the service would have completed the entry.
Father’s Rale’s War was underway, but the spring campaigns were taking place in New England and in Minas. If Julien was in Minas, he might have died there. In July, sixty Mi’kmaw and Maliseets raided Annapolis Royal, killing, scalping, and terrorizing the population. Three houses were burned, but Julien had been gone for at least two months by this time.
Did Julien somehow get caught in the wake of the warfare? Or did he simply die in the woods hunting? Or disappear? If so, then how did they know he was dead to make an entry in the church book?
This skeletal entry leaves so many unanswered questions.
Julien’s Y-DNA
Two men from different sons of Julien Lor have taken the Big Y-500 and Big Y-700 tests, respectively.
At the Big Y-500 level, those men were assigned to Haplogroup R-BY93943, or rather, it was assigned to them as a result of testing.
One man has already upgraded to the Big Y-700, and a test has been ordered for the second man. They will probably receive a brand-spanking-new haplogroup when the second man receives his Big Y-700 results.
This haplogroup was born when the mutation R-BY93943 occurred about 1700 CE, which correlates nicely with given the birth years of Julien’s two sons in 1675 and 1678/1679.
The incredible thing is that this haplogroup, to date, is shared ONLY by the descendants of the sons of Julien Lore, so it could well be exclusive to Julien. I live for the day when a man with a similar surname from France tests and matches Julien’s descendants. That’s how we may be able to find Julien’s family in France. It may be the only way.
The next earlier haplogroup, upstream of R-BY93943, R-CTS9881, originated about 100 BCE. Generally, we find haplogroups between a more recent and a fairly distant haplogroup, but given the restrictions against DNA testing in France, I’m not surprised.
Legacy
We will never know when, how, or why Julien obtained the nickname of LaMontagne, the mountain. It could have been because of where he lived, beneath the mountain along the river. That’s certainly possible.
It could have reflected upon his character.
It could have been a commentary on his size, especially if he was a large soldier.
It could have been a family nickname reminiscent of his mother and carried on by his comrades on that tall ship that transported him to Acadia.
Or it could simply have been a nickname conferred by his military buddies – and he’s laughing now at all this speculation.
I admire Julien’s tenacity, audacity, and spunk. I’m incredibly grateful that he signed his name for us that single time in 1690, even if it was under duress. His signature, written by his own hand, is uniquely his, incredibly personal and remains today as the only tangible item of his from his journey upon this Earth. That, and his DNA, are gifts for his descendant in generations yet to come.
I will remember Julien not only as the founder of our Lore/Lord line in Acadia, Canada, and the United States, but also as a mountain of a man carving a life for his family out of a wild, marshy, and unforgiving maritime frontier, constantly under threat, along the banks of the Rivière du Dauphin.
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