The Seigneury of Chipody - A Chapter in the History of Albert County

Newspaper
Year
1886
Month
8
Day
19
Article Title
The Seigneury of Chipody - A Chapter in the History of Albert County
Author
----
Page Number
2
Article Type
Language
Article Contents

 

The Seigneury of Chipody - A CHAPTER IN THE HISTORY OF ALBERT COUNTY.

(Continued)

Thibaudeau on his return to Chipoudy was not a little disturbed as well by the difficulties thatsurrounded him as by the latest news he heard at Port Royalwar was then about being declared between France and England—though about him he saw evidences of the material realization of all his hopes and dreams.

 

He saw five farms already created about his manor; the out-buildings rising from the sugar camps, the bee like movement of the labourers, the dash about the grounds, the cattle, the thick verdure of the wheat, the curling smoke of the water over the waste-way from the mill, altogether gave animation to the landscape which gladdened the heart of the old man.

The settlement had visibly progressed. It was prosperous and happy. It seemed to him that poor man rising from a furrow in the ground had creat­ed life and fruitfulness by the force of his own labour and intelligence ; and if France increasing her domain extended her flag to these distant shores, was he not a useful instrument in that grand work? He saw himself in the past a simple farm boy of Poitre, quitting the paternal fireside surrounded by a family already too numerous, having for his only fortune, his courage, a large stock of good nature, with a small pack over his shoulders; he hired at Rochelle in the service of LeBorgne, when the latter was making an effort to succeed d'Aulnay, he recalled the first silver coins that he had earned. It was then he counted on returning some day to the old homestead.

 

But he met with his fate when he met Jeanne Terriau-his patron offered him aconcession of land in the seigneury; he know the land to befertile; he was hard working and enterprising; he courted fortune, and fortune smiled upon him; everything about him was a souvenir of the past, the little farm he cleared, the log but in which he installed his wife, as mistress, the hard­ships which they had sustained together and the sweet confidence of their mutual affection sustained them in their trials.

 

How different to-day the situation.

 

The resources of Acadie afforded them a rich abundance, and all the pioneers who had followed him found in the expenditures he had made upon his land substantial aid which facilitated their settlement.

 

These thoughts naturally recalled to him his own family and the great project that he had cherished and besides which was one of the principal mo­tives of his visit; he was anxious to marry his son Pierre, who for three years had conducted the explorations of the Seigneury; he hoped to marry him to Marie Anne daughter of Jean Francois Broissard who came, as was be­fore recorded, to settle in Chipoudy with all his family.

 

The young Thibaudeau was industerious, far-sighted, of character rather severe, and his father had determined to place him at the head of affairs in this settlement.

 

Five years previously ho purposed settling there himself, but to-day he felt more wearily the weight of years his health had commenced to fail he wished to make his final plans, he would not divide the fief, he rather intended to give it to his son. He had established (1690) the eldest of all called, Pierre at Mines; if he chose the former to inherit Chipoudy, it was because of his character, he seemed more capable than the others to fill the role assigned to him; he placed under his control Charles the seventh and youngest of his tons, that he might have some day a homestead of his own, Seeing then that Broissard had determined to settle at Chipoudy he had thought, not without reason that nothing could be more convenient than to arrange a marriage be­tween his son and the daughter of the rich habitant who had become the patri­arch of the Siegneury and the most notable of his tenants; already hints of some­thing of the kind had passed between the two families, and Thibedeau re­solved to press the matter to a realization before the dangers of old age and the chances of the times could interfere. When all parties were willing it was not difficult to arrange. At the commencement of June the young Pierre and the fair Marie became fiancees; and it was arranged that after the season of work was over, the two families should return to Port Royal to consummate the marriage. Thibaudeau had brought with him that year (1702) some pas­sengers for Petitcodiac; they were two nephews of the future Seigneur of Petitcodiah who had married his two daughters.

 

The Seigneur Guillaume Blanchard, the fatherof these two young ladies was not able to accompany them and visit these lands, but he sent his two young sons Antoine and Jean. Their vessel carried them at once to their river, where Daigle their brother-in-law who had passed the winter there with all his effects awaited them; these two settlements presented then a nucleus of population of which the following gives a precise idea:

 

 

 

CENSUS, 1702.

Chipoudy.                                                                       Children.                          Horses and Cows.                           Sheep.                              Pigs.

Pierre Thibaudeau—Jeanne Terriau.

4 boys, 4 hired hands, 3 metis,                                                                                              18                                            18                                   24

J. F. Brossard—Catharine Richard.                                2                                                    8                                             4                                       8

Andre Martin—Ednice N.,                                               2                                                    3                                                                                      3

Jacques Martin—Madeleine Brossard,                         1                                                    4                                                                                      3

Jean PitreAnne Commeaux,                                       1                                                    3                                                                                      4

Pierre Pitre—Marie Martin.

Germain Savoye, his two sons, and Julien

Lord, visitors at Chipoudy.

Peticoudiak.

Jean and Antoine Blanchard

Oliver DaigleJeanne Blanchard, and two

hired men,                                                                 3                                      10                                                    2                                                20

Antoine Gaudet—Anne Blanchard,                                                                        2                                                                                                         1

Germain Gaudet-Elise Blanchard,                                                                           2                                                                                                         1

Guillaume Gaudet.

There was then in the spring of 1702, 48 inhabitants, of which 8 were Metis hired, 8 horses, 47 horned cattle, 24 sheep and 64 pigs.

 

(To be Continued.)