The Seigneury of Chipody. A Chapter of the History of Albert County (Continued)

Année
1886
Mois
9
Jour
16
Titre de l'article
The Seigneury of Chipody. A Chapter of the History of Albert County (Continued)
Auteur
----
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2
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Contenu de l'article

The Seigneury of Chipody.

A CHAPTER OT THE HISTORY OF ALBERT COUNTY

(Continued)

 

In 1703 and 1704, everything prospered greatly in the new settlement of Chipoudy and Petitcodiak [Petitcodiac]. Four new farms were established; one of the sons of Guillaume Blanchard, being married at Port Royal settled at Petitcodiak; one of Thibaudeau’s hired men named Lavaux married a young Metis and two of the Metis employed married into neighboring tribes and brought their wives to the settlement. These three last marriages were celebrated at Chipoudy by the Beaubassin missionary who came over for that purpose; there were 5 births in 1703, amongst which were Catherine wife of the young Thibideau, and 4 in 1704; the cattle multiplied year by year and the crops were more than sufficient. Tidings of this prosperity were to be the last comfort of the ancient Thibaudeau; afflicted by age and by the fatigues of a life filled with struggles, adventures and labors, he died at his mill of Pree-Ronde, 28 December, 1704.

 

Thus was completed the life of a man truly remarkable, considering his lowly origin—the events of which have been transmitted to us, by a happy and fortuitous course of circumstances. His work did not perish with him; while Jacob Bourgeois was the founder of Beaubassin, Peter Melancon and and Jean Terriau of Les Mines, his energy and perserverance created a strong colony in three parishes, viz: Chipoudy, Petitcodiak and Memramgouges. But his dreams of seigneurial power were only a vain bubble; he was happy in dying in 1704, for he was thus saved the grievous disappointment of the following year.

 

On 2nd June, 1705, the Council of State issued a decree, by which recognizing the settlers their rights as first occupants in their possessions confirmed the signeurial titles in M. de La Valliere, in according to him by extension the addition to his seigneury of Beaubassin the Rivers Petitcodiak and others adjoining, but enjoining him expressly "not to dispossess nor trouble the inhabitants who were found in possession of lands and heritage in that seigneury, cultivating and dwelling in or preparing to cultivate the said heritages."

 

This decision had a more important effect, than destroying the ambitious dreams of the dead Thibaudeau, for reducing the inhabitants to the simple role of proprietors of the lands they occupied, they lost the disposal of other lands and could not hope for either rent or indemnity to compensate them for the expenditures of settlement, expenses which had moreover served as a sup¬port to the other colonics.

 

The new state of things clouded the future of the colony, for this M. de Villieu, who represented M. de La Valliere, was a very good chief of partizans, but he possessed none of the proper qualities to direct a colonization scheme. His character was haughty and intractable and while Thibaudeau and Blanchard drew to them enterprising men, he was good at scattering them. The settlement at Mines took a growth that was surprisingly rapid, Beaubassin made very moderate progress for thirty years and Chipoudy and Petitcodiak languished until after 1715, without sensible growth.

 

King William died 3rd March 1702 and was succeeded by Queen Anne. On 15th May war was declared by an alliance composed of Britain, Holland, Germany, &c., against France and Spain. This was known as the war of the Spanish succession and is chiefly interesting to us by the victories of Churchill, Duke of Marlborough. The war which commenced with vigor on these coasts was a great obstacle to new immigration. In the summer of 1704, a cruising party from Boston had scoured through the Bay of Fundy; probably Chipoudy was unknown to them and therefore remained untouched. This was the fifth and last expedition of Capt. Benjamin Church. It consisted of two ships of 42 and 33 tons, fourteen transports and thirty-six whale boats. There were on board 550 men. The large vessels went to Fort Royal; the smaller and whale boats to Mines, where Church cut the dykes. On 38th July, Church appeared at Beaubassin. The inhabitants retreated to the woods carrying what they could and Church destroyed the rest. Ho burned 30 houses and killed 120 homed cattle. It was not, however, until 1710, that Port Royal was finally surrendered to the English and the English established regular government there for Acadia. Between these years it was subject to constant alarm and communication having become very perilous, no one would venture into those scattered and deserted districts. Those who had settled retained their possessions, but no new dwellings were erected and it was only one of the sad results of the war that several colonists at Port Royal, to escape the English, took shelter with their friends at Chipoudy and Petitcodiak. Although the census is silent until towards 1735, we can nearly count the state of the settlement in 1705. It consisted of 14 families, comprising 55 persons, 12 horses, 70 horned cattle and 50 sheep. Besides this fixed population, there was a floating population of Etchemins and Milecites [Maliseet], who came to trade their pelts and fish or do some passing service, for European trinkets or provisions; of Metis who came from the river St. John and hired out by the year, and still oftener enrolled as coureurs de bois; and also the same as at Beaubassin, adventurers, trappers, peddlers arriving from time to time from Canada, sometimes by vessels trading in the Gulf and stopping at Baie Verte, and sometimes by land in the company of Indians engaged in some hazardous excursion.

 

In this fashion, there was maintained at Chipoudy and Petitcodiak from 1705 to 1815 from 50 to 75 persons of which four-fifths were of European blood. These courageous people were stranded in the wilderness, mostly alone and sometimes with some chance arrival of soldiers. It was later that Blanchard occupied with his younger sons the lands assured to him as well as the dwellings occupied by his elder eons, and then came also at the same, time to Chepoudy, the Savoyes, the Levrous, the Prejeans, the Heberts, the Saulniers, who had-already explored the country with Thibaudeau and who in 1750, were found there in great numbers. Such was the result of courageous enterprise initiated by poor Acadian laborers, relying upon their own resources crossed by adverse circumstances and by man, they did not the less conduct their work to a successful end, without bombast or noise, by the forces of patience and labor and economy, having certainly none of the brilliant qualities that so often prove sterile, but possessing those modest virtues distained by the vulgar, which constitutes however the best foundation of a state.

 

The war was infinitely regrettable under all aspects. At this moment the Acadiens were carried away by a lively spirit of enterprise towards active and fruitful expansion. Three years after the commencement of the war of 1707, the population of Acadia exceeded 1,800 people of which this is a

detail:

 

1707.                   Men.           Women.    Total.     Horned Cattle.       Sheep.   Pigs.    Guns.

Port Royal…………294                260        554               963               1245     974      126

Les Mines………….331                328        659               946                 846     753      120

Bcaubassin………..150                120        270               510                 500     328       60

Chipoudy…………….30                25          25                 55                  70                    20

Other districts                                          300                                                               75

Total………………….805             733       1838            2564              2641    2055      526

 

The Mines in six years had increased in population and cattle one-third. That fruitful colony had extended over the valleys of nine rivers, viz: the three rivers of St. Croix, the Ascension, the Kenoskeot at Pigiguit (Avon), the river at Grand Pre, the centre of the colony, that of Gaspereaux, that of the Canards, the river of St. Antoine, that of the Vieux-Habitants and that of Cobequit.

 

The population of Port Royal increased a fifth, notwithstanding the drainage to other settlements. In 1701, Acadia had a population of 400. It had quadrupled. Given another six years of peace and labor, the population have reached 3 or 4,000 people, dwelling in ten or a dozen groups about the Bay Fundy and Acadia with but little help would have been able to defy the power of England, but events were so rapidly precipitated, that that war finally plucked from France, this flower of her crown.

 

 

(To be Continued.)