Terriot Ac

TheBay[Editor’s NAssocationby J.R. Thto the Ass

Memberswho atteAcadian member Nova Scpersonalguished is the reBay or, called, cipality oin 1768 1879. It pality inconductsFrench amunicipainhabitanthan 7speakingyou mighto learn settlemen

At the enFrance athere wedians inencompaof the tMaritimePEI). Thement's ason a letHalifax 1763 bysard, an letter proauthoritidians. Thmake thestay and

                  1 The auth

cadian Family

e Acad in NoNote : This is n des familleheriault, Terrsociation des

s of the assnded the 20

Congress this beautif

cotia by itsity that is sand so welc

egion of Sain as it is the Districof Clare, esand incorp

is the onlyn Nova Scs its busand Engality has abonts, of whi75% are g Acadians. ht find it inhow this Acnt began.

nd of the warand Englandere still 1,0

n Nova Scotassed all thethree oldestes (NS, e British ssessment wtter to the dated Aug

y Beausolei Acadian heovided a listies in that tihey could ree oath of alle took initiati

                       hor addresses

y Society 

dian ova S a translations Thériault diot Acadian Ffamilles Théri

sociation1 004 World

will re-ful area of Acadian so distin-coming. It nt Mary’s

officially ct Muni-stablished porated in y munici-otia that iness in glish. The out 9,000 ich more

French-I thought nteresting cadian re-

r between d in 1763, 019 Aca-tia which e territory t existing

NB, and Govern-

was based Board of

gust 18, il Brous-ero who wout of Acadiansime had decemain in theegiance. If soives to find a

                   s himself to th

ReseScotia

n of an articled’Amérique (wFamily Societyiault d’Amériq

uld eventuals who wishecided that it e province aome refuseda place to se

he members o

ettlema

e published Awww.genealogy. We are graque for their p

lly found thed to emigra was no lonand receive d to take theettle again. T

of the Associa

ment

April 2010 in ie.org/famille

ateful to the apermission to

he Acadian sate to the Frger politicalcertificates

e oath and leThus, the Ac

ation des fami

of St-

‘Le Terriot’, ae/theriault/). author, M. Géo use the origi

settlement inrench area. Hlly correct toof ownershi

eft, others decadians settl

lles Thériault

6 April

-Mary

a publication The translatrard Thériaulinal article.]

n LouisianaHowever, tho deport the ip, providedecided insteled in the ar

t d’Amérique.

 2010 

y’s

of the tion is lt and

. The he UK Aca- they

ead to rea of

 

Terriot Acadian Family Society    6 April 2010 

Isle Madame in Cape Breton and other regions in Cocagne, Bouctouche, Richibucto, and She-diac, in New Brunswick.

Elsewhere, peace was restored and other Acadian refugees from New England, including some 800 of the "Caravan of Massachusetts" from Salem, around the year 1766 started to return to Nova Scotia with hopes of re-occupying their former lands, their houses, their cattle, their orc-hards and sluices in the regions of Pisiquid, Grand-Pré and Port Royal. Unfortunately, these hopes were dashed.

Upon arrival, they found that all their lands were now occupied by the ‘Planters’ of New Eng-land who did not look kindly on these ghosts of the past. The Acadians were forced to seek temporary refuge in Windsor where they made a petition to the Governor for a priest in Quebec and a surveyor to identify the boundaries of the new lands they wanted. Governor Michael Franklin acceded to the two requests. Father Charles Bailly was sent as a missionary and a warrant of survey dated 1 July 1768 allowed John Morrison, deputy surveyor, to survey the future of County Clare from the Sissiboo River to Cape St. Mary. This area was divided into subgroups on the basis of 80 acres for a family head and 20 additional acres for each addition-al family member.

The first Acadian to take advantage of land grants in the district of Clare was Joseph Dugas (1738-1823) who settled in the Anse-des-LeBlanc in the parish of St. Bernard with his wife and daughter Marie Robichaud Isabelle in September 1768. His son Joseph was born 20 days lat-er. Other Acadian families followed in the spring of 1769 and subsequent years. They were first given permits for land use, but it was not until 1775 that the official and legal land grants were issued to them. The founding families recognized are: Amirault, Babin, Belliveau, Boudreau, Comeau, Deveau, Doucet, Dugas, Gaudet, Guidry, LeBlanc, Maillet, Melanson, Robichaud, Saulnier, Thériault, Thibault, Thibodeau Trahan. The Thériault founding couple was Hilarion Charles and Marie Madeleine Belliveau. Charles was born in Grand-Pré on 21 October 1739 and died at St. Mary's Bay in 1822; Madeleine was born at the same place on September 26, 1744 and died in 1821 at St. Mary's Bay. As to myself, Gerard Theriault, I descend from this couple and the family oral history tells the story that they escaped into the woods to avoid de-portation.

It was at ‘Pointe-a-Major’ that the first Acadian cemetery in the region was built. There is still a little chapel facing a fenced square of land on which are scattered wooden crosses bearing names of Acadian families: Belliveau, Brossard, Comeaux, Doucet, Gaudet, Guidry, LaNoue, LeBlanc, Saulnier. Long ago, this place was an island called ‘Ile-a-Piau’ according to Piau Belli-veau, who in 1755 had escaped from Port Royal with his family and over a hundred oth-ers. They arrived on the island by boat and spent the winter. We do not have all the informa-tion to identify the dead that were buried during that winter, but we know that the place was used as a cemetery for the pioneers of St. Mary's Bay until 1790. The small chapel with a sta-tue of Mary dates back to 1892. It replaced a chapel that was first built in 1889. Site improve-ments and construction of two chapels have been the work of Father Alphonse Parker, pastor of St. Bernard, who was touched by the story of the Acadians, asked that the land be respected as sacred ground.

This site now belongs to the Acadian Historical Society of St. Mary's Bay and is recognized as a historic site in Nova Scotia. On a monument near the chapel, you can read the inscription: "During the winter of 1755, Pierre (Piau) Belliveau and 120 Acadians fled here to avoid deporta-tion. On September 8, 1769, Father Bailly, missionary, celebrated the first Mass in Clare. In 1774, the land was blessed by Father Mathurin Bourg and became the first Acadian Cemetery in Clare."

Terriot Ac

Since 17Island wmary schClare. Oumonumeand theirthe first Josephe this coupDistrict w

If some lfident of motto in founding

Gerard Tdescenda

cadian Family

72, Françoishich becamhool was calutside the sent is erecter daughter, Acadians tgave birth tple who alonwho followed

lament the hf maintainin 1980, "We cg of Port Roy

Theriault, ant of an Aca

y Society 

s Doucet ane the villagelled École Joschool, thereed in honor Isabella, wh

to settle in to son Josepne faced gred."

high rate of ng and devecame. It wasyal.

adian pionee

nd Pierre LeBe of Chicabeoseph Dugae is also a mof Joseph D

ho came to Athe district

ph, the first eat difficulti

assimilationloping their

s to stay," du

er of the Bai

Blanc came en, then renas, in honor monument iDugas Sr. aAnse-des-LeB of Clare. Acadian bor

ies inspired

n in some Acr culture asuring the cel

ie Sainte-Ma

to settle witnamed Point of the first in his honor

and his wifeBlanc on SeTwenty dayrn in Baie S a sense of

cadian regio demon-stralebration of

arie.

It is in Grosses-Cfirst churwas builttime, thethe centebited regmarked stone ctimes, thresident Mary's Bawere raremissionarwas one naries, Mathurinbuilt this

th their famie-de-l'Eglise Acadian pior with the i, Marie-Jose

eptember 5, ys after theiSainte-Marie

pride to all

ons, the peopated by the the 375th a

6 April

the villagCogues thatrch of the re in 1774. At

e village waer of the igion. The siby a sou

cross. In there was n

priest at ay. The Acadely visited byry priests. Bof those miFather Jos

n Bourg, church.

ilies on Serae. The villageoneer to setinscription: ephe Robich1768. They

ir arrival, M. The coura residents o

ple here are adoption onniversary o

 2010 

ge of t the egion t that as at inha-ite is uvenir these

not a St. dians y the

But it issio-seph-

who

aphin e pri-tle in "This

haud, were

Marie-age of of the

con-of the of the