PART V At Sainte-Anne-du-Pays-Bas
Chapter 13: Sainte-Anne du Pays-Bas
Barthélémy and Geneviève’s son Michel also was a sailor, but he evidently spent a good amount of time
around Port Royal. About 1725, he took on a new name. He was confronted with the existence of another
Michel Bergeron living in that town. This other man was no relation whatsoever; he had come from the
French province of Auvergne. Actually, both men found it expedient to change their names. Michel
Bergeron from Auvergne signed his name as Pierre Bergerac from that time on, “while the familial branch
of Michel-from-Barthélémy took the surname de Nantes in place of d’Amboise.”1 From now on he would be
known as Michel Bergeron dit de Nantes or simply Michel de Nantes.
Shortly after this the Bergeron d’Amboise family moved up the St. John River. They settled in at
Sainte-Anne’s Point, across from the old fort at Nashwaak which had been the headquarters of Governor
Villebon. The church there was named for Sainte-Anne-du-Pays-Bas (Saint Anne of the Netherlands). This
location would later become the city of Fredericton, New Brunswick. Here, Barthélémy was reunited with
his friend Gabriel Godin dit Bellefontaine, whom he had met back in 1695.
The Treaty of Utrecht that had ended the war in which Port Royal had been lost, gave all of Acadie
Peninsulaire (Nova Scotia) to the English. However,
the limits of Acadia never having been fixed, the French claimed that they comprised
only the peninsula of Nova Scotia, that especially the River St. John ... was excluded.
Also Vaudreuil [governor of Canada]... would charge Father Loyard (Jesuit
missionary)... to grant shares to colonists. His successor, Father Jean-Pierre Daniélou,
took a census in 1733 that gave 20 families and one hundred eleven souls, with 15
(families) and 82 (souls) below the Indian village of Aukpaque, probably on the Point
Ste-Anne (Fredericton). Rumilly specified that ‘some Acadians of Port Royal have (at
this time) founded a small settlement on the River St-John, in territory claimed by the
French...’”2
Fr. Bergeron was convinced that Barthélémy and Geneviève moved to Ste-Anne as a result of the
pressures being applied by the missionary priests between 1728 and 1730 to get Acadians out of the English
area.3 And:
our Bergerons, who with many others had resided in Acadie Peninsulaire despite the
Bostonian conquest and the miserable treaty of Utrecht, on the insistence of the King
of France, of the military chiefs of Continental Acadia and of the Missionaries, joined
with other compatriots to find refuge in “French Acadia” and to found what will soon
be “Sainte-Anne-du-Pays-Bas”, upstream on the River Saint-John.4
1. Bergeron, SGCF69c, p.169.
2. Bergeron, SGCF69c, p. 162. His quote from Rumilly comes from Robert Roumilly, Histoire des Acadiens, vol. I, p.271.
3. Bergeron, LGA, Vol. I, p. 258.
At Sainte-Anne-du-Pays-Bas Chapter 13: Sainte-Anne du Pays-Bas
42
There are a couple problems with this information. First, the Bergeron d’Amboises, as we have seen,
were probably not still living in Annapolis Royal (Port Royal) but on Campobello. At the very least, they
were living at Annapolis Royal only part of the time. Second, they seem to have been at Ste-Anne-du-Pays-
Bas well before 1728-30.
Marie-Anne, the daughter born in Boston in 1706, married Joseph Godin-Bellefontaine dit Beauséjour
at Ste-Anne-du-Pays-Bas in 1726. He was the son of Barthélémy’s old friends Gabriel Godin and Andrée-
Angélique Jasne. They were actually married on the River Saint-John,1 i.e., at the Sainte-Anne settlement.
Marie-Anne probably did not come to this region alone, but with her parents, and it is a pretty safe bet that
the young couple would not have met and immediately gotten married. Assuming they knew each other for
about a year, we can make a reasonable assumption that the Bergeron d’Amboises had moved to central
New Brunswick in 1724 or 1725.
The year after his sister was married (1727) Michel got married again, this time to Marie Dugas, the
daughter of Abraham Dugas and Marie-Madeleine Landry, their old neighbors in Port Royal.2 This was his
second wife. Since we do not know who his first wife was, we have no way of knowing when or why she
died. (She almost certainly died; Acadians seem never to have divorced.)
The following year, Barthélémy II and his wife Marguerite Dugas (married in Annapolis Royal on 21
April 1721),3 had a new son Charles. The baby was born on 23 March 1728, and was baptized at the house
by his grandfather, Barthélémy, who is described as a “resident of the St. John river” at that time. Later that
year, on 13 June 1728, little Charles’ baptism was registered at St. Jean-Baptiste parish in Annapolis Royal.4
Meanwhile, Barthélémy continued “to sail on his own account.”5 “We can also add...,” wrote Fr.
Bergeron, “that Barthélémy Bergeron made, and probably alone, the usual coastal navigation of the
immense French Bay (Fundy), between Point Ste-Anne of the St. John River and Memramcook and all the
intermediate places....”6
Indeed, he may have continued privateering during the colonial wars. Barthélémy may also have served
as support for Michel in these years. Fr. Bergeron again:
1730 (it might be better to say from 1696 to 1755) “Between two expeditions of
Bostonians against Port Royal (Rumilly 1/184) some corsairs, using Port Royal as a
base, threw the desolation back to the doors of Boston...” “Boston was aroused by
these rapid and incessant blows... Church... went to sea again, where he was not
entirely safe because of the privateers who, although few in number, even cut the
route of the vessels whose destinations were the English colonies. Mentioned were
Robineau, de Nantes [Michel Bergeron?], François Guyon, and Baptiste.... The
Adventures of the chevalier de Beauchêne, written by Le Sage, tells in detail the life
of these buccaneers, fighting in their manner under the flag of their country as long as
the war between the crowns (of France and England) lasted.7
Port Royal was under English control (and called Annapolis Royal) after 1710. The assertion that the
privateers operated out of Port Royal until 1755 is debatable. It may have been a situation of them hiding in
the open or they may have operated out of other ports, the St. John River and the Acadian settlements in the
north. But there are indications that both Barthélémy and Michel were sailing the Bay of Fundy in the early
1700s.
In 17298 or 17309 Barthélémy and Geneviève’s son Augustin married the 18- or 19-year-old Marie
Dugas. She was the daughter of Claude Dugas and Marguerite Bourg, and the sister of Barthélémy II’s wife,
Marguerite. About the same time (1730), daughter Anne-Marie (who had been born in 1709) married
Jacques-Philippe Godin dit Bellefeuille another son of Gabriel Godin and Andrée-Angélique Jeanne (Jasne)
4. Bergeron, SGCF69d, p. 218.
1. White, Vol. I, p. 122.
2. Ibid.
3. PubArchNS, RG 1 Vol. 26 p.326. The officiating priest was Father Charlemagne Cuvier. Marguerite Dugast was the daughter of Claude and Marguerite Bourg.
4. PubArchNS, RG 1 Vol. 26a p.26. The officiating priest at the registration of this baptism was Father René Charles de Breslay. The godparents were Joseph
Belliveau and an aunt, Anne Marie Dugast.
5. Bergeron, SGCF69c, p. 171.
6. Bergeron, SGCF69c, pp. 171-172.
7. Bergeron, SGCF69c, p. 163.
8. White, Vol. I, p. 566.
9. Ibid., p. 122.
Chapter 13: Sainte-Anne du Pays-Bas At Sainte-Anne-du-Pays-Bas
43
and brother of Joseph, Marie-Anne’s husband. Such relationships were common among the Acadians; there
are numerous cases of two or more brothers marrying sisters.
On 20 March 1731, René LeBlanc of Grand Pré provided a list of people living on the St. John River to
the authorities at Annapolis. There were about seventeen armed men in the area. He specifically mentioned
the Bellefontaines (i.e., the Godins) and the Bergerons. These were the two families who had been settled
there for almost forty years, since the time of Governor Villebon. This is how he enumerated these men:
“The old Bergeron, called (dit) d’Ambroise [sic], Barthelemy Bergeron [i.e., Barthélémy II], Michel
Bergeron, Augustin Bergeron, François Roy, the old woman Bellefontaine, Louison Bellefontaine,
Beauséjour, Bellefeuille, Lincour, Boisjolly, Préville, Bonaventure (the eight Godin Bellefontaine brothers),
a Dugas, a Foret of Cape Breton, Calecour.”1 Pitre and Pelletier mention that the “old woman Bellefontaine”
is the widow of Gabriel Godin. And so we know that Barthélémy Bergeron d’Amboise was definitely still
living in 1731, now 67 years old, and we know that his old friend has died.
Of course, through the years, the grandchildren kept arriving. In 1736, Michel and Marie Dugas had
their fifth child, the third son. They named him after his father, Michel.2 We will hear considerably more of
him as a grown man.
1. Pitre & Pelletier, p.110.
2. Bergeron, LGA, Vol. I, p.265.
1731 Census of Point Saint Anne by René LeBlanc
The old Bergeron dit d’Amboise
Barthelemy Bergeron
Michel Bergeron
Augustin Bergeron
François Roy
The Old (Godin) Bellefontaine
Louison Bellefontaine
(Godin) Beauséjour
(Godin) Bellefeuille
(godin) Maincour
(Godin) Bois jolly
(Godin) Préville
Bonaventure (Godin)
A Dugas
A Forest du Cap Breton
(Godin) Valecour.
I (René LeBlanc) also declare that there was a Jesuit (Jean-Pierre
Daniélou) come the past autumn to the River Saint John, sent by
Canada - him which should winter with the French who lived
there.”
[from F. Thériault, p.32-33]
At Sainte-Anne-du-Pays-Bas Chapter 14: A Visit to Annapolis Royal
44
Chapter 14: A Visit to Annapolis Royal
In July 1736 Michel Bergeron and his brother-in-law, Joseph Bellefontaine, went to visit the old
Acadian town of Port Royal, now called Annapolis Royal. We have no reason for their visit, except perhaps
Michel wanted to visit his in-laws and ex-neighbors, the Abraham Dugas family. But it seems that they were
ignorant of either the law (as it applied to French outsiders) or the social graces: they were charged with
“contempt and disrespect in not coming to wait upon him [the lieutenant governor] on their arrival....” They
were imprisoned.1
The two prisoners humbly begged pardon for their fault, for believing they were of too low a social
status to be required to wait on such a personage. Evidently the authorities saw the opportunity to get some
information, because Michel and Joseph were required to give a list of the inhabitants of St. Anne's, which
they did. This list comprises 15 families, numbering 77 persons. It also indicates that there were now three
sons and three daughters of Barthélémy and Geneviève, married with several children. Michel himself was
one of them. There is no mention of old Barthélémy in this list.2 We have no way of knowing whether he
was dead or whether Michel was had chosen not to mention him for some other reason.
Then the governor suggested that they give “security for their good behaviour for the next twelve
months.” They were required to make a penalty payment of one hundred pounds, New England money, for
each of them.3 The authorities probably thought these two country bumpkin Acadians could never pay such
an exorbitant sum, or perhaps they were trying to cheat them out of the money.
Interestingly enough, these two young men had arrived on a ship owned and operated by none other
than a Captain Blinn. At this point, Captain Blinn himself offered to be bound for them, and, the captain
being well known in the area, this was accepted.4 This is an interesting situation. As one reads the work of
Beamish Murdoch, Blinn seems to be working for the Annapolis government. Yet he offers to be bound for
Michel (and Joseph), and 200 pounds was a lot of money. This could only indicate a friendship with the
Bergerons, or at least the repayment of an obligation, an old debt to the Bergerons for having bought a
Bostonian sea captain’s freedom in 1722.
What is even more interesting, this Captain Blinn could not be the same individual as the person at
Campobello in 1722. That was James Blinn, and he had died in 1731 at Annapolis Royal.5 This Captain
Blinn seems to have been his youngest son, Peter, born 16 January 17046 (which made him about two years
younger than Michel Bergeron). So we seem to have here a second generation friendship and the memory of
a family debt.
We know for a fact that Michel was also a sailor. One account (which we will extensively quote later)
that he plied the Bay of Fundy much as his father had done. There are also indications that he might have
been a deep-water sailor, crossing the Atlantic to the French seaport of Nantes and back.
In 1741, Michel I and his wife Marie Dugas had their last child, a boy named Joseph.7 Marie may have
died in childbirth because Michel married again two years later, to a woman whose name is unknown.8
Joseph grew up and married Angélique Saindon. This couple are the ancestors of cousin Joe Damboise of
Grafton, NH. Joe has helped considerably in the research for this paper. This branch of the family includes
another cousin, Bob Bergeron of Phoenix, AZ. Joe and Bob are second cousins to each other (and sixth
cousins to this writer). Bob’s grandfather, Emile, kept the family name of “Bergeron” while Emile’s brother,
Narcisse, chose to keep the family name of “d’Amboise,” which evolved into “Damboise”9 (and assumed an
Anglicized pronunciation). So, thanks to choices made by our ancestors along the way, both portions of the
original family name have been preserved. This is the reason we insist on using the full name of “Bergeron
d’Amboise” in this work.
1. Murdoch, Vol. I, p. 514.
2. Murdoch, Vol. I, p. 515.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Ancestry.com. http://awt.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=:554773&id=I5. Sat Aug 25 20:17:57 2001.
6. Ancestrry.com. http://awt.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=:554773&id=I46. Sat Aug 25 20:17:57 2001.
7. Bergeron, LGA, Vol. I, p. 265.
8. White, Vol. I, p. 122. The cause of Marie Dugas’s death is conjecture. All that we know for certain is that she dies “before 15 January 1748” (White, I-574) which
does not say much because we do know that Michel remarried in 1743.
9. Bergeron, Robert.
Chapter 14: A Visit to Annapolis Royal At Sainte-Anne-du-Pays-Bas
45
Poor Michel had the worst luck with his wives. His third spouse died within four years of being wed,
and he married Marie-Jeanne Hébert, his fourth (and final) wife in 1747.1
1. White, Vol. I, p. 122.
1736 Census of Point Saint Anne by Father Jean-Pierre Daniélou
Married men and women boys girls
Joseph Bellefontaine and his wife (Marie-Anne Bergeron) 3 1
Michel Bergeron and his wife (Marie Dugas) 3 3
Barthelemi Bergeron and his wife (Marguerite Dugas) 5 4
Augustin Bergeron and his wife (Marie-Rose Melanson) 2
François Roy and his wife (Marie Bergeron 5 4
Jean Dugas and his wife 2
Louis Bellefontaine and his wife (Françoise Bergeron) 1
Jacques Bellefontaine and his wife (Anne Bergeron) 1
René Bellefontaine and his wife (François Dugas) 1
Pierre Bellefontaine and his wife (Marie-Anne Bourg) 2 2
Jean Bellefontaine and his wife 3 1
Charles Bellefontaine and his wife (Marie Landry) 1
Jean Pair (Laforet dit Paré) and his wife
Pierre Pair and his wife
Pierre Robert and his wife
28 19
Total d’hommes 15 In all 77 souls apart from
of women 15 the missionary priest
of boys 28 Jean Pierre Daniélou
of girls 19
[from F. Thériault, p.33-34]
At Sainte-Anne-du-Pays-Bas Chapter 14: A Visit to Annapolis Royal
46
1739 Census of Point Saint Anne by Father Jean-Pierre Daniélou
“Actual state of the new French colony of the River Saint John, at one place
below the village of Ekoupahag.
Philippe Bellefeuille his wife 4 children
Louis Bellefontaine his wife 2 children
Widow Engelique bellefontaine, her son Bonaventure with his wife and her
son-in law Michel (saindon) with his wife and two children.
Pierre Laforest his wife 2 children
René Valcour his wife 3 children
Charles Boisjolie his wife 3 children
Jean Laforest his wife 1 child
François Roy, his wife, eight children and his son François engaged to
Marguerite
Barthellemy (Bergeron)
St-Aubin his wife 9 children
Augustin St-Aubin, his wife and children with one relative
Jean Dugas his wife 3 children
Beauséjour (Joseph Godin), his wife, five children and one domestic
Michel St-Aubin, his mother, his wife, eight children and one domestic.
. . .
Father Daniélou missionary to the Savages and of the French bears witness
to the following articles:
1st This rising colony deserves the protection of His Majesty through his
zeal to supply to the Savages all that they need and to give them the
means to shelter them from the dangers of English trade.
2nd These French enlighten the novices by their exemplary regularity.
They never give intoxicating drink, they wear themselves out for
them, and never will they take the half of what is due to them.
3rd This new settlement will be able to act as barrier to render useless the
projects of the English. The beautiful river of Saint John abundantly
supplies fish. The land there is fertile. The vicinity of the sea makes
cod fishing easier. The large island called Messahane is full of
moyacs and other game. There is no lack of wood for construction
and our French make ships for trade.
4th Monsieur Cavagnal de Vaudreuil, governor of Three Rivers and
seigneur of the parish of Ekoupag, to aid the zeal of Monsieur the
Marquis de Beauharnois, charged Sieur Alexandre Bourg with the
responsibility of granting several plots of land, and he had the
generosity to not require any fee up until the new colony would be
solidly established. Our illustrious benefactors will not refuse, at least
the tribute of our gratitude and the feeble help of our prayers.
5th To avoid wordiness, I finish admiring in silence the very singularity of
Divine Providence on this new people, where we see neither sterile
women, nor children ugly of body or spirit, nor oath takers, nor
drunkards, nor corruption, nor inclination to seduce women, nor
blindness, nor lazy people, nor beggars, nor invalids, nor takers of
others’ goods.
Chapter 15: Playing Tag Along the Coast At Sainte-Anne-du-Pays-Bas
47
Chapter 15: Playing Tag Along the Coast
Michel appears in another scrape with the English. This one, in 1750, was quite a bit more serious. Here
is the story as reported by Fr. Bergeron:
In the “Généalogies et notes acadiennes, deposited at Ottawa in 1906, Placide Gaudet of such respected
memory, gave (in Append. IIIe) the text of the ‘JOURNAL of this which happened at Chignetou and other
parts of the frontiers of Acadia from 15 Sept. 1750 until 28 July 1751... (taken from) a mémoire... of a
Relation made by the Sieur de la Valliere.’” The text is long, but very interesting:
About the fifteenth of November, the (Bostonian) captain Cox, commanding a ship
armed with 30 soldiers from the company of Gorum and six canons, which cruised
from Cap Enragé [at the beginning of Chignecto Bay] to Beaubassin, caught sight of a
chaloupe [a launch-schooner or sloop] which came out of the Petit-koudiac River [the
river from present day Moncton] commanded by Michau (for Michel, son of
Barthélémy) d’Amboise (for Bergeron d’Amboise), making way for the St. John
River, gave chase to him all day and forced him about four hours of the evening to run
aground at full sail on Cap-des-Demoiselles on the coast of the Chipoudy,....”1
The tide was going out at the time. Low tide was at 18h43 (6:43pm), so by 4pm the tide was quite low.
We guess that Michel was trying to outguess the shallow places to keep Captain Cox at a distance, and he
miscalculated.2
... he fired many canonshots on it [the chaloupe] from where it sat aground, he
lowered twenty men who went to the chaloupe, pursued five men who had been in it
and who had abandoned it and retreated firing on them [the Bostonians].
They [the Bostonians] took from the chaloupe the large sail, a feather bed, some little
bit of bacon and some peas and brought its anchor offshore to the length of its cable.
The Sieur de Baurans, officer of the troops of Louisbourg, who was commander of
this post [Chipoudy] and who was just two leagues from there, having been informed,
took about thirty Acadians and lay in ambush within range of the chaloupe where he
passed the night with his people, after having brought the anchor back to land and
partly unloaded the chaloupe so that it would be able to float.... 3
Captain Cox having noticed that people had arrived by the wild cries the Acadians
made, fired many canonshots during the night which had no effect; with daybreak, the
English having discovered the Sieur de Baurans and his people, continued to make a
very lively artillery firing, but that was always without effect, de Baurans, Michel
Bergeron, his five companions and the other Acadians being on the banks of a stream
1. Bergeron, SGCF69c, p. 163, and LGA, Vol. I, p. 260.
2. The author calculated the low tide on 5 April 2004 at a web site named “Calcul de la marée” located at http://www.shom.fr/ann_marees/cgi-bin/predit_ext/choixp
3. Bergeron, SGCF69c, p. 163, and LGA, Vol. I, p. 260.
1739 Census of Point Saint Anne (continued)
We dare flatter ourselves that so many tokens of the Heaven’s protection will
persuade you to protect us through a generous contribution and that you will
grant us the necessary help for strengthening the New Colony.
For thirty years we suffered in silence the bad treatment of the savages, the
heavy debts, the tributes that was necessary to pay them to whom Monsieur
the General alone could put an end, the ravages of their hunting dogs.
Today the only confidence that we have in your paternal kindness emboldens
us to ask for some bonus for a time, for example, one hundred pounds of
powder per year and two hundred pounds of lead.”
[from F. Thériault, p.34-35]
At Sainte-Anne-du-Pays-Bas Chapter 15: Playing Tag Along the Coast
Chapter 13: Sainte-Anne du Pays-Bas
Barthélémy and Geneviève’s son Michel also was a sailor, but he evidently spent a good amount of time
around Port Royal. About 1725, he took on a new name. He was confronted with the existence of another
Michel Bergeron living in that town. This other man was no relation whatsoever; he had come from the
French province of Auvergne. Actually, both men found it expedient to change their names. Michel
Bergeron from Auvergne signed his name as Pierre Bergerac from that time on, “while the familial branch
of Michel-from-Barthélémy took the surname de Nantes in place of d’Amboise.”1 From now on he would be
known as Michel Bergeron dit de Nantes or simply Michel de Nantes.
Shortly after this the Bergeron d’Amboise family moved up the St. John River. They settled in at
Sainte-Anne’s Point, across from the old fort at Nashwaak which had been the headquarters of Governor
Villebon. The church there was named for Sainte-Anne-du-Pays-Bas (Saint Anne of the Netherlands). This
location would later become the city of Fredericton, New Brunswick. Here, Barthélémy was reunited with
his friend Gabriel Godin dit Bellefontaine, whom he had met back in 1695.
The Treaty of Utrecht that had ended the war in which Port Royal had been lost, gave all of Acadie
Peninsulaire (Nova Scotia) to the English. However,
the limits of Acadia never having been fixed, the French claimed that they comprised
only the peninsula of Nova Scotia, that especially the River St. John ... was excluded.
Also Vaudreuil [governor of Canada]... would charge Father Loyard (Jesuit
missionary)... to grant shares to colonists. His successor, Father Jean-Pierre Daniélou,
took a census in 1733 that gave 20 families and one hundred eleven souls, with 15
(families) and 82 (souls) below the Indian village of Aukpaque, probably on the Point
Ste-Anne (Fredericton). Rumilly specified that ‘some Acadians of Port Royal have (at
this time) founded a small settlement on the River St-John, in territory claimed by the
French...’”2
Fr. Bergeron was convinced that Barthélémy and Geneviève moved to Ste-Anne as a result of the
pressures being applied by the missionary priests between 1728 and 1730 to get Acadians out of the English
area.3 And:
our Bergerons, who with many others had resided in Acadie Peninsulaire despite the
Bostonian conquest and the miserable treaty of Utrecht, on the insistence of the King
of France, of the military chiefs of Continental Acadia and of the Missionaries, joined
with other compatriots to find refuge in “French Acadia” and to found what will soon
be “Sainte-Anne-du-Pays-Bas”, upstream on the River Saint-John.4
1. Bergeron, SGCF69c, p.169.
2. Bergeron, SGCF69c, p. 162. His quote from Rumilly comes from Robert Roumilly, Histoire des Acadiens, vol. I, p.271.
3. Bergeron, LGA, Vol. I, p. 258.
At Sainte-Anne-du-Pays-Bas Chapter 13: Sainte-Anne du Pays-Bas
42
There are a couple problems with this information. First, the Bergeron d’Amboises, as we have seen,
were probably not still living in Annapolis Royal (Port Royal) but on Campobello. At the very least, they
were living at Annapolis Royal only part of the time. Second, they seem to have been at Ste-Anne-du-Pays-
Bas well before 1728-30.
Marie-Anne, the daughter born in Boston in 1706, married Joseph Godin-Bellefontaine dit Beauséjour
at Ste-Anne-du-Pays-Bas in 1726. He was the son of Barthélémy’s old friends Gabriel Godin and Andrée-
Angélique Jasne. They were actually married on the River Saint-John,1 i.e., at the Sainte-Anne settlement.
Marie-Anne probably did not come to this region alone, but with her parents, and it is a pretty safe bet that
the young couple would not have met and immediately gotten married. Assuming they knew each other for
about a year, we can make a reasonable assumption that the Bergeron d’Amboises had moved to central
New Brunswick in 1724 or 1725.
The year after his sister was married (1727) Michel got married again, this time to Marie Dugas, the
daughter of Abraham Dugas and Marie-Madeleine Landry, their old neighbors in Port Royal.2 This was his
second wife. Since we do not know who his first wife was, we have no way of knowing when or why she
died. (She almost certainly died; Acadians seem never to have divorced.)
The following year, Barthélémy II and his wife Marguerite Dugas (married in Annapolis Royal on 21
April 1721),3 had a new son Charles. The baby was born on 23 March 1728, and was baptized at the house
by his grandfather, Barthélémy, who is described as a “resident of the St. John river” at that time. Later that
year, on 13 June 1728, little Charles’ baptism was registered at St. Jean-Baptiste parish in Annapolis Royal.4
Meanwhile, Barthélémy continued “to sail on his own account.”5 “We can also add...,” wrote Fr.
Bergeron, “that Barthélémy Bergeron made, and probably alone, the usual coastal navigation of the
immense French Bay (Fundy), between Point Ste-Anne of the St. John River and Memramcook and all the
intermediate places....”6
Indeed, he may have continued privateering during the colonial wars. Barthélémy may also have served
as support for Michel in these years. Fr. Bergeron again:
1730 (it might be better to say from 1696 to 1755) “Between two expeditions of
Bostonians against Port Royal (Rumilly 1/184) some corsairs, using Port Royal as a
base, threw the desolation back to the doors of Boston...” “Boston was aroused by
these rapid and incessant blows... Church... went to sea again, where he was not
entirely safe because of the privateers who, although few in number, even cut the
route of the vessels whose destinations were the English colonies. Mentioned were
Robineau, de Nantes [Michel Bergeron?], François Guyon, and Baptiste.... The
Adventures of the chevalier de Beauchêne, written by Le Sage, tells in detail the life
of these buccaneers, fighting in their manner under the flag of their country as long as
the war between the crowns (of France and England) lasted.7
Port Royal was under English control (and called Annapolis Royal) after 1710. The assertion that the
privateers operated out of Port Royal until 1755 is debatable. It may have been a situation of them hiding in
the open or they may have operated out of other ports, the St. John River and the Acadian settlements in the
north. But there are indications that both Barthélémy and Michel were sailing the Bay of Fundy in the early
1700s.
In 17298 or 17309 Barthélémy and Geneviève’s son Augustin married the 18- or 19-year-old Marie
Dugas. She was the daughter of Claude Dugas and Marguerite Bourg, and the sister of Barthélémy II’s wife,
Marguerite. About the same time (1730), daughter Anne-Marie (who had been born in 1709) married
Jacques-Philippe Godin dit Bellefeuille another son of Gabriel Godin and Andrée-Angélique Jeanne (Jasne)
4. Bergeron, SGCF69d, p. 218.
1. White, Vol. I, p. 122.
2. Ibid.
3. PubArchNS, RG 1 Vol. 26 p.326. The officiating priest was Father Charlemagne Cuvier. Marguerite Dugast was the daughter of Claude and Marguerite Bourg.
4. PubArchNS, RG 1 Vol. 26a p.26. The officiating priest at the registration of this baptism was Father René Charles de Breslay. The godparents were Joseph
Belliveau and an aunt, Anne Marie Dugast.
5. Bergeron, SGCF69c, p. 171.
6. Bergeron, SGCF69c, pp. 171-172.
7. Bergeron, SGCF69c, p. 163.
8. White, Vol. I, p. 566.
9. Ibid., p. 122.
Chapter 13: Sainte-Anne du Pays-Bas At Sainte-Anne-du-Pays-Bas
43
and brother of Joseph, Marie-Anne’s husband. Such relationships were common among the Acadians; there
are numerous cases of two or more brothers marrying sisters.
On 20 March 1731, René LeBlanc of Grand Pré provided a list of people living on the St. John River to
the authorities at Annapolis. There were about seventeen armed men in the area. He specifically mentioned
the Bellefontaines (i.e., the Godins) and the Bergerons. These were the two families who had been settled
there for almost forty years, since the time of Governor Villebon. This is how he enumerated these men:
“The old Bergeron, called (dit) d’Ambroise [sic], Barthelemy Bergeron [i.e., Barthélémy II], Michel
Bergeron, Augustin Bergeron, François Roy, the old woman Bellefontaine, Louison Bellefontaine,
Beauséjour, Bellefeuille, Lincour, Boisjolly, Préville, Bonaventure (the eight Godin Bellefontaine brothers),
a Dugas, a Foret of Cape Breton, Calecour.”1 Pitre and Pelletier mention that the “old woman Bellefontaine”
is the widow of Gabriel Godin. And so we know that Barthélémy Bergeron d’Amboise was definitely still
living in 1731, now 67 years old, and we know that his old friend has died.
Of course, through the years, the grandchildren kept arriving. In 1736, Michel and Marie Dugas had
their fifth child, the third son. They named him after his father, Michel.2 We will hear considerably more of
him as a grown man.
1. Pitre & Pelletier, p.110.
2. Bergeron, LGA, Vol. I, p.265.
1731 Census of Point Saint Anne by René LeBlanc
The old Bergeron dit d’Amboise
Barthelemy Bergeron
Michel Bergeron
Augustin Bergeron
François Roy
The Old (Godin) Bellefontaine
Louison Bellefontaine
(Godin) Beauséjour
(Godin) Bellefeuille
(godin) Maincour
(Godin) Bois jolly
(Godin) Préville
Bonaventure (Godin)
A Dugas
A Forest du Cap Breton
(Godin) Valecour.
I (René LeBlanc) also declare that there was a Jesuit (Jean-Pierre
Daniélou) come the past autumn to the River Saint John, sent by
Canada - him which should winter with the French who lived
there.”
[from F. Thériault, p.32-33]
At Sainte-Anne-du-Pays-Bas Chapter 14: A Visit to Annapolis Royal
44
Chapter 14: A Visit to Annapolis Royal
In July 1736 Michel Bergeron and his brother-in-law, Joseph Bellefontaine, went to visit the old
Acadian town of Port Royal, now called Annapolis Royal. We have no reason for their visit, except perhaps
Michel wanted to visit his in-laws and ex-neighbors, the Abraham Dugas family. But it seems that they were
ignorant of either the law (as it applied to French outsiders) or the social graces: they were charged with
“contempt and disrespect in not coming to wait upon him [the lieutenant governor] on their arrival....” They
were imprisoned.1
The two prisoners humbly begged pardon for their fault, for believing they were of too low a social
status to be required to wait on such a personage. Evidently the authorities saw the opportunity to get some
information, because Michel and Joseph were required to give a list of the inhabitants of St. Anne's, which
they did. This list comprises 15 families, numbering 77 persons. It also indicates that there were now three
sons and three daughters of Barthélémy and Geneviève, married with several children. Michel himself was
one of them. There is no mention of old Barthélémy in this list.2 We have no way of knowing whether he
was dead or whether Michel was had chosen not to mention him for some other reason.
Then the governor suggested that they give “security for their good behaviour for the next twelve
months.” They were required to make a penalty payment of one hundred pounds, New England money, for
each of them.3 The authorities probably thought these two country bumpkin Acadians could never pay such
an exorbitant sum, or perhaps they were trying to cheat them out of the money.
Interestingly enough, these two young men had arrived on a ship owned and operated by none other
than a Captain Blinn. At this point, Captain Blinn himself offered to be bound for them, and, the captain
being well known in the area, this was accepted.4 This is an interesting situation. As one reads the work of
Beamish Murdoch, Blinn seems to be working for the Annapolis government. Yet he offers to be bound for
Michel (and Joseph), and 200 pounds was a lot of money. This could only indicate a friendship with the
Bergerons, or at least the repayment of an obligation, an old debt to the Bergerons for having bought a
Bostonian sea captain’s freedom in 1722.
What is even more interesting, this Captain Blinn could not be the same individual as the person at
Campobello in 1722. That was James Blinn, and he had died in 1731 at Annapolis Royal.5 This Captain
Blinn seems to have been his youngest son, Peter, born 16 January 17046 (which made him about two years
younger than Michel Bergeron). So we seem to have here a second generation friendship and the memory of
a family debt.
We know for a fact that Michel was also a sailor. One account (which we will extensively quote later)
that he plied the Bay of Fundy much as his father had done. There are also indications that he might have
been a deep-water sailor, crossing the Atlantic to the French seaport of Nantes and back.
In 1741, Michel I and his wife Marie Dugas had their last child, a boy named Joseph.7 Marie may have
died in childbirth because Michel married again two years later, to a woman whose name is unknown.8
Joseph grew up and married Angélique Saindon. This couple are the ancestors of cousin Joe Damboise of
Grafton, NH. Joe has helped considerably in the research for this paper. This branch of the family includes
another cousin, Bob Bergeron of Phoenix, AZ. Joe and Bob are second cousins to each other (and sixth
cousins to this writer). Bob’s grandfather, Emile, kept the family name of “Bergeron” while Emile’s brother,
Narcisse, chose to keep the family name of “d’Amboise,” which evolved into “Damboise”9 (and assumed an
Anglicized pronunciation). So, thanks to choices made by our ancestors along the way, both portions of the
original family name have been preserved. This is the reason we insist on using the full name of “Bergeron
d’Amboise” in this work.
1. Murdoch, Vol. I, p. 514.
2. Murdoch, Vol. I, p. 515.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Ancestry.com. http://awt.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=:554773&id=I5. Sat Aug 25 20:17:57 2001.
6. Ancestrry.com. http://awt.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/igm.cgi?op=GET&db=:554773&id=I46. Sat Aug 25 20:17:57 2001.
7. Bergeron, LGA, Vol. I, p. 265.
8. White, Vol. I, p. 122. The cause of Marie Dugas’s death is conjecture. All that we know for certain is that she dies “before 15 January 1748” (White, I-574) which
does not say much because we do know that Michel remarried in 1743.
9. Bergeron, Robert.
Chapter 14: A Visit to Annapolis Royal At Sainte-Anne-du-Pays-Bas
45
Poor Michel had the worst luck with his wives. His third spouse died within four years of being wed,
and he married Marie-Jeanne Hébert, his fourth (and final) wife in 1747.1
1. White, Vol. I, p. 122.
1736 Census of Point Saint Anne by Father Jean-Pierre Daniélou
Married men and women boys girls
Joseph Bellefontaine and his wife (Marie-Anne Bergeron) 3 1
Michel Bergeron and his wife (Marie Dugas) 3 3
Barthelemi Bergeron and his wife (Marguerite Dugas) 5 4
Augustin Bergeron and his wife (Marie-Rose Melanson) 2
François Roy and his wife (Marie Bergeron 5 4
Jean Dugas and his wife 2
Louis Bellefontaine and his wife (Françoise Bergeron) 1
Jacques Bellefontaine and his wife (Anne Bergeron) 1
René Bellefontaine and his wife (François Dugas) 1
Pierre Bellefontaine and his wife (Marie-Anne Bourg) 2 2
Jean Bellefontaine and his wife 3 1
Charles Bellefontaine and his wife (Marie Landry) 1
Jean Pair (Laforet dit Paré) and his wife
Pierre Pair and his wife
Pierre Robert and his wife
28 19
Total d’hommes 15 In all 77 souls apart from
of women 15 the missionary priest
of boys 28 Jean Pierre Daniélou
of girls 19
[from F. Thériault, p.33-34]
At Sainte-Anne-du-Pays-Bas Chapter 14: A Visit to Annapolis Royal
46
1739 Census of Point Saint Anne by Father Jean-Pierre Daniélou
“Actual state of the new French colony of the River Saint John, at one place
below the village of Ekoupahag.
Philippe Bellefeuille his wife 4 children
Louis Bellefontaine his wife 2 children
Widow Engelique bellefontaine, her son Bonaventure with his wife and her
son-in law Michel (saindon) with his wife and two children.
Pierre Laforest his wife 2 children
René Valcour his wife 3 children
Charles Boisjolie his wife 3 children
Jean Laforest his wife 1 child
François Roy, his wife, eight children and his son François engaged to
Marguerite
Barthellemy (Bergeron)
St-Aubin his wife 9 children
Augustin St-Aubin, his wife and children with one relative
Jean Dugas his wife 3 children
Beauséjour (Joseph Godin), his wife, five children and one domestic
Michel St-Aubin, his mother, his wife, eight children and one domestic.
. . .
Father Daniélou missionary to the Savages and of the French bears witness
to the following articles:
1st This rising colony deserves the protection of His Majesty through his
zeal to supply to the Savages all that they need and to give them the
means to shelter them from the dangers of English trade.
2nd These French enlighten the novices by their exemplary regularity.
They never give intoxicating drink, they wear themselves out for
them, and never will they take the half of what is due to them.
3rd This new settlement will be able to act as barrier to render useless the
projects of the English. The beautiful river of Saint John abundantly
supplies fish. The land there is fertile. The vicinity of the sea makes
cod fishing easier. The large island called Messahane is full of
moyacs and other game. There is no lack of wood for construction
and our French make ships for trade.
4th Monsieur Cavagnal de Vaudreuil, governor of Three Rivers and
seigneur of the parish of Ekoupag, to aid the zeal of Monsieur the
Marquis de Beauharnois, charged Sieur Alexandre Bourg with the
responsibility of granting several plots of land, and he had the
generosity to not require any fee up until the new colony would be
solidly established. Our illustrious benefactors will not refuse, at least
the tribute of our gratitude and the feeble help of our prayers.
5th To avoid wordiness, I finish admiring in silence the very singularity of
Divine Providence on this new people, where we see neither sterile
women, nor children ugly of body or spirit, nor oath takers, nor
drunkards, nor corruption, nor inclination to seduce women, nor
blindness, nor lazy people, nor beggars, nor invalids, nor takers of
others’ goods.
Chapter 15: Playing Tag Along the Coast At Sainte-Anne-du-Pays-Bas
47
Chapter 15: Playing Tag Along the Coast
Michel appears in another scrape with the English. This one, in 1750, was quite a bit more serious. Here
is the story as reported by Fr. Bergeron:
In the “Généalogies et notes acadiennes, deposited at Ottawa in 1906, Placide Gaudet of such respected
memory, gave (in Append. IIIe) the text of the ‘JOURNAL of this which happened at Chignetou and other
parts of the frontiers of Acadia from 15 Sept. 1750 until 28 July 1751... (taken from) a mémoire... of a
Relation made by the Sieur de la Valliere.’” The text is long, but very interesting:
About the fifteenth of November, the (Bostonian) captain Cox, commanding a ship
armed with 30 soldiers from the company of Gorum and six canons, which cruised
from Cap Enragé [at the beginning of Chignecto Bay] to Beaubassin, caught sight of a
chaloupe [a launch-schooner or sloop] which came out of the Petit-koudiac River [the
river from present day Moncton] commanded by Michau (for Michel, son of
Barthélémy) d’Amboise (for Bergeron d’Amboise), making way for the St. John
River, gave chase to him all day and forced him about four hours of the evening to run
aground at full sail on Cap-des-Demoiselles on the coast of the Chipoudy,....”1
The tide was going out at the time. Low tide was at 18h43 (6:43pm), so by 4pm the tide was quite low.
We guess that Michel was trying to outguess the shallow places to keep Captain Cox at a distance, and he
miscalculated.2
... he fired many canonshots on it [the chaloupe] from where it sat aground, he
lowered twenty men who went to the chaloupe, pursued five men who had been in it
and who had abandoned it and retreated firing on them [the Bostonians].
They [the Bostonians] took from the chaloupe the large sail, a feather bed, some little
bit of bacon and some peas and brought its anchor offshore to the length of its cable.
The Sieur de Baurans, officer of the troops of Louisbourg, who was commander of
this post [Chipoudy] and who was just two leagues from there, having been informed,
took about thirty Acadians and lay in ambush within range of the chaloupe where he
passed the night with his people, after having brought the anchor back to land and
partly unloaded the chaloupe so that it would be able to float.... 3
Captain Cox having noticed that people had arrived by the wild cries the Acadians
made, fired many canonshots during the night which had no effect; with daybreak, the
English having discovered the Sieur de Baurans and his people, continued to make a
very lively artillery firing, but that was always without effect, de Baurans, Michel
Bergeron, his five companions and the other Acadians being on the banks of a stream
1. Bergeron, SGCF69c, p. 163, and LGA, Vol. I, p. 260.
2. The author calculated the low tide on 5 April 2004 at a web site named “Calcul de la marée” located at http://www.shom.fr/ann_marees/cgi-bin/predit_ext/choixp
3. Bergeron, SGCF69c, p. 163, and LGA, Vol. I, p. 260.
1739 Census of Point Saint Anne (continued)
We dare flatter ourselves that so many tokens of the Heaven’s protection will
persuade you to protect us through a generous contribution and that you will
grant us the necessary help for strengthening the New Colony.
For thirty years we suffered in silence the bad treatment of the savages, the
heavy debts, the tributes that was necessary to pay them to whom Monsieur
the General alone could put an end, the ravages of their hunting dogs.
Today the only confidence that we have in your paternal kindness emboldens
us to ask for some bonus for a time, for example, one hundred pounds of
powder per year and two hundred pounds of lead.”
[from F. Thériault, p.34-35]
At Sainte-Anne-du-Pays-Bas Chapter 15: Playing Tag Along the Coast