FrancoAmerican Gravy: Family History & Stories from Upstate New York, Quebec and Acadia

Stories of family and ancestors who lived and worked in Cohoes (textile and garment workers, butchers and barbers), Waterford (canalers), Whitehall (farmers and canalers), Port Henry (iron miners and Civil War soldiers), Champlain (canalers and farmers) and other towns along the Champlain Canal in New York State with some diversions to the places they emigrated from....Quebec (landless farmers, shoemakers, sailors, soldiers), Acadia (more farmers), and even Cornwall, England (tin miners).

Showing posts with label The Pembroke. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Acadian Tragedy, Rivet and Glode-Mylott Ancestors, The Pembroke and the St John's River

One again, I am returning to the story of The Pembroke. In an earlier post (October 2010), I wrote about the ancestors of Edith Mylott née Glode who in 1755 were exiled from Annapolis Royal aboard The Pembroke. At that time, I didn't include the fact that an ancestor of Rivets, Prudent Robichaud, was also aboard that same vessel as well as others. The story of The Pembroke is a true hardship story and probably one that historians will likely never know in detail. The tragedy of The Pembroke was the basis of fiction by Mary L Weekes.

A fictionalize story of The Pembroke can be read in Acadian Betrayal. It use to be available on the internet. If you cannot find a digital copy, it sometimes appears for sale on Ebay - but I suspect it wouldn't hold your interest for too long. It is a typical melodrama.

The story of The Pembroke is a subplot in the tragedy of the Acadian people who were ousted, expelled, excised from the area around the Bay of Fundy from September through December 1755 by New England colonials under the authority of Governor Charles Lawrence and William Shirley, colonial governor of Massachusetts. Over 7000 Acadian people were dispersed into small ships and sent to colonies along the North Atlantic seaboard and Haiti. Some ships sank at sea, some were refused permission to dock and passengers remained without food and sanitary conditions in the ships while disease took over. One ship, The Pembroke, was the exception. Its Acadian passengers overtook the crew and commandeered the ship across the Bay of Fundy to St John in present day New Brunswick. On board that ship, were not only the Guilbault ancestors of Edith Glode and her sons, there also were the Robichaud, Melanson and Belliveau ancestors of Claire, Albert and Raymond Rivet of Cohoes, New York. According to the article written by Paul Delaney on Acadian Ancestral Home, the probable leader of the Acadians on The Pembroke was Charles Belliveau. He is also the great great great great great grandfather of Claire, Al and Ray Rivet!!!

After bringing The Pembroke into the mouth of the St John's River, the Acadians were discovered by the English provoking an engagement, firing of arms, taking of English prisoners and ultimately burning The Pembroke so it could not be used against them. Subsequently, the Acadians made their way to present day Fredericton, New Brunswick, then a French settlement called Saint Anne des Pays Bas where they wintered enduring malnutrition and exposure to the harsh environment. The Rivet ancestor, Prudent Robichaud, quite elderly, died sometime during this struggle and somewhere along the Saint John River. It is believed the Acadians including Charles Belliveau, Charles Melanson, and their families made their way north via canoe on the St John's River through Grand Falls (Grand Sault) to present day Edmunston regions and then onto the Madawaska River to Lac Temiscouata (present day Quebec). The route continued from Lac Temiscouata overland and via waterways to Trois Pistoles on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River concluding in Ville Quebec.

Unfortunately, Charles Belliveau and Charles Melanson, like many of the Guilbault family, are believed to have succumbed to smallpox in 1758 and 1757, respectively, after completing their harrowing escape.

Below, the St John River near Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada

Below is a recap of the stories written about Acadians in this blog so far. This list includes some early posts that may not have been well researched but I am reviewing them for accuracy and hope they will "make the cut"!

Acadian Update 2016

Acadians, not Cajuns, in our Families

Acadians in the Mylott-Glode Family

Acadians in the Rivet Family

Acadians in the Wills & Beauvais Family

The Pembroke

Remembering Acadian Ancestors

New Acadia, St-Jacques-de-l'Achigan, Quebec

Images of St-Jacques-de-l'Achigan

Petite l'Acadie in St Jean

Teaching Children about Acadian Ancestors

On the Way to Acadian World Congress 2014

We are the same...

"almost an idiot"

Lord Family of St Jacques de l'Achigan

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Acadians in the Mylott Family: Family of Alexandre Guilbault & Marguerite Girouard and the "The Pembroke"

Arthur Homer Mylott (1918-2006), his mother was
   Edith Lida Glode (1889-1965), her mother has
   Marie Angeline Allard (1865-1918), her father was
   Louis Allard (1841-1900), his mother was
   Marie Marguerite Guilbault (1808-1844), her father was
   Louis Guilbault (1772- ), his father was
   Gregoire Guilbault (1750-1808) who was likely born (there's no documentation) in Port Royal about 1750 and was about five years old at the time of the Grand Expulsion of the Acadians from their farms in today's Nova Scotia. The story of Gregoire and his family is just one of many tragedies the Acadians endured as a result of their expulsion.

The Deportation Cross

Gregoire was a son of Alexandre Guilbault (1708-1776) and Marguerite Girouard (1713-1757). Their other children were Armand (born in 1734), Joseph (born in 1736), Marie (born in 1741), Ursule (born before 1745), Jean (born 1749), then Gregoire, then Marie Gertrude (born before 1754). So at the time of the expulsion some of the children ranged from young adults to a baby.

It is believed the family of Alexandre Guilbault and Marguerite Girouard were among the passengers on The Pembroke, the only ship to rebel against their English crew. The Guilbault family is listed as Family #12 in Paul Delaney's Reconstructed Passenger list. Although Gregoire does not seem to be identified among the Guilbault children in Delaney's passenger list, I suspect he was with his parents. The Pembroke was at anchor in the Dauphin River (today it is named Annapolis River) along Goat Island near Port Royal and embarked in December 1755 with 232 Acadians headed for the colony of Carolina. The Acadians on board commandeered the Pembroke into the St John River in present day New Brunswick and spent a harsh winter with little food and shelter in the northeast woods. The full story can be found at The Pembroke Passenger List Reconstructed at Acadian Ancestral Home. Please take some time to read their story.

The Acadians who survived, gradually made their way into Quebec via the St John River but their troubles were hardly over. War with the English and a poor harvest tore open the countryside. Smallpox was ravaging in the cities & countryside, in military troops and families at this time. When finally, the family was in safely in Québec city, under the French troops, smallpox hit the family. The first to succumb was sixteen year old Marie on 7 December 1757. Next was Jean on December 23rd - he was only eight years old. Two days later, on Christmas Day, the mother, Marguerite Girouard, died from smallpox. A mother and two children all dead within eighteen days.

Gregoire survived. Whether he had the disease and lived, I do not know but he married in 1771 in Sorel, Quebec to Marie Agathe Angelique Hus dit Millet and had several children. Gregoire Guilbault was the great-great-great-great grandfather of Arthur Homer Mylott.

Acadian Update 2016

Acadians, not Cajuns, in our Families

Acadians in the Mylott-Glode Family

Acadians in the Rivet Family