Jeanne Dugas of Acadia
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Abraham Dugas escaped Georges Island with his brother Joseph and followed him to Chedabouctou, St. Pierre et Miquelon, France and back to St. Pierre et Miquelon. He then remained on this continent. He and his family are believed to have spent some time in Newfoundland and they were settled in the area of Clare, NS, by 1772, where many of his descendants can be found today. This is the area where the first land grants were given to Acadians after the end of the Seven Years War; it is now known as the French Shore.
Joseph Leblanc dit Le Maigre left Georges Island in 1763. He followed Joseph Dugas to St. Pierre et Miquelon and he too was deported to France in 1767. He settled in Belle-Île-en-Mer, in the village of Kerval with other Acadian refugees and died there in 1772.
Charles des Champs de Boishébert was involved in the last battles in New France in 1759 and 1760. After the fall of Montréal, he retreated to France, where he was imprisoned in the Bastille, accused of having profited personally from the purchase of supplies for the starving Acadians. He was acquitted after serving fifteen months in prison. He spent his last years in France at Raffetot, an estate he acquired through marriage, where he died in 1797.
Brief Glossary
un aboiteau - dyke system that allows reclaimed marshland to be farmed
le cabotage - coastal navigation
un caboteur - a coastal navigator
charpente construction - timber frame with rubble stone infill.
un clavecin - harpsichord
Compagnies franches de la Marine - the main organization for the defence of New France
un concordat - agreement
un conte - fairy tale
à contre-gré - against one’s will
la layette - baby clothes
Lettres de Marques - licence to arm a vessel, engage and capture merchant ships that otherwise would be piracy
une paillasse - straw mattress
une pastorelle - story in verse on pastoral themes
un piquet - vertical log construction
une sage-femme - midwife
une soirée - party
têtu - stubborn
une veillée - vigil, wake
Place names
No longer in use or changed:
Baie Française, now the Bay of Fundy
Camp de l’Ésperance, an Island in Miramichi Bay, NB
Canceau, now Canso, NS
Chédabouctou, near Canso, NS
Chétican, now Chéticamp, NS
Chezzetcook, Halifax, Co., NS
Chipagon, Shippagan, NB
La Petite Rochelle, on Miramichi Bay, NB
Magré, Margaree, Cap Breton, NS
Miré, Mira bay and river and village, Cap Breton, NS
Neireishak, now Arichat, Isle Madame, NS
Nipisiguit, now Bathurst, NB
Port-la-Joye, Prince Edward Island
Port Toulouse/Potlotek, St. Peter’s, Cap Breton, NS
Remshic, now Wallace, NS
Richibuctu, Richibouctou, NB
Ristigouche, Restigouche, NB
Havre Hébert, Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine, Québec
About the author
Photo by Tim Snow
Cassie Deveaux Cohoon was born in the Acadian village of Chétican on Cap Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Her Acadian heritage goes back to the early days of Grand Pré on her father’s side and Beaubassin (now Amherst) on her mother’s. She has lived in New York City and Paris, France, and now makes her home in Montréal, Québec. She has worked as a freelance journalist and written family histories. Her first novel, Severine, told the story of a fictitious heroine of Acadia. In Jeanne Dugas of Acadia, the author tells the story of one of her own ancestors. One of Jeanne Dugas’s granddaughters married a son of Augustin Deveau, another founder of Chétican and the author’s paternal ancestor.