Early Settlement

The Acadians who did not relocate to Isle Royale did not consider themselves to be British subjects and they would not swear their allegiance to the King of England. This led to the expulsion of nearly 7,000 Acadians from Grand Pre by the British in 1755.The Acadians who settled in Havre Boucher were not among those expelled but some of their family members and relatives were. The cultural and family ties between the Cajuns of Louisiana and the Acadians of the Maritimes have remained strong to this day.

Pierre Boucher came to Pisiquit, Acadia from Quebec around 1714, married there and moved on to Port Toulouse where his son Honore was born about 1716. Honore married Marie-Anne Marres around 1743 at Port Toulouse. Nine children were born to this couple, including Paul born about 1760 in Arichat. Paul was one of the very first settlors in Havre Boucher about 1785. Pierre-Francoise Briand came to Port Toulouse from France about 1728 and married there about 1730. Georges Charpentier was born in Ile St. Jean (Prince Edward Island) and lived in many places before settling in Havre Boucher about 1786. Antoine Lavandier came to Port Toulouse from France about 1730 in the employ of Claude Pettipas and married Claude’s widow about 1732.

Brothers Jacques and Gabriel Samson relocated from Normandy, France to Lauzon, Quebec about 1665 but for reasons lost in time, one of Gabriel’s sons, also named Gabriel was in Port Royal in 1704 where he married Jeanne Martin before relocating to Port Toulouse about 1727. Thomas Deslauriers (originally Jacquet) also from Normandy, France came to Quebec with the French Army about 1750 and following defeat by the British in 1760, rather than return to France, Thomas left the army and relocated his family to Isle Madame about 1763.

Construction of the fortress at Louisbourg began in 1714. The French King began encouraging the Acadians to move to Ile Royale to either live and work at the fortress or to provide agricultural and fishing support to the garrison. Following the fall of Louisbourg in 1758, Acadians were forbidden to remain on or return to the lands they had settled. A group of about ten families from Port Toulouse (St. Peter’s) led a nomadic existence with help from the Mi’kmaq in the vicinity of Isle Madame, Cape Breton. With the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1763, the Acadian population was allowed to live in peace in Nova Scotia. In 1775, during the American War of Independence, many Acadian families had to leave Isle Madame where they were threatened by American privateers including Captain John Paul Jones. They temporarily settled at Chezzetcook, Ile St. Jean or St. Pierre et Miquelon before returning to Isle Madame about 1780.

In 1785 a tract of land measuring 170 acres was granted to Paul Bushee, and a tract of land measuring 100 acres was granted to Philistin Coste in what was to become Harbour au Bouche. Paul Bushee was married to Pelagie Coste, a sister to Philistin. These two families are generally regarded as being the first two permanent family settlements in Havre Boucher but we know that other Acadian families were already arriving in the area. In a letter written in 1787 by Father Phalen, a missionary at Arichat in which he said that while traveling from Prince Edward Island to Arichat, he intended to visit two French settlements containing nine or ten families near the Gut of Canso.

The Crown reserved the prime lands surrounding the harbour for loyalist soldiers who fought for the British during the American War of Independence.

On September 13, 1785, a 700 acre parcel of prime land on the east side of the harbour was granted to Lieutenant Hugh Mackay Gordon. This land was not settled by Lieutenant Gordon and was acquired by Archibald Chisholm on September 4^th, 1814. Lieutenant Gordon went on to become Lieutenant Governor of Jersey in the Channel Islands where he died in 1823.

An adjacent 500 acre parcel of prime land was granted to Quartermaster Amos Chapman on January 15, 1786. Quartermaster Chapman had fought with Tarleton’s British Legion during the War of Independence. Quartermaster Chapman never cleared or settled this land and relocated to Pelham Township in Ontario with his family. In 1795, this land was acquired by Michael Webb and Jean Baptiste Delorey.

Lieutenant Neil Robinson of the Loyal American Rangers received a grant of 500 acres of prime land on the west side of Harbour au Bouche on June 2, 1789. On August 7, 1794 as a resident of Montreal, he sold this land to a group of early Acadian settlors; Lazare Benoit, Georges Charpentier, Abraham Lavandier, Paul Lavandier, Paul Manette and Joseph Fougere.

Benjamin Elliott, a member of the Associated Departments of the British Army and Navy received a land grant of 400 acres on the far east side of Harbour au Bouche on September 27, 1791. Elliott settled in the town of Guysborough where he died on December 9, 1846 at 93 years of age. His former lands on the east side of the harbour were settled by Bellefontaines, Benoits and Busheys.

The circumstances that brought Jean Baptiste Melon and Marc Crispo to Havre Boucher in the 1790’s are less than clear. One possibility links their arrival with the return of fisheries merchant Charles Robbins from the Jersey Islands to Isle Madame in the 1790’s bringing a workforce of unmarried men which may have included Jean Baptiste Melon. Also during that same time period, Charles Robbins was trading with Basque fishing crews which may have included Marc Crispo who was seeking passage to the new world. In later years, the Mathe and DeGruchy families also travelled through the Isle of Jersey before relocating in the new world.

To deal with the provincial debt the Nova Scotia legislature passed a Poll Tax Act in 1791 which levied a capitation tax on all adult males. The amount of tax was based on a person’s employment and their ownership of cattle and sheep. The poll tax of 1794 revealed the following families as settlers in the area:

Many residents of Havre Boucher descend from these early settlers as is evidenced by surnames that persist to this day.

In the 1790’s the cultural barriers between the early Acadians and newly arriving Celtic immigrants resulted in a peaceful coexistence and occasional marriages. Michael Webb, an English sea captain sailing out of Massachusetts befriended the Daigle family and married their daughter Jeanette Francoise about 1791. In 1799, shortly after their arrival from Connecticut the McKeough family with roots in County Roscommon, Ireland acquired 550 acres of land from Jean Baptiste Coste and relocated from Lakevale near Antigonish to Little Tracadie (Linwood, NS). About 1851, the Corbett family with roots in County Tipperary, Ireland relocated from Malignant Cove, Antigonish County to Havre Boucher.

The descendancy charts on this website include a number of significant family relationships and surnames that may not have been included among the “Pioneer Families” but who nonetheless have and continue to contribute in a very meaningful way to the lifeblood of our community.

The sustenance of these early settlers and the economy of the area was very much rooted in the natural resources of the area for the entire 19th century. The nearby ocean provided an abundant fishery, crops were planted as the lands were cleared and cultivated and the bountiful forests provided wildlife for food and lumber for somewhat primitive homes and shipbuilding. Towards the mid nineteenth century, the industrious, hard working seafarers began venturing to and working on vessels sailing out of Gloucester, Massachusetts. This led to an outmigration in the later part of the nineteenth century that fractured many families as young men and women left Nova Scotia to work as labourers and domestics in the rapidly growing industrial economy in the Boston area. A second wave of outmigration occurred in the early twentieth century as many young men and women again left the area to work in the automotive plants of Michigan. Interspersed with this out migration was the loss of many brave young men in World War I and World War II. Through all of this family separation and hardship, the tight knit community fabric of Havre Boucher has prevailed.