11 The LeRoy -LeJeuen Family

The progenitor of the Acadian Roys who ended up in Louisiana was Jean Le Roy or Roy dit La Liberté, born at St.-Malo, France, in c1651, probably no kin to the other Roys and Le Roys of Acadia.  Jean dit La Liberté married Marie-Christine called Christine, Aubois, also called Hautbois and Dubois, a 21-year-old mixed-blood Mi'kmaq, in c1686 likely at Cap-Sable.

They had nine children, including four daughters who married into the Clémenceau, Comeau dit Grandjean, Girouard, Fontaine dit Beaulieu, and Trahan families.  Their four sons, all born at Port-Royal, created families of their own:

Oldest son Jean, fils, born in c1691, married first to Jeanne, daughter of Pierre Lejeune and Marie Thibodeau, at Grand-Pré in October 1712.  They had five children, including a son who married a Lejeune cousin, at Port-Orléans on Île Royale.  Jean, fils remarried to Françoise, daughter of Martin Corporon and Marie-Josèphe Viger, in c1743, in his early 50s.  Francoise gave him nine more children, including a son who married into the Minet family in Canada long after Le Grand Dérangement.  Jean, fils died at Champlain, present-day Québec Province, in April 1770, age 79.

François, born in c1692, married Marie, daughter of Barthélemy Bergeron dit d'Amboise and Geneviève Serreau de Saint-Aubin, at Annapolis Royal in January 1717.  Their son Abraham, born at Annapolis Royal in c1731, married cousin Anne Aubois at Annapolis Royal probably on the eve of Le Grand Dérangement and emigrated to Louisiana.

Philippe, born in c1696, married Cécile, daughter of Louis Mazerolle dit Saint-Louis and Geneviève Forest, at Grand-Pré in August 1718.  Philippe may have participated in the Acadian resistance against British rule during King George's War. Philippe died in 1763 during Le Grand Dérangement.
Youngest son René dit Renaud dit Potvin, born in August 1708, married Marie-Josèphe, daughter of Joseph Daigre and Madeleine Gautrot, probably at Annapolis Royal in c1743.  He moved to Île St.-Jean by the early 1750s, where one of his daughters was born.  He died at St.-François-du-Sud, present-day Québec Province, in January 1758 during Le Grand Dérangement.

[For more of this family in pre- and post-dispersal Acadia and Canada, see Book Three]
In 1755, descendants of Jean Roy dit La Liberté could be found at Annapolis Royal, Grand-Pré and Pigiguit in the Minas Basin, and on Île St.-Jean.
  

The LeJeuen Family

Le Jeune was born to a Huguenot family in Vitry-le-François in the region of Champagne, France in 1591, and converted to Roman Catholicism at the age of sixteen. Le Jeune received a thorough preparation for the Jesuit priesthood; he was a novice for two years between 1613 and 1615, and he was deeply influenced by his mentor Father Massé, whom he met at the collège Henri IV de La Flèche. During his studies, Le Jeune developed a keen interest in missions and became convinced that education was a key element in any successful attempt to spread Christianity. 

After finishing his philosophical studies Father Le Jeune was a teacher at the colleges in Rennes (1618–19) and Bourges (1619–22). 

In 1624, Le Jeune was ordained, and in 1632 he was named superior of the Jesuit mission in Canada. He had not requested the posting to New France, but accepted without complaint and embarked from Le Havre with two companions on 18 April 1632. It was a difficult voyage and the forty year old Le Jeune was terribly seasick. They arrived a Tadoussac on June 18, 1632.

Le Jeune's first year was spent in the French settlements. Perhaps best known for his work with the Native American population, Le Jeune displayed an eagerness for learning various Native American languages. His assignment was to translate the Scriptures. Sometimes he caught them "teaching him obscene words in place of the right ones." Among his most well-documented experiences are his travels during the winter of 1633-1634 among the Montagnais. During the trip he had to contend with the teasing and occasional hostility of the shaman, Carigonan. While his work during those six months did not result in mass conversions as he had hoped, his ethnographic account of the Montagnais and his personal anecdotes about the cold, hunger, and conflicts he encountered are recorded in Relations des Jésuites de la Nouvelle-France of 1634. E.F.K. Koemer suggests that Le Jeune's identification of a distinction between animate and inanimate nouns eventually assisted John Eliot in his gammar of the Natick language. 

In 1635 a Jesuit college was established in Quebec to educate French and Amerindian boys. That December he preached the sermon Samuel de Champlain's funeral. Le Jeune decided that in order to effectively carry out his apostolate, he needed to establish mission settlements, on the model of Jesuit missionary work in San Ignacio Miní in Misiones Argentina and bordering region of Paraguay, a hospital to care for the aged and the ill, and schools for educating the young. He wrote:

I believe that souls are all made of the same stock, and that they do not materially differ; Hence, these barbarians having well formed bodies, and organs well regulated and well arranged, their minds ought to work with ease. Education and instruction alone are lacking. 

Le Jeune found that devotional images helped a good deal in conveying ideas he was trying to express Religious processions had an important civic function. Le Jeune recorded a celebration held in Quebec in 1639 honoring the birth of Louis XIV. Along with fireworks and cannon salutes, a procession was held in conjunction with the Feast of the Assumption, in which the French and more than a hundred Indians, six of them dressed in sumptuous French royal garments, processed from the hospital, to the Ursuline convent, and finally to the Jesuit church. Prayers were said in both French and the local Indian language, and when the procession ended, the Governor provided a feast for all in attendance. The procession had become a centerpiece of the fragile multicultural community. 

Le Jeune encouraged the missionaries to learn the native languages.[1] In a 1637 letter he cautions all missionaries not to make the “savages” wait for them when embarking in the morning, to never show distaste for any of their customs, and to help out during portages, or over-land journeys, from one river to another. By 1639 there were less than 100 converts among the Hurons, who numbered several thousands. 

Le Jeune and his contemporaries did not limit their efforts in conversions and education to Native Americans. While there were fewer slaves in the French colonies than in the English and Spanish ones, Le Jeune's interactions with African slaves in Quebec set a key precedent that would inspire later generations of priests, teachers, activists, and abolitionists. Despite their imperialistic tendencies, Jesuit dogma viewed all people as equal before God and as having equal need for salvation. Thus, it was incumbent on the Church to provide for the intellectual and spiritual well-being of slaves.

Le Jeune himself adopted a very direct approach to this issue. As early as 1634, Le Jeune expressed enthusiasm because he found himself teaching African children the alphabet, and in Volume V of The Jesuit Relations he emphasized the need for Africans to gain sufficient learning and literacy so that they could demonstrate enough of an understanding of Catholic dogma to secure the rite of baptism.

Since Jesuits consistently emphasized the role of the intellect, it is logical that they advocated education for slaves throughout the colonies. Most of the priests' work was with slave children; unlike adults, they were granted time away from their masters for basic schooling, and since so much cultural disruption had already taken place, slave parents were not generally viewed as opponents to education in the same way that Native American parents were.

In their work with the children of colonists, slaves, and Native Americans, Le Jeune and his fellow Jesuits used the same sort of materials, such as a primer or hornbook that were used throughout the North American colonies. These materials transmitted traditional European cultural and religious beliefs while they encouraged literacy. Teaching the catechism, biblical passages, and religious stories was, the Jesuits believed, the primary role of literacy in New France.

Le Jeune remained the superior of the Jesuit mission until 1639 when he was replaced by Father Barthélemy Vimont, but he did not return to France until 1649. Upon his return, he served as the mission procurator of New France until 1662, only two years before his death.

The writings and experiences of Le Jeune and his fellow Jesuits are reflected in the Code Noir passed by France's King Louis XIV in 1685. This document outlined the rights of both slaves and their masters throughout the French colonies and notably advocated that slaves gain enough education that they would understand and embrace Catholicism. In fact, slave masters were required to offer access to baptism.

Le Jeune’s influence was not limited to Canadian territories or seventeenth century Jesuits; when the French settled Louisiana, there was a clear sense that literacy and religion were interconnected. Even after Louisiana became part of the United States, Catholic priests and laypersons continued to advocate for slave literacy. Indeed, the lack of formal education for slaves became a key factor in the Catholic Church’s later support of Abolitionism.

 

No doubt Le Jeune did a most worthy job, but how many of his family also came to Canada with him?

The Canadian records indicate that a Jeanne Jousseaume  arrived in Canada from the La Rochelle Region of France.

He was born on the Island of Saint-Pierre.

Portuguese João Álvares Fagundes landed on the islands on 21 October 1520. They were made a French possession in 1536 by Jacques Cartier on behalf of the King of France. Though already frequented by Mi'kmaq people and Basque and Breton fishermen, the islands were not permanently settled until the end of the 17th century: four permanent inhabitants were counted in 1670, and 22 in 1691

With France being allied with the Americans during the American Revolutionary War, Britain invaded and razed the colony in 1778, sending the entire population of 2,000 back to France. In 1793, the British landed in Saint-Pierre and, the following year, expelled the French population, and tried to install British settlers. The British colony was in turn sacked by French troops in 1796. The Treaty of Amiens of 1802 returned the islands to France, but Britain reoccupied them when hostilities recommenced the next year.

The Treaty of Paris (1814) gave them back to France, though Britain occupied them yet again during the Hundred Days War. France then reclaimed the then uninhabited islands in which all structures and buildings had been destroyed or fallen into disrepair. The islands were resettled in 1816. The settlers were mostly Basques, Bretons and Normans, who were joined by various other elements, particularly from the nearby island of Newfoundland. Only around the middle of the century did increased fishing bring a certain prosperity to the little colony

https://www.acadian.org/lejeune.html

....These headings make the intention of the compiler manifest; so far as he was concerned, all the people in this part of his census were French, while those in the other section were all Native Americans. This does not mean that none of the people in the French census had any Native blood, any more than it means that none of those in the Indian census (such as the Petitpas and Mius families at Musquodoboit) had any French blood. 

Regarding the people at La Hève, for example, the 1686 census shows that Martin Lejeune dit Briard’s first wife was a Native American, and consequently that the children of that marriage listed with him in the census in 1708 were of mixed heritage. But the fact remains that the census classifies these people as French. They were not "recorded in the Indian Census . . . in Indian settlements" as has been stated in a previous posting on this forum.

A second clarification regarding the 1708 census concerns that way in which the families at La Hève were grouped together. It is true as a general rule that the Acadians were a clannish people and that close neighbours in their communities were often also close relatives. But it is also true that the relationships among them could be complex. There are after all two sides to every family: the father’s and the mother’s, or the husband’s and the wife’s. The first five families listed in the census at La Hève appear to have been no exception, despite their relatively small numbers. As may be seen in looking at the census, Pierre Lejeune dit Briard’s household is followed by the family headed by his son-in-law Joseph Boutin. 

Then comes Martin Lejeune dit Briard, who has long been presumed to have been Pierre’s brother precisely because they appear in close proximity in this census, as well as in that of 1686. After Martin comes the household headed by Jean Gaudet, followed by that of René Labauve, Martin’s son-in-law. The appearance of Jean Gaudet in this grouping does justify the presumption that he must have been connected to at least one or another of the other families, and it is in fact known that he was, because it was his daughter who lived next door.

 She was Martin Lejeune’s second wife. It so happens that Jean Gaudet’s wife was Jeanne Lejeune dit Briard. If no relationship existed between Jeanne’s husband and any of the other families in this community, one might then be justified in presuming that there must have been a connection on her side to explain their presence there, but no such conclusion is necessitated here, because Jean Gaudet might be expected to have lived next door to his daughter, no matter who his wife was.

The fact that the presence of Jean Gaudet and Jeanne Lejeune dit Briard in the French community at La Hève can be explained by his connection to Martin Lejeune does not rule out the possibility that Jeanne could have been related to the other Lejeunes in the same community. Indeed, the fact that Jeanne was not just another Lejeune, but a Lejeune dit Briard, just as Pierre and Martin were, gives rise to a presumption that all three descended from a common ancestor from whom they derived their name, and consequently that all three were related through the male line, for it was normally only through the male line in French society that family names were passed down. This implies nothing with regard to their respective maternal ancestors, who might have been three different women. Additionally, it remains to be established in just what degree the three might have been related in the male line.

So whoever, was the brother or sister of whoever, is to be found somewhere in all the previous research.  However, they were the ancestors of both the Jessome and the Edwards families.  Francois LeJeuene the father of Modeste, mother of Mary Ann Edwards, was later called Paul Young.