5. The Melancon Family

There is a lot of conjecture about the origins of the Melancon (Melanson) family. However the family were living in a French district of London in 1642, with the name Merazon. There are many who suggest that his wife was English. That is not proven, rather it is more probable that she was also French, and that they had some sort of relationship with Major Germaine Doucet.

One of the earliest relatives is Petri Merazon and his wife Priscillae. He was no doubt a French person, who lived in London in 1837. In all likelihood he lived in the Upper Brittany Region in France. The family name was most likely a derivative of Merazon. In 1670 Marie Marazin was born in Bourges, and many other family names of similar sounds can be sourced in the Berry region of France.

But Petri Merazon also called himself La Verdure. That has been translated into so many different derivatives. Petri married a lady by the name of Prescillae. She may also be a French person as well, or both may have lived in the Jersey Islands. In 1643, before the influx of the Hugeonites into London, there was quite a large number of French living in Long Acre South Street, near St Martin's in the Fields, in London. Three of his children were baptised at St. Martins, Carol, Katherine, Petrus. Petrus was baptised on two different dates.

Petrus Meranson was baptised 15th August 1637 at St Martin's in the Field. Then Petrus Moranzo, same parents was baptised 29th October 1637 at St Martin's in the Field. Daughter Carol Meranzon was baptised 14 December 1642, daughter Katarina Meranzo was baptised 19 April 1640.

Petri was living in London in 1842 in Long Acre South Street, where this record for Mesurs Lavondue, showed 4 shillings rent.

His name is perhaps Verdure. An Ann Verdure was married in London in 1664.

In London in 1654, lived Mousr Laverdue, and he was recorded in the London Rate Book as living at Long Acre South Street, St Martin in the Fields. In 1659 he went to Canada.

There are numerous theories about the original names of Petri and Priscillae. She was an English lady, according to some statements she gave. There seems to an assumption that her name was Mallison, or a derivative. But there are no birth, marriage or death records in England, which have been digitised to date, to confirm that theory. There are also records in the Berry Region of France for families of the name Malisson, Mailison and other derivatives.

Translation was very often the reason that names changed, and it was a time when surnames in England were recently introduced. Many families could not read and simply signed their names with a "X".

The family emigrated to Canada in 1658, on the same ship as the new Governor, Sir Thomas Temple.

In 1657 or 1658, Sir Thomas Temple came to Acadia aboard the Satisfaction. He was given the governorship by Commonwealth authority in 1657 (which was confirmed after the Restoration in 1662). His grant of Acadia came from Cromwell, and was shared by LaTour and William Crowne. LaTour soon sold his share and moved to Cap Sable to live out his days.

Temple kicked out some of LeBorgne’s men at LaHave in 1658 and some French fishermen at Port Rossignol in 1664. Temple established his presence at Rossignol and at Mirligueche (Lunenburg), but Temple's control of the colony probably only extended to the immediate neighbourhood of Port-Royal and a few other sites. Temple himself lived in Boston and seldom visited Acadia. [Clark, p. 107]

We find an Order of the Council of State (Apr. 14, 1657) that states:

A convoy to be provided for several ships bound to Newfoundland, and instructions given to the commander to make one of them ready with all speed to carry Col. Thomas Temple and his company to his plantation in Nova Scotia or Acadia, in order to his settling in the forts and government there, according to his patent and commission from his Highness. [Interregnum, Entry Bk., Vol. CV., p. 790]

Also, there is a message (Nov. 12, 1657) from Capt. Peter Butler of the Satisfaction to the Navy commanders.

After receiving Col. [Thos.] Temple and his company on board, sailed for Boston, New England, and then made for St. John's Fort and Port Royal, intending for Newfoundland; but meeting with violent storms, and getting short of provisions, returned for England; neither he nor his company are ashamed to speak of the goodness of the Lord in preserving them from such great dangers. [References. Vo. 174. 69]

Supposedly, there was a list of colonists of 1658 that was around in the 1950s, but it cannot be found. Dulong discusses the missing list at his Michel Forest webpage.

According to a document in the Boston archives, Pierre LaVerdure, his wife Priscilla Mellanson, and their sons may have been aboard that ship. Though the parents and possibly one son were thought to have moved on to New England, two of the sons ... Charles and Pierre ... stayed in Acadia.

They adopted their mother's name (Melancon/Melanson). When the Grand Pre area was settled, Pierre was a captain and a leader in that community. In fact, government orders were sent through him. Other settlers that may have settled in this period were Laurent Granger and Roger Caissy.

Pierre LaVerdure, no doubt the same Petri Merazon, or Monsig. Laverdue, was living in London, seemingly surrounded by other French families, and then he obtained the funds to pay for his passage to Canada, along with his family, and over time becomes a Captain and leader in the community.

How could he afford to pay, or how was he selected to emigrate from London? What connection may he have held with either merchants, who funded most of the shipping, and who owned the land, and employed the new settlers to work that land. Who funded the excursion?

None other than:

CROWNE (Crown), WILLIAM, colonizer, independent minister in the Parliament of Cromwell, colonel in the British militia, Rouge-Dragon; b. 1617 (nothing is known of his place of birth or of his education); d. 1682 in Boston, North America. In July 1644, Crowne was in London requesting more strength and money for Denbigh.

Four letters are known to have been sent out over his signature. In December 1649, he was acting as Humphrey Mackworth’s secretary. On 2 April 1650 he was granted a commission as captain of foot and on 19 April he became a lieutenant-colonel of foot for Shropshire, under Humphrey Mackworth.

He was an M.P. in 1654.

In the year 1656, Crowne tied up his fortune in a venture in the New World. He became joint proprietor, with Col. Thomas Temple, of Nova Scotia, by buying Charles de Saint-Étienne de La Tour’s patent as baronet of Nova Scotia. By this purchase, Crowne and Temple agreed to pay La Tour’s debt of £3,379 to the widow of Maj.-Gen. Edward Gibbons of Boston and Temple assumed the cost of the English troops which had earlier captured the fort on the Saint John River [see Sedgwick]. According to his statement of losses in about 1668, Crowne supplied the money and security for the purchase.

Col. Temple, Col. Crowne, his son John Crowne, and a group of settlers came to America in 1657. Crowne’s name first appears in the records of Suffolk County, Mass., in September 1657 on an agreement between Temple and Crowne to divide Acadia, Temple taking the eastern part and Crowne the western, including the fort of Pentagouet (now Castine, Maine). The articles of agreement were not signed until 15 Feb. 1657/58 when Governor Endicot and John Crowne witnessed them. Each party gave a bond of £20,000.

Mr William Crown was no doubt a very wealthy man, especially for a commissioned officer of a Foot Brigade.

Perhaps then, Petri LaVerdure, was related to Major Germain Doucet, Sieur de La Verdure, who was a French Commander in the colony of Arcadia. Was Petri a nephew? or a brother of Major Germain?

Was that the link or relationship that allowed him to be sent to Canada? Was Petri in exile in England, and when Major Germain Doucet was forced to leave Arcadia, after the English captured the French Fort of Port Royal, in 1654?

Germain Doucet, Sieur de La Verdure (born around 1595 near Couperans en Brye (most likely Coubron northeast of Paris, France) was a French commander in the French colony of Acadia.

Doucet's career began when he entered into an association with Charles de Menou d'Aulnay, noted seaman, captain, and future governor of Acadia. In 1632, he arrived in Acadia with the governor Isaac de Razilly. He served as master of arms of Fort Pentagouet (now Castine, Maine) as a major. After the death of d'Aulnay in 1650, Doucet became commandant serving at the French fort of Port Royal (now Annapolis Royal). Under Major General Robert Sedgwick, the English captured the fort on August 15, 1654.

Under the terms of the surrender, Doucet was forced to leave Acadia for good, and returned to France. Both his son Pierre, and his daughter Marguerite stayed behind, however. Pierre married, in 1660, Henriette Pelletret, by whom he had issue. Marguerite married Abraham Dugas. The name of Germain's wife is uncertain, although some genealogists suggest she may have been Marie Bourgeois

Battle of Port Royal (1654)

In 1654, Colonel Robert Sedgwick led a force to capture Port-Royal made up of one hundred New England volunteers and two hundred professional soldiers sent to New England by Oliver Cromwell, the first professional English soldiers sent to North America. Prior to the Battle, Sedgwick captured and plundered present day Castine, Maine and La Tour's fort at present day Saint John, New Brunswick. Sedgwick also took La Tour prisoner. The defenders of Port-Royal numbered only about 130. After resisting the English landings and defending the fort during a short siege, the outnumbered Acadians surrendered after negotiating terms that allowed French inhabitants who wished to remain to keep their property and religion.

Soldiers and officials were given transport to France while the majority of Port-Royal residents remained unharmed. However, in violation of the surrender terms, Sedgwick's men rampaged through the Port-Royal monastery, smashing windows, doors, paneling and even the floor boards before burning the monastery and the newly constructed Port Royal church. The English occupied Acadia for the next 16 years with a small garrison, leaving the Acadian residents mostly undisturbed.

The family have been attributed as being the first in the settlement to bring the name Melanson. However trying to tie that name in with Priscilla, is perhaps speculation.

Nothing is known of their two daughters, nor of the son Charles. The settlers in those times, had limited opportunities for marriage, and so many married into the same family lines. Perhaps Charles, was born in France, before the family left for England.

Major Doucet's daughter was Marguerite Doucet. She married Abraham Dugas. Their daughter was Marie Jeanne Dugas, and she married Charles Melanson.

Abraham Dugas, a skilled gunsmith perhaps from Chouppes, Poitiers, France, born in c1616, reached Acadia in c1640--among the early settlers of the colony. (There is genetic evidence that Abraham may have had Jewish ancestry, which would have made him unique among his fellow Acadians.) In October 1687, Abraham "made his mark on an attestation in favour of Governor d'Aulnay's accomplishments," which attests to his early presence in the colony. Abraham also was more than a gunsmith at Port-Royal.

According to a high French official, Abraham Dugas "carried out the functions of general representative of the King [in civil and criminal matters]," so he probably came from an influential family in France. Abraham married Marguerite, daughter of Germain Doucet, sieur de La Verdure, at Port-Royal in c1647. They had eight children, including three sons, all born at Port-Royal, who created families of their own. Abraham's five daughters married into the Melanson dit La Ramée, Bourgeois, Châtillon, Arseneau, and LeBlanc families. Abraham died at Port-Royal by 1700.

In December 1705, in order to increase the size of the fort at Port-Royal, colonial officials appropriated two lots "adjoining and drawing towards the old fort" that belonged to Abraham's heirs. Some of his children left Port-Royal and settled at Chignecto, Cap-Sable, Minas, and on Île Royale, today's Cape Breton Island.

Grand-Pré National Historic Site is a park set aside to commemorate the Grand-Pré area of Nova Scotia as a centre of Acadian settlement from 1682 to 1755, and the British deportation of the Acadians that happened during the French and Indian War. The original village of Grand Pré extended four kilometres along the ridge between present-day Wolfville and Hortonville. Grand-Pré is listed as a World Heritage Site and is the main component of two National Historic Sites of Canada. Grand-Pré (French for great meadow) is located on the shore of the Minas Basin, an area of tidal marshland, first settled about 1680 by Pierre Melanson dit La Verdure, his wife Marguerite Mius d'Entremont and their five young children who came from nearby Port-Royal which was the first capital of the French settlement of Acadia (Acadie in French).

Pierre Melanson and the Acadians who joined him in Grand-Pré built dykes there to hold back the tides along the Minas Basin. They created rich pastures for their animals and fertile fields for their crops. Grand-Pré became the bread basket of Acadia, soon outgrew Port-Royal, and by the mid-18th century was the largest of the numerous Acadian communities around the Bay of Fundy and the coastline of Nova Scotia (Latin for "New Scotland").

During Queen Anne's War, the Raid on Grand Pré (1704) happened and Major Benjamin Church burned the entire village. After the war, in 1713, part of Acadia became Nova Scotia, and Port-Royal, now called Annapolis Royal, became its capital. Over the next 40 years the Acadians refused to sign an unconditional oath of allegiance to the British crown. Some were motivated not to sign for fear of losing their religion, some were afraid of repercussions from their native allies, some did not want to take up arms against the French and others were anti-British (see Military history of the Acadians).

During the French and Indian War, the British sought to neutralize any military threat Acadians posed and to interrupt the vital supply lines Acadians provided to Louisbourg and the Mi'kmaq by deporting Acadians from Acadia.

After the Battle of Fort Beauséjour, the British began the removal of the Acadians. During the Bay of Fundy Campaign (1755), Lieutenant Colonel John Winslow arrived in Grand-Pré with troops on August 19, 1755 and took up headquarters in the church. Winslow also built a palisade, which was recently uncovered through archeological research. The men and boys of the area were ordered into the church on September 5. Winslow informed them that all but their personal goods were to be forfeited to the Crown and that they and their families were to be deported as soon as ships arrived to take them away. (At exactly the same time, the Acadians in the neighbouring village of Pisiguit were informed of the same declaration at Fort Edward.

Some of the French people living in London in the same street in 1657. There was a large French population in the vicinity of Trafalgur Square, St Martin's in the Field.

A Question to Pose about the Melancon Family

If there is a record for a Family Melanson, arriving in Arcadian Canada in 1636, on board the Saint-Jehan, where do all these other source records come from? The family were in England as children were born there, in 1640, and they were living in London.

Or are the source records completely incorrect, as it appears from these source notes.