Part #1, Book #2: AwakeningGO TO CHAPTER 6

^{FN1 Ch6} An exception is to made for a few families of British officers, mostly at Annapolis Royal.

^{FN2 Ch6} For a more extensive treatment, see my earlier work The Deportation of the Acadians and The Second Siege of Louisbourg.

^{FN3 Ch6} June 26th, 1764, Charles Morris reported that there are "about 18 families of Acadians live here [Halifax] who follow the fishery ... employed by the merchants of Halifax."

^{FN4 Ch6} Beamish Murdoch, History of Nova Scotia (1865), vol. 2, p. 440. Arthur Eaton echoes these figures [History of the County of Kings (1910), p. 54]. I am not sure how Murdoch (a fairly careful historian) came up with these numbers? He says, for example, 77 families consisting of 227 persons: in a contemporaneous report of Isaac Deschamps, dated 19th March, 1764 at Fort Edward, as set out on the Federal Archives Report of 1906 (CAR-1906), vol. II (Ottawa: S.E. Dawson, 1906) at p. 264, we see that the numbers of "Acadian prisoners and who are victualled at Fort Edward between June 13th, 1763, and 18th March, 1764, average 343."

^{FN5 Ch6} The letter from Governor Wilmot to Lord Halifax is set out in Selections From The Public Documents; Akins, ed.; (Halifax: Charles Annands, 1869) at pp. 350-1. It is a letter that speaks volumes about Governor Wilmot. I think it is important to note at this point that not all the British commanders were so bloody minded, for example there was Jeffery Amherst, who, compared to many of his subordinate officers was full of sweet reasonableness. In a letter to Jonathan Belcher, dated at New York, 22nd March, 1761, Amherst was to write, "I [Amherst] do not see that we have anything to fear or apprehend from those Acadians, but on the contrary that great advantages might be reapt in employing them properly ..." (Ibid. at p. 326.)

^{FN6 Ch6} The Ducet family, see "The Doucets of St. Mary's Bay ..." by Neil J. Boucher as found in Nova Scotia Historical Review (NSHR), Volume #5, No. 1 (1985).

^{FN7 Ch6} Murdoch, op. cit., vol.2, p. 503 & p. 546.

^{FN8 Ch6} Haliburton, History of Nova Scotia (1829), vol. 2, at p. 172. That by and large the original settlers of Clare were Acadian, there can be little doubt. What I have not been able to discover is where they had been located between that fifteen year period between 1755 and 1770. I have no definite answers. I suspect, that for the most part, they were from that remnant (1,200) which had managed to hang on in Nova Scotia. I do not believe that any -- maybe a few -- of the deported Acadians ever made there way back into the province. For the most part, I suspect, the Acadians in Clare can trace their lineage back to the Acadians, who, originally, were located along the Annapolis River. For example there was Hilarion Theriault who died in 1821. He came to Clare with the original settlers. He was born on a farm which his family had worked, prior to the deportation of 1755, near present day Bridgetown. It is to be remembered too, that certain of the French families along the French Shore, are not, strictly speaking, Acadian; but rather are traced back to French settlers that arrived in southwest Nova Scotia during the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars, for example, the Blinn family.
One of my readers advises that a number of the very earliest settlers had spent time in New England before arriving in Clare. To support this proposition there is reference to Abbé Bailly. Bailly was a Catholic priest who paid a visit to Clare during September of 1769. Father Bailly administered a number of baptisms to older children who he noted in his journal had been born in New England.
“On the eighth of September 1769 we supplied the ceremonies of holy baptism, at the Baye-Sainte-Marie, to those named below, all the issue of legitimate marriages, for the most part born in New England, and “ondoyes” [privately baptized] on the day of their birth.” Also, it was pointed out, that Father Bailly administered to other Acadians in the province but it was only at Clare and those at Cap-de-Sable (which he visited just before coming to Clare) where most of the children he baptized (older than two years) had been born in New England.