Individual Details
Pierre Laverdure
(1600 - 1677)
Telegraph-Journal, Monday, August 8, 1994; p. A5
It was believed for a long time that this family originally came from Scotland. However, Father Clarence d'Entremont has established that this family is of French origin. The ancestor in Acadia, Pierre Laverdure, was a French Huguenot who went to England where he married an Englishwoman named Prescila Melanson.
Pierre Laverdure came to Acadia with Sir Thomas Temple during the English occupation. Two of his sons adopted their mother's surname, Melanson, and stayed in Acadia while a third, John, kept the surname Laverdure and moved to Boston.
After Acadia was returned to France following the treaty of Bréda, in 1667, the family settled in Boston with the exception of his two sons, Pierre and Charles Melanson who had married Acadians and converted to Roman Catholicism.
Pierre Melanson married Marie Mius d'Entremont and, along with Pierre Thériault, helped to found the settlement of Grand-Pré. The 1671 census describes him as a tailor but he refused to give his age and the number of his cattle.
Charles Melanson married Marie Dugas and settled at Port-Royal. The site of his establishment is well known and was studied by archeologists, during the 1980s. Charles Melanson was fairly well educated. In 1695, he wrote to the governor of Massachussets giving him information on French activities in Acadia. He also went regularly to Boston, possibly to visit his daughter, Marie, who lived there where she had married a French Huguenot, David Basset.
Three of Charles' letters to governor Stoughton are preserved in the Massachusetts archives.
Despite the family connections and collaboration with the Boston colonists, the British authorities deported the families of his grandsons and their descendants. They were shipped to several New England colonies as well as to prisons in the south of England.
After the 1764 peace treaty, several of the family members found a home in France (Belle-Île-en-mer) and in Louisiana. A certain number of Melanson families managed to escape their persecutors and found refuge in Quebec, particularly in the Trois-Rivières region. Several returned to Acadia and settled in northern New Brunswick and in the Baie-Sainte-Marie area of Nova Scotia.
Several descendants of the family left their mark in Acadian history, notably the Most Reverend Arthur Melanson who became the first archbishop of Moncton and who founded the teaching order of the Filles de Marie-de-l'Assomption.
Contributed by Fidele Theriault of Fredericton, New Brunswick.
It was believed for a long time that this family originally came from Scotland. However, Father Clarence d'Entremont has established that this family is of French origin. The ancestor in Acadia, Pierre Laverdure, was a French Huguenot who went to England where he married an Englishwoman named Prescila Melanson.
Pierre Laverdure came to Acadia with Sir Thomas Temple during the English occupation. Two of his sons adopted their mother's surname, Melanson, and stayed in Acadia while a third, John, kept the surname Laverdure and moved to Boston.
After Acadia was returned to France following the treaty of Bréda, in 1667, the family settled in Boston with the exception of his two sons, Pierre and Charles Melanson who had married Acadians and converted to Roman Catholicism.
Pierre Melanson married Marie Mius d'Entremont and, along with Pierre Thériault, helped to found the settlement of Grand-Pré. The 1671 census describes him as a tailor but he refused to give his age and the number of his cattle.
Charles Melanson married Marie Dugas and settled at Port-Royal. The site of his establishment is well known and was studied by archeologists, during the 1980s. Charles Melanson was fairly well educated. In 1695, he wrote to the governor of Massachussets giving him information on French activities in Acadia. He also went regularly to Boston, possibly to visit his daughter, Marie, who lived there where she had married a French Huguenot, David Basset.
Three of Charles' letters to governor Stoughton are preserved in the Massachusetts archives.
Despite the family connections and collaboration with the Boston colonists, the British authorities deported the families of his grandsons and their descendants. They were shipped to several New England colonies as well as to prisons in the south of England.
After the 1764 peace treaty, several of the family members found a home in France (Belle-Île-en-mer) and in Louisiana. A certain number of Melanson families managed to escape their persecutors and found refuge in Quebec, particularly in the Trois-Rivières region. Several returned to Acadia and settled in northern New Brunswick and in the Baie-Sainte-Marie area of Nova Scotia.
Several descendants of the family left their mark in Acadian history, notably the Most Reverend Arthur Melanson who became the first archbishop of Moncton and who founded the teaching order of the Filles de Marie-de-l'Assomption.
Contributed by Fidele Theriault of Fredericton, New Brunswick.
Events
| Birth | 1600 | La Rochelle, France |  | ||
| Marriage | Abt 1630 | Yorkshire, England - Priscilla Mellanson | |||
| Death | 1677 | Boston, Massachusetts |
Families
| Spouse | Priscilla Mellanson (1600 - 1691) |
| Child | John Laverdure ( - ) |
| Child | Pierre Melanson (1632 - ) |
| Child | Charles Melanson (1643 - 1700) |
Endnotes
1. Corrections & Additions to Arsenault's Histoire et Genealogy Des Acadiens.