Marie Landry lived during a turbulent time in Acadia (now Nova Scotia). A few years before Marie was born France, England, the Dutch Republic, and Denmark signed the Treaty of Breda in 1667. The treaty returned Acadia to France once again. Territorial disputes arose between Acadia and New England in the ensuing years since boundaries were not delineated in the treaty.
Father Laurent Molin, parish priest of Port-Royal, conducted a census in 1671 which named the founding Acadian families. Though Marie’s family was not listed in the 1671 census of Port-Royal (now Annapolis Royal), her husband’s family was recorded. There was only one Dupuis family recorded. Martin Dupuis’s parents, Michel Dupuis and Marie Gauterot, were listed with two girls and two boys. Martin was six years old (born around 1665).[1]
If, indeed, Marie was Rene Landry and Marie Bernard’s daughter as discussed in the post of 1 April 2024, she was from a large family.[2] The family appeared for the first time in a census taken in 1678. Ten children were in the household in 1678 and twelve children were named in 1686.[3] Marie would have been a middle child.
Acadian families lived in villages of about eight to ten families near Port-Royal (now Annapolis Royal). Just under 400 people lived in the Port-Royal region in 1671. The small villages were widespread. Marie’s home was probably one or two rooms made of log and mud with a clay chimney. At bedtime, family members probably shared a bed with two or more people in each.
When Acadia and New England were not battling each other, they were illegally trading with each other. Acadians were dependent on goods from New England and New England traded for the abundant farm goods Acadians produced. New Englanders routinely attacked Acadian settlements destroying homes, livestock and farmlands during King Philip’s War between 1675 and 1677. As a little girl, Marie may have hidden in the woods with her family while New Englanders plundered their property. An older brother or sister may have held her tightly with a hand over her mouth stifling her cries so they could not be heard by the marauders.
England and France signed the Treaty of Whitehall in 1686 which stipulated that American colonies should be peaceful and remain neutral even though France and England were at war. This was the time in history when King James II attempted to bring Catholicism back to England. But the neutrality called for in the treaty was only words. The relationship between New England and Native Peoples was, and, in turn, the relationship with Acadia.
Another census was taken in 1686 by Monsieur De Meulles, Intendant of New France (now Canada). He visited each habitation in Beaubassin, Riviere St. Jean, Port-Royal, and other Acadian colonies. That census recorded four Landry families and one Dupuis family in Port-Royal. There was a sixteen-year-old Marie in the house of Rene Landry and Marie Bernard with eleven other children, more than likely our Marie Landry. In the Dupuis household, Martin was recorded as twenty-one years old.[4]
Marie and Martin married around 1686. Acadians began migrating to the Minas Basin area in 1682 and the newlyweds made their way there. Martin most likely took part in building dykes to convert the marshland to farmland. Like most Acadian women, Marie probably spun wool and linen to weave into cloth, tended to a kitchen garden, and took care of the many children Acadian women tended to have.
The Salem witch trials took place between 1692 and 1693 over 400 miles from Minas Basin, but illegal trading between Massachusetts and Acadia could have brought the news to Acadia. Marie was about twenty years old with several children at that time. It is probable Marie would have heard about the hysteria and doubtless would have turned to her Catholic faith and said numerous Rosaries to ward off the evil happenings.
Marrying at around sixteen years old gave Marie twenty-five years to bear children. Her first child, Jean, was born around 1687[5] and her last known child, Charles, was born in 1712.[6] When Joseph was born in 1708, Marie named his brother and sister, Antoine and Marie Josephe as godparents.[7] Marie again named her older children Germain and Isabelle as the godparents of her daughter Henriette in 1710.[8]
By 1701, Marie and Martin made a life on Riviere Des Gaspartos (the Gaspereau River is a river in Kings County, Nova Scotia) in the Minas Basin area near Grand-Pre.[9] Marie was the mother of three boys and four girls. They were living on four arpents of land with 15 cattle, 15 sheep, 15 hogs and one gun. Living nearby were two Gautrot families (both head of households named Claude and probable kinsmen of Martin’s mother). The family of Michel Hebert was also nearby. Though only five families lived in this area, there were ten boys and eighteen girls between them.[10]
Acadian wives were known to travel by canoe. If the Dupuis family had a canoe, Marie may have use it to take a basket of food when she visited a nearby neighbor.
The year 1713 was momentous for Acadia and Marie. Through the Treaty of Utrecht, Acadia was handed to Britain for the last time. The Catholic church in Port-Royal was burned by raiding New Englanders. After the church burned, more than likely, Marie Landry and her family went to Mass in simple wooden church with a straw roof.
The Acadians were required to take an oath of allegiance to England. Some Acadians signed a conditional oath of allegiance which meant the Acadians would not take up arms against the French and Mi’kmaq. The Acadians were afraid of being denied the right to practice their Catholic religion. Many wanted to leave the region at that time to return to France or relocate to Île-Royale, but the English would not allow it. They feared the Acadians would become a threat in Île-Royale. Additionally, the English needed the Acadians in the area to farm the land to supply food for the English troops.
Marie’s oldest child Jean married Marguerite Richard in January 1713;[11] but by August, Marie’s husband Martin would be dead. He was about forty-seven years old. He was buried in the cemetery at St. Charles Aux Mines.[12] Marie had to take care of at least four children under the age of eight when Martin died. Marie was still living in Riviere Des Gaspartos in 1714.[13]
Marie’s son, Antoine, married Marguerite Babin in 1712.[14] Two daughters married in 1714; Isabelle married Martin Blanchard[15] and Marguerite married Claude Babin, the brother of Marguerite Babin who married Antoine. In 1718, Marie’s daughter Anne married Joseph Blanchard, brother of Martin, Isabelle’s husband.[16]
Jean, Antoine, and Joseph signed their names when they married suggesting that Marie and Martin were able to educate their children to a certain degree. But the younger boys, Charles and Germain, probably did not have the opportunity for an education after their father’s death as they signed with a marque.[17]
(https://novascotia.ca/archives/acadian/archives.asp?ID=1291).
Between 1730 and 1740, Acadia experienced prosperity. Marie had many grandchildren and the Acadian population increased due to the high fertility rate and low infant mortality rate. All were healthy. They had a diverse diet. During this time, there was little exposure to smallpox and other diseases. Thirty-eight years after her husband’s death, at the age of 78, Marie Landry died and was buried in the cemetery at St. Charles Aux Mines 20 Sep 1746.[18]
[1] “1671,” acadian-home.org, Michel Dupont (Dupuis), farmer, 37, (http://www.acadian-home.org/census1671.html : viewed 20 March 2024).
[2] Marie’s parents were identified as Rene Landry and Marie Bernard when Acadians in Bel-Isle-en-Mer were ordered to recite their family genealogy back to their origins in France. See testimony of Laurent Babin. Brother Jerôme Lepré, S.C., “Declarations of Bel-Isle-en-Mer,” (http://www.acadian-home.org/declarations-BIM.html : viewed 25 May 2024).
[3] “1678,” Rene Landry Marie Bernard and Rene Landry & Perrine Bourg entries, Acadian & French Canadian Ancestral Home, acadian-home.org, (http://www.acadian-home.org/census1678.html : viewed 20 March 2024). Also, “1686,” acadian-home.org, Rene Landry, 52 (http://www.acadian-home.org/census1686.html : viewed 1 April 2024).
[4] “1686,” acadian-home.org, Michel Dupuis 57 (http://www.acadian-home.org/census1686.html : viewed 1 April 2024).
[5] “1693 Acadian Census,” Acadian-Cajun Genealogy & History, Martin Dupuis 27, Marie Landry 22, Jean 6, Antoine 5, Germain 4, Marie Josephe 1; 8 cattle, 4 sheep, 6 pigs 5.5 arpents 1 gun. (https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~acadiancajun/genealogy/1693cens.htm : viewed 25 May 2024).
[6] Fonds de la paroisse catholique Saint-Charles-des-Mines (Grand-Pré, N.-É.), digital images, Canadiana Héritage, Genealogy collection, Library and Archives Canada, reel C-1869, Image 75, Charles Dupuis, (https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_c1869/75 : accessed 1 Sep 2021). This register is a transcript produced around 1895 from the original registers currently held at the Baton Rouge Diocese Archives in Louisiana, USA.
[7] Fonds de la paroisse catholique Saint-Charles-des-Mines (Grand-Pré, N.-É.), digital images, Canadiana Héritage, Genealogy collection, Library and Archives Canada, reel C-1869, Image 19, Joseph Dupuis, (https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_c1869/19 : viewed 25 May 2024.)
[8] Fonds de la paroisse catholique Saint-Charles-des-Mines (Grand-Pré, N.-É.), digital images, Canadiana Héritage, Genealogy collection, Library and Archives Canada, reel C-1869, Images 49 and 50, Henriette Dupuis, (https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_c1869/49 : viewed 25 May 2024).
[9] “Census of the Colonies Established in the Province of Acadia, 1701,” Acadian & French Canadian Ancestral Home, (http://www.acadian-home.org/census1701.html : viewed 25 May 2024).
[10] https://freepages.rootsweb.com/~acadiancajun/genealogy/1701cens.htm
[11] An Acadian Parish Remembered The Registers of St. Jean-Baptiste, Annapolis Royal, 1702-1755 Jean Dupuis and Marguerite Richard marriage RG 1 volume 26 page 306, Nova Scotia Archives,
(https://novascotia.ca/archives/acadian/archives.asp?ID=1291 : viewed 25 May 2024).
[12] Una F. Daigre, Archivist, Diocese of Baton Rouge Catholic Church Records Acadian Records, 1707-1748 (Baton Rouge, LA, Dioceses of Baton Rouge, 1999), Volume 1a (Revised) p. 70; see also Fonds de la paroisse catholique Saint-Charles-des-Mines (Grand-Pré, N.-É.), digital images, Canadiana Héritage, Genealogy collection, Library and Archives Canada, reel C-1869, Image 826, (https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_c1869/826 : viewed 25 May 2024).
[13] “Census of the Inhabitants of Port-Royal With Their Families in the Present Year 1714,” The Widow Dupuis, Acadian & French Canadian Ancestral Home, Acadian-Home.org (http://www.acadian-home.org/census1714.html : viewed 25 May 2024).
[14] Fonds de la paroisse catholique Saint-Charles-des-Mines (Grand-Pré, N.-É.), digital images, Canadiana Héritage, Genealogy collection, Library and Archives Canada, reel C-1869, Image 560, Antoine Dupuis & Marguerite Babin, (https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_c1869/560 : viewed 25 May 2024).
[15] Paroisse de St. Charles des Mines, Grand Pré, Acadie, Québec Province, digital images, Héritage, Genealogy collection, Library and Archives Canada, reel C-1869, Parish Registers: Nova Scotia : C-1869, roll 1, Image 573 (https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_c1869/573 : viewed 25 May 2024). This register is a transcript written around 1895 of the original registers currently held at the Baton Rouge Diocese Archives in Louisiana, USA.
[16] Una F. Daigre, Diocese of Baton Rouge Catholic Church Records Acadian Records, 1707-1748 (Baton Rouge, LA, Dioceses of Baton Rouge, 1999) Volume 1a (Revised) p. 67.
[17] Canadiana Heritage, Canadiana, Library and Archives Canada, Fonds de la paroisse catholique Saint-Charles-des-Mines (Grand-Pré, N.-É.) – 1869; Canadiana, Heritage, Parish registers: Nova Scotia : C-1869 (Image 692): https://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_c1869/692?r=0&s=4.
[18] Una F. Daigre, Archivist, Diocese of Baton Rouge Catholic Church Records Acadian Records, 1707-1748 (Baton Rouge, LA, Dioceses of Baton Rouge, 1999), Volume 1a (Revised) p. 115.