When Claire Babin arrived in Louisiana from Maryland in 1768, it must have been such a foreign place for her. The land needed to be tamed and developed, and communities needed to be established. The land and climate were so different from that of Maryland where she had been exiled since 1755 from and her homeland of Nova Scotia. Louisiana is known for its sub-tropical environment with high humidity and temperatures reaching 80-95 degrees. It rains often, rivers flood, and crops are easily destroyed.
On the other hand, Acadians and Claire must have been hopeful as well as thankful for their new environment and home. In Louisiana, the Spanish government gave them land, tools, and other supplies to support the success of the Acadians colonization. They were in a land where they could practice their Catholic religion without harassment or fear. They were valued as people and not looked at with ridicule and scorn as they had been in Maryland. The Acadians could build a community again with their families and find success.
Claire’s father, Antoine Babin, died in Maryland before the family left for Louisiana requiring her mother, Catherine Landry, to lead their family to their new home in foreign soil as a single woman.[1] At about twenty-four years of age, Claire and her family made their way to Natchez, Louisiana (near present-day Vidalia, Louisiana), in February 1768. As a widow and head of household, her mother received six arpents of land.[2] Governor Antonio de Ulloa assigned this group of Acadians to the Fort of Saint Louis in Natchez to plant corn and wheat while the men would form a militia to defend the area. The second group of Acadians from Maryland were greatly disappointed that they would not be near the first group of Acadians from Maryland who arrived a few months earlier and who settled in Saint Gabriel, Louisiana. They were separated by more than a hundred miles. Joining the group to Natchez was Pierre Guidry and his wife, Marguerite Dupuis, and their one surviving child.[3] However, Marguerite and the child died soon after arriving in Natchez.[4]
Whether by choice or due to pressure upon Pierre (son of Augustin Guedry [sic] and Jeanne Hebert)[5]to marry again by family members and the Spanish government, Claire and Pierre married 23 January 1769.[6] Very likely, Claire and Pierre and her brother, Firman, and his soon to be wife, Bibian Braux, traveled by boat to Point Coupée, Louisiana, to marry as the marriages were recorded in the Point Coupée registers. However, it is possible that the priest went to Natchez. Firman and Augustin Landry witnessed Claire’s marriage. Pierre Guidry, Cecile Landry and Augustin Landry served as witnesses for Firman’s marriage on the same day.[7] (A photo view of the marriage contract can be found at https://www.acadianswerehere.org/acadians-in-port-tobacco.html.)
Governor Alexandro O’Reilly sent John Kelly and Edward Nugent to Attakapas and Opelousas, Louisiana, in 1769 to assess the Acadian situation. Kelly and Nugent reported to O’Reilly that the Acadians were farming and raising cattle. They had cleared land of trees and houses had been built. Between properties were prairies. Rice, corn, and sweet potatoes were being grown. The Acadians seemed content with their situation.[8]
Most likely Claire helped her family with the property that had been assigned to them by planting, tending crops, and tending to animals the first few years in Louisiana. After marriage to Pierre Guidry, her responsibilities would probably be the same, even while pregnant, but with the added chores of maintaining a household and feeding her growing family. Claire fulfilled her role of helping to build a community by giving birth to six sons who were born about every two years.
It is possible that Claire’s husband participated in the revolt to oust Governor Ulloa at Natchez in 1769. The revolt was led by French Creoles when Ullo imposed trade restrictions. Replaced by Governor O’ Reilly, the Acadians were allowed to leave Natchez. Pierre and Claire went south to Ascension, Louisiana, along with her mother and her brothers and sisters and their families. Claire’s first pregnancy came soon after her marriage. Her first son, recorded as Pierre in the 1770 census of Ascension was also known as David in other census records.[9] Olivier was born about two years later, then Joseph, probably named after Pierre’s brother.[10]
When the colonial states declared independence from Britain in 1776, Pierre moved the family west to Opelousas in St. Landry Parish, Louisiana. He served in the Opelousas Militia; however, he was recorded as being infirm on the muster roll of 15 April 1776, so he may not have participated in defense of the Spanish Outposts against British aggression during the American Revolutionary War.[11] His name is not on other muster rolls where the Opelousas militia supported the United States during the revolution.[12]
Jean Baptiste was born in the summer of 1776 and baptized in Opelousas.[13] In 1777, Claire and Pierre are recorded in the census with four sons, ten cattle and twelve horses.[14] At that time, 139 families were living in Opelousas. Hippolite would be born soon after.[15]
By 1780, Claire’s family began to see prosperity. They were living in Baillou Caranco (now an area of Lafayette, Louisiana). Their house, 20’ x 16’, was made of cypress wood and sat on twelve arpents of land. Twelve arpents of a cypress forest also belonged to them. Pierre had over 127 horned cattle, 16 horses, and 20 pigs. Paul Leger and Jean Savoy lived nearby.[16]
With five sons under the age of ten years and another child on the way, an enslaved 17-year-old mulatress, Marie Louise, probably helped Claire with the five children and household. The household inventory included two beds, plates, dishes and a table and two chairs.[17]
Claire attended the baptism of Marie Rose Savoy, the daughter of Jean Savoy (mentioned above) and Marguerite Boutin and served as the godmother on 28 November 1779 at St. Landry Catholic Church.[18] This church replaced the original building in 1775.
Unfortunately, Claire did not live a long life. After giving birth to her sixth son and child, she died, most likely due to complications, 19 June 1780.[19] She was probably 36 to 38 years old. Augustin, likely named for Pierre’s father, was baptized 23 July 1780 at five weeks old.[20]
Six months after Claire died, an inventory of the household and property was conducted.[21] The inventory listed very few personal items that belonged to Claire – a few handkerchiefs, two skirts, and three shirts but no jewelry, no sewing items, no spinning wheel. Could it be that the family was doing well enough that Claire did not have to sew or spin? It is possible that that there were other items that belonged to Claire that had been distributed to family and friends before the inventory took place. Perhaps more likely, Claire may not have had many personal items as the family focused on improving their property. Pierre married a third time, had twelve more children, and lived to be between 81 and 83 years of age.[22] When his third wife died, their estate was valued at over $100,000 in the early 1820s.[23]
Though Claire died young, she experienced the freedom of living in Louisiana and somewhat of a return of what life had been like in Nova Scotia for the Acadians be for the Grand Derangement. As one of the first Acadians in Louisiana, she contributed greatly to the increase in the Acadian population in Louisiana. Her six sons lived to adulthood and keeping with the family tradition of helping to build the commuity had at least forty-six children.[24]
[1] Catherine Babin is described as a widow with six children in a list of the Acadians receiving land “February 11, 1768 Distribution of Lands for the Acadian Families Who Are Destined for the Town of Saint Louis of Natchez” in Richard E. Chandler, “Notes and Documents Odyssey Continued: Acadians Arrive in Natchez,” Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association, Vol. 191, No. 4 (Autumn, 1978) pp. 446-463.
[2] An arpent is about an acre of land. Richard E. Chandler, “Notes and Documents Odyssey Continued: Acadians Arrive in Natchez,” Louisiana History: The Journal of the Louisiana Historical Association, Vol. 191, No. 4 (Autumn, 1978) pp. 446-463.
[3] Louisiana History: The Journal of Louisiana Historical Association, JSTOR, Richard E. Chandler, Notes and Documents Odyssey Continued: Acadians Arrive in Natchez; Vol. 191, No. 4 (Autumn, 1978) pp 446-463.
[4] Martin Guidry, “The Last Will and Testament of Pierre Guidry of St. Martin Parish, Louisiana (ca. 1741-1825),” Les Guédry et Petitpas d’Asteur Generations, 23:1 (Spring 2025), p. 34.
[5] St. Martin Parish, Louisiana, #543, Pierre Guidry, “U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1756-1984,” Ancestry.com; images 145-212 (https://www.ancestry.com/search/collections/9067/records/2427323 : accessed 6 February 2025). Martin Guidry, “The Last Will and Testament of Pierre Guidry of St. Martin Parish, Louisiana (ca. 1741-1825),” Les Guédry et Petitpas d’Asteur Generations, 23:1 (Spring 2025), p. 34.
[6] Emilie G. Leumas, Diocese of Baton Rouge Catholic Church Records Pointe Coupee Records 1722-1769 (Baton Rouge: Diocese of Baton Rouge, 2002), 1b:8.
[7] Emilie G. Leumas, Diocese of Baton Rouge Catholic Church Records Pointe Coupee Records 1722-1769 (Baton Rouge: Diocese of Baton Rouge, 2002), 1b:8.
[8] Winston DeVille, Opelousas the History of a French and Spanish Military Post in America 1716-1803 (Ville Platte, Louisiana, 1986).
[9] Robichaux, Albert J., Jr., Colonial Settlers Along Bayou Lafourche (Harvey, Louisiana), p. 7. In the 1770 census, the first child of Pierre and Claire is named “Pierre” but that name is not seen again until Pierre has a child with his third wife, Margueritte Miller, see Martin Guidry, “The Last Will and Testament of Pierre Guidry of St. Martin Parish, Louisiana (ca. 1741-1825),” Les Guédry et Petitpas d’Asteur Generations, 23:1 (Spring 2025), p. 33. In the 1777 census of Opelousas, a child by the name of David, age 7, is recorded as the oldest son of Pierre Guidry and Claire Babin. There is no child by the name of Pierre in that census; see Winston De Ville, Southwest Louisiana Families in 1777: Census Records of Attakapas and Opelousas Posts (Ville Platte, Louisiana, 1987), p. 26. A child 7 years old in 1777 would have been born in 1770, making it likely that David in the 1777 census is the child named Pierre in the 1770 census.
[10] Winston De Ville, Southwest Louisiana Families in 1777: Census Records of Attakapas and Opelousas Posts (Ville Platte, Louisiana, 1987).
[11] Kathryn Coombs, “Opelousas Militia 1776 Muster Roll, St. Landry Parish, Louisiana,” USGenWeb Archives(http://files.usgwarchives.net/la/state/military/amerrev/1776must.txt viewed 7 September 2025).
[12] John Francois, The March, (Lafayette, Louisiana: Attakapas Press, 1999) Appendix, pp.153-164.
[13] See Jean Baptiste’s baptism, Rev. Donald J. Hebert, Southwest Louisiana Records Church and Civil Records of Settlers 1756-1810 (Eunice, Louisiana), 1:254.
[14] Winston De Ville, Southwest Louisiana Families in 1777: Census Records of Attakapas and Opelousas Posts, (Ville Platte, Louisiana, 1987) citing Papeles Procedentes de Cuba, at the General Archives of the Indies in Seville, Spain; legajo 2358, folios 258-300, Family 113.
[15] Martin Guidry, “The Last Will and Testament of Pierre Guidry of St. Martin Parish, Louisiana (ca. 1741-1825),” Les Guédry et Petitpas d’Asteur Generations, 23:1 (Spring 2025), p. 33.
[16] Sindi Broussard Terrien, “Transcription and Translation of the Succession of Claire Babin Second Wife of Pierre Guidry of Opelousas, Louisiana,” Terrebone Life Lines, Vol 44, 1 (Spring/Summer 2025): p.31-35.
[17] Sindi Broussard Terrien, “Transcription and Translation of the Succession of Claire Babin Second Wife of Pierre Guidry of Opelousas, Louisiana,” Terrebone Life Lines, Vol 44, 1 (Spring/Summer 2025): p.31-35.
[18] Southwest Louisiana Records, 1750-1900: compact disk #101; Author: Donald J. Hébert (Rayne, LA: Hébert Publications, 2001); CD 101; Personal Copy. Savoie, Marie Rose (Jean & Marguerite Boutin) bt. 28 Nov. 1779 Spons: Bertrand Autret & Claire Babin. Fr. L.M. Grumeau (Opel. Ch.: v1-A, p.21).
[19] St. Landry Catholic Church (Opelousas, Louisiana), burial record, Folio OA, Page 8, Claire Babin femme — -uidry, 19 Jun 1780, image, supplied 28 January 2025 by from Diocese of Lafayette, Louisiana. (Image privately held by Sindi Broussard Terrien, Seekonk, Massachusetts, 5 February 2025. See also Rev. Donald J. Hebert, Southwest Louisiana Records Church and Civil Records of Settlers 1756-1810 (Eunice, Louisiana, 1974), 1:18.
[20] St. Landry Catholic Church (Opelousas, Louisiana), baptism, —tin Guidry (page is partially torn), Volume 1, Page 36, supplied 28 January 2025 by Diocese of Lafayette, Louisiana. (Image privately held by Sindi Broussard Terrien, Seekonk, Massachusetts). The description of the baptism in Donald J. Hébert, Southwest Louisiana Records, 1750-1900, compact disk (“SWLR CD”), (Rayne, LA: Hébert Publications, 2001; reprints by Claitor’s Publications) cites Augustin as being baptized at age five weeks and his father the widower of Claire Babin.
[21] P1985-112, Opelousas Post, St. Landry Parish: 1764-1785, Folder: Opel: 1781-131 January, courtesy of the Louisiana State Archives. The document was originally described as Opel:1781-131 Jan. 7 Succession of wife of Pierre Guedry (6), Winston De Ville and Elizabeth Becker Gianelloni, Calendar of Louisiana Colonial Documents published in 1964.
[22] Martin Guidry, “The Last Will and Testament of Pierre Guidry of St. Martin Parish, Louisiana (ca. 1741-1825),” Les Guédry et Petitpas d’Asteur Generations, 23:1 (Spring 2025), p. 34.
[23] “Public Auction of the Succession of Pierre Guedry of St. Martin Parish, Louisiana, 17-20 January 1826,” Les Guédry et Petitpas d’Asteur Generations, 23:2 (Summer 2025), pp.7-47.
[24] A name search on Southwest Louisiana Records compact disc, found the couple’s name as the paternal grandparents of forty-six children between 1797 and 1825. Southwest Louisiana Records, 1750-1900: compact disk #101; Author: Donald J. Hébert (Rayne, LA: Hébert Publications, 2001); CD 101; Personal Copy.