Marguerite Martin Robichot Borda

My Seventh Great-Grandmother

Probable daughter of Ambroise Martin dit Barnabe and Anne Cyr^[1]“Ambroise Martin (1706),” WikiTree (https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Martin-75 : viewed 9 May 2022).

First husband René Robichot (Robichaud) 

Second husband Antoine Borda 

Mother of Magdelene Robichot (abt. 1755), Genevieve Robichot (about 1759) and male Robichot (unknown); children with second husband:  Scholastique Borda (1770), Modeste Borda (1772), Marie Marthe Borda (abt. 1774)^[2]Sindi Broussard Terrien, “Carrow-Walker Family Tree,” Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/family-tree/person/tree/76901568/person/46353451849/facts : viewed 20 May 2022), Marguerite … Continue reading

Marguerite, what a strong woman you were! As an Acadian wife and mother during the years of “the great expulsion” you experienced upheaval time after time. Keeping your children fed, clothed, and housed during this time while your husband was a prisoner could not have been easy. In reality, all of you were prisoners. Which of these phrases would you describe the expulsion? Great Upheaval, Great Expulsion, Le Grand Dérangement, Great Deportation. 

Very little is known about Marguerite’s childhood. It is thought that Ambroise Martin dit Barnabe was her father and Anne Cyr was her mother and she was a native of Beaubassin, Nova Scotia. Her baptism was 26 March 1733.^[3]Registres de Beaubassin, Fonds des Archives départementales de la Charente-Maritime [La Rochelle, France] : C-1207, Canadiana; digital image … Continue reading After the death of her mother, her father married Émilienne Comeau and fathered more children.^[4]“Ambroise Martin (1706),” WikiTree (https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Martin-75 : viewed 9 May 2022).  Before 1752, the family traveled from Beaubassin to Isle St. Jean and Marguerite’s stepmother had passed. When Marguerite was nineteen, she was with her father in Malpec on Isle St. Jean along with her two brothers, five half-brothers and a half-sister.^[5]“Tour of Inspection Undertaken by Le Sieur De La Roque,” Report Concerning Canadian Archives for the Year 1905, 2 (1906), Ambroise Barnabé, p. 155; digital … Continue reading Most likely Marguerite was acting as the mother and housekeeper. Between 1749 and 1752, Marguerite’s family may have experienced three years of agricultural disasters. One year field mice ate most of the crops, the next year locust ruined the crops, and the third year, the wheat scald (a windborne fungus) destroyed the wheat. Food was scarce on Isle St. Jean.^[6]“Tour of Inspection Undertaken by Le Sieur De La Roque,” Report Concerning Canadian Archives for the Year 1905, 2 (1906); Ambroise Barnabé, p. 151; digital … Continue reading 

René Robichot (son of Jean Robichot and Marie Leger) also lived on Isle St. Jean but in Bedec, south of  Malpec.^[7]“Tour of Inspection Undertaken by Le Sieur De La Roque,” Report Concerning Canadian Archives for the Year 1905, 2 (1906) p. 159-160; digital … Continue reading René Robichot and Marguerite Martin were not married when the 1752 census on Ilse St. Jean took place. Each were living with parents.^[8]“Tour of Inspection Undertaken by Le Sieur De La Roque,” Report Concerning Canadian Archives for the Year 1905, 2 (1906), Ambroise Barnabé, p. 155 and Jean Robichaud dit Cadet, … Continue reading Soon Marguerite would find that her family would be moving great distances to escape the British. Was her husband one of the men who participated in raiding the British at Fort Edward between 1756 and 1757 for food, supplies and ammunition. 

Marguerite and her family most likely left Isle St. Jean around 1758 when Louisbourg fell to the English to take refuge in Restigouche (now near Campbellton, New Brunswick). They were recorded as being in Restigouch in 1760 but then moved onto Nipisiguit (now Bathurst) in 1761.^[9]Ronnie-Gilles LeBlanc, List of Acadian Families & Individuals at Halifax between 1759 & 1764 (Rootsweb.com), Rootsweb.com, List of Acadian Families & Individuals at Halifax between … Continue reading Hopefully, they were not with the Acadians who experienced starvation to the point where people had to eat animal hides and their moccasins. They continued to flee the British, but the British found the Acadians and sent them to Ft. Edward in Halifax in 1762.  René Robichot and his family of five were listed as prisoners on 2 July 1762 and 9 August 1762.^[10]Isaac Deschamps, List of French prisoners at Fort Edward, Windsor, Nova Scotia with the number in each family and numbers victualled, Nova Scotia Archives, Isaac Deschamps Nova Scotia Archives … Continue reading A year later, the family were still prisoners in Halifax. René Robichot was with his wife and four children.^[11]Ronnie-Gilles LeBlanc, List of Acadian Families & Individuals at Halifax between 1759 & 1764 (Rootsweb.com), Rootsweb.com, List of Acadian Families & Individuals at Halifax between … Continue reading Were all four children Marguerite’s or had they adopted orphans that needed someone to care for them? 

René Robichot may have known Joseph Beausoleil Broussard before the expulsions began or maybe he knew Alexander Broussard while were prisoners together in Halifax. It is possible that René was part of the Acadian resistance but there is no proof. Nevertheless, Marguerite’s family sailed with the Joseph Beausoleil Broussard contingency to find a new home. They arrived in Louisiana in a wearied state in 1765. At that time, her family consisted of her husband René Robichot and two daughters and maybe a son. Some of her siblings and cousins also were on the ship. Leaving Halifax, the Broussard contingency were originally destined for Saint Domingue (now Haiti) but conditions there were so poor, they changed ships and stopped in New Orleans expecting to continue on to Illinois. 

The Acadians decided to stay in Louisiana and take advantage of Spain’s offer of land and supplies. They traveled to the Attakapas area (around St. Martinville) in May 1765. Many of the Acadians contracted either smallpox, typhus, yellow fever, or some other deadly disease. Marguerite’s husband died 2 August 1765 a few weeks before Joseph Broussard and his brother Alexander Broussard. She also may have had a son who died in the epidemics. 

What a difference Louisiana was from L’Acadie. The weather was very hot and humid compared to the cooler weather of Nova Scotia. The  swampy insect infested land of Louisiana needed to be cultivated, much like Nova Scotia had been tamed by Acadian forebears 100 years earlier. New ways of cooking had to be learned. Different crops had to be planted and farming in Louisiana was much different than farming in Nova Scotia. Weather patterns and growing seasons were very different. 

As head of her household, Marguerite settled in the La Manque area of the Attakapas District in 1766.^[12]Donald J. Arceneaux, “The Initial Acadian Settlement: A New Look at the Initial Acadian Settlement Location in the Attakapas,” Attakapas Gazette, Vol.3, 2014; digital image … Continue reading Marguerite Martin married a second time to Antoine Borda, a surgeon and native of Chateaudun, France. Antoine was not an Acadian but probably a member of the French Army.^[13]See source 5 “Antoine Borda (abt. 1720 – bef. 1783),” WikiTree (https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Borda-24 : viewed 17 May 2022).  They married on 31 October 1767. Witnesses were Claude Martin, a relative, and Antoine Espagniol.^[14]Winston DeVille et al, Marriage Contracts of the Attakapas Post 1760-1803 (St. Martinville, Louisiana: Attakapas Historical Association, 1966), 5:5. The marriage … Continue reading

By 1771, Marguerite, her two daughters from her first marriage, Magdelene and Genevieve, were living on land in Attakapas Post with her new family. She also had two more daughters, Scholastique and Modeste, who were ages one and two with Antoine Borda. Her husband was responsible for eighteen cattle and seven horses, and they were on twelve arpents of land without title.^[15]Winston De Ville, Attakapas Post: The Census of 1771 (Ville Platte, Louisiana,1986), p. 13.

To view Spanish land grants issued to Acadian exiles at Fausse Pointe, go to https://louisianadigitallibrary.org/islandora/object/ull-lsa%3A351. One grant could have been Antoine Borda's but his name may have been spelled differently.

When daughter Modeste was baptized in 1772, Marguerite chose her eldest daughter Magdelene, to serve as godmother of her younger sister.^[16]Catholic Church, Saint Martin (Saint Martinsville, Louisiana) Parish registers, 1756-1794 (M.G. 8, G 16, Vol. 2) p. 16, FamilySearch.org; digital image 498 of 532 … Continue reading One more child was born to Marguerite and Antoine, Marie Martha.^[17]Rev. Donald J. Hebert, Southwest Louisiana Records (Eunice, Louisiana, Rev. Donald J. Hebert, 1974), 1:60.  The 1774 Census of Attakapas Post records five children living with Marguerite and her second husband.^[18]Winston DeVille et al, Marriage Contracts of the Attakapas Post 1760-1803 (St. Martinville, Louisiana, Attakapas Historical Association, 1966).  At that time, Marguerite was known to have five daughters and of those five, Magdelene was married and recorded as living with her husband. Jean-Charles Hebert.^[19]Winston DeVille et al, Marriage Contracts of the Attakapas Post 1760-1803 (St. Martinville, Louisiana, Attakapas Historical Association, 1966). Therefore, only four daughters should have been living with Marguerite but who was the other child? It has been said by one of Marguerite’s grandchildren that Marguerite had adopted Emmeline Labiche, whose story inspired Longfellow to write Evangeline.^[20]For an explanation of of the relationship of Marguerite Robichot to Felix Voohries, see Stanley LeBlanc, “The Genealogy of Acadian Reminiscences,” The Attakapas … Continue reading There is no evidence that this is true, but could she have been the fourth child who was living with Marguerite in 1774?

Sometime in the late 1770s, Marguerite became a widow once again. In the census and tax list of “Attacapas” in 1781 she was cited as “Widow Borda” with four individuals. She had ten arpents of land and thirty animals.  She is listed next to her son-in-law Jean Charles Hebert.^[21]1781 Census Atacapas Territory, Acadian-home.org (http://www.gladysdevilliers.acadian-home.org/frames.html : viewed 13 May 2022).

Marguerite, though you suffered the death of your first husband and son after arriving in Louisiana, like Job, you received many blessings. You, Magdelene and Genevieve survived the expulsion and the journey to Louisiana. Your daughters married and had many children. With your second husband, you had three more daughters, land and animals and met with some success. Through your daughter Marie Marthe Borda who married Jean Mouton, you were the grandmother and great-grandmother of several descendants who held prominent government positions in Louisiana. Church records say you died at 104 years old, at a time when the average person in Louisiana lived to forty-eight. More than likely, you were closer to ninety, but you lived a very full life. Oh, I hope you were happy! My dear Marguerite, my seventh great-grandmother, you lived a long, exciting, supremely productive and, we dare imagine, very happy life. 

Marguerite Martin died 12 February 1823 in Lafayette and was probably buried at St. John Cathedral.^[22]St. John’s Parish (Lafayette, Louisiana), FamilySearch, “Baptêmes, 1822-1882; mariages, 1829-1906; enterrements, 1824-1900 (Baptisms, 1822-1882; marriages, 1829-1906; deaths, … Continue reading