Near the end of the second French and Indian War, the French Colony of Acadia (Acadie) fell to the British, who renamed the colony Nova Scotia. The colonists agreed to neutrality but refused to sign an oath of loyalty. Forty years later when war broke out yet again (known today in the U.S. as “The French and Indian War”) this lack of allegiance became intolerable to the British. Thus began the tragic Expulsion of the Acadians (Le Grand Dérangement) from Nova Scotia.1
One family caught in this mass deportation were the Heberts2 of Grand Pre. The first wave of expulsion dispersed Acadians across the other British colonies. The Heberts, deprived of most of their possessions, were forced to go to Guilford, Connecticut, where they faced different religion, language, and customs. Among the children was 13 year old Anastasie.3 The exiled family stayed in Guilford for many years. Anastasie married a Guilford man, John Smith, at age 26. Her parents finally migrated about 1772 to La Prairie, Canada, an area where other Acadians had moved.4 John and Anastasie would also migrate to La Prairie, around 1889. Their oldest daughter, Cecile, married Louis-Marie Remillard, who was Louisa Remillard’s great-grandfather.5
After the British captured Quebec City in 1759 and Montreal in 1760 during the French and Indian War (Seven Years’ War in Europe, or War of Conquest in French Canada), French control of Canada ended. French-Canadians were no longer French, but British subjects. However, the change in leadership did not affect the lives of the French-speaking peasantry. The British kept the French civil laws in place, including the seigneurial system.
Meanwhile, migrant pioneer Jean Gagnon’s great-great grandson, Pierre Gagnon, moved upriver to La Prairie, south of Montreal, where he married Marie-Anne Longtin to start a new life. Their son, Lucien (Julien) Gagnon, would play another notable role in Canadian history.
The Seigneurial System
Land ownership in New France wasn’t as simple as it is today in Canada or the U.S. Technically speaking, the king owned all the land, but in effect sections of land, seigneuries (fiefs), were held by nobles, clergy, or other people of privilege – the landlords. The “habitants” (or “censitaires,” the tenents) of the land, as the tenants were called, would buy a farm-sized piece of the seigneury but would still have to pay rents and various fees to the seigneur.
In New France the land was granted to the company which had the monopoly on the fur trade. The company in turn granted seigneuries for valuable services. For example, Robert Giffard obtained his seigneury as payment for recruiting colonists. Military officers were also given seigneuries for their service.
Because access to a river was vital for transportation, the farm divisions of the seigneuries were usually long and narrow. Typically, habitant parcels were ten times longer than the frontage width.
Few if any habitants complained about the seigneurial system. After all, it was not unlike the system in place in France, which had its roots in the middle ages. But as land became more scarce and farms were divided between surviving children, this vestige of the feudal system would become onerous for the peasant class.
1French Acadians (Acadiens) were widely dispersed. The best known are those who made their way to Louisiana, now called Cajuns (an alteration of Acadians).
2See Charts R5, R14.
3See Charts R1, R5.
4The community of L’Acadie, south of Montreal, was formed by the Acadian refugees. It is now part of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec.
5See Chart R1.
Gagnon Family History 