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Untangling the Life of Madeleine Hélie (c1633-1677/1678) – 52 Ancestors #479

Madeleine, Madelaine, and sometimes called Magdelaine or Magdeleine Hélie, the wife of Philippe Mius d’Entremont, was born about 1633 in France, probably in Normandy. For consistency, I’ll refer to her as Madeleine. To confuse things further, she also had a daughter by the same name AND a daughter named Marguerite. Of course she did! To throw fuel on that fire, census takers were anything but accurate, omitting the exact information we need today.

Madeleine arrived in Acadia in 1651 with her husband and their first child, Marie Marguerite Mius, who was born about 1650, according to several later census records.

Based on the age of her daughter, Madeleine Hélie married Philippe Mius no later than 1649 or maybe in the first few months of 1650.

No record of their marriage, or either of their births, has been found in France, but two contemporaneous records state that they were from Normandy. One official record sent by Sieur Mathieu de Goutin, the King’s Secretary, in 1707 stated that Philippe Mius, from Normandy, had died in 1700. Another 1762 record created by their descendants who had been exiled and wound up in Cherbourg, Normandy, in 1760, stated the same, but unfortunately, neither record says where in Normandy.

I considered the possibility that they married earlier and lost a child or children before Marie Marguerite’s birth, but a 1678 census record indicating that Madeleine Hélie’s last child was born in 1677 tends to contraindicate that possibility. By 1677, she had been bearing children for 27 years. Assuming she was 44 or 45 in 1677, that suggests her birth around 1632 or 1633.

Given Philippe’s age in 1650, which, based on various documents, would have been between 41 and 50, so born between 1600 and 1609, it’s also possible, and I’d say probable, that Madeleine Hélie was not Philippe Mius’s first wife.

You can read more about Philippe Mius in the following articles:

Arriving in Acadia

Philippe Mius was brought to Acadia as the second-in-command to Acadian Governor Charles St. Etienne de LaTour, who was a Huguenot.

Philippe, Madeleine and their baby probably left from La Rochelle, which was the departure port for ships bound for Acadia.

As they sailed out of this harbour, shown here in a 1762 painting, Madeleine, about 18 with a small baby, probably shed a few tears. She knew she would never return and would never see her family again.

Or, perhaps she was too young to fully grasp the magnitude of what she was leaving behind and viewed it as a grand adventure.

The trip from La Rochelle to Acadia would have lasted approximately 6 weeks, give or take a few days or weeks, based on the weather the ship encountered.

Arrival in Acadia

We don’t know exactly where they first landed, but given that they had to pass right by La Heve, the original seat of Acadia, where a fort and a few families remained, it’s likely that they stopped there for a few days. At least for fresh water and food. Imagine how good fresh-baked bread or a hot, buttered biscuit would have tasted after all those weeks at sea.

This was probably where Madeleine first set foot in Acadia. Looking down the beach from where the fort stood, the habitations, or village, where Acadian families lived before the seat of Acadia was moved to Port Royal between 1636 and 1640, was located on the point in the distance.

They would have checked on the fort, perhaps delivered supplies, taken on clean water and food, and given the passengers the opportunity to stretch their legs for a few days before boarding again to continue sailing along the Nova Scotia coastline.

Fort LaTour

Charles St. Etienne de LaTour established Fort LaTour on Cape Sable, which was “on the way” to Port Royal, so they presumably would have stopped here too, especially if LaTour was on board. Nothing remains today, except this marker.

In 1651, the fort was the domain of Charles LaTour, but it’s unclear whether he actually lived here at the time, or simply maintained a trading post where he traded with both the Mi’kmaq and English traders out of New England. Regardless, this outpost was quite remote, and the seat of Acadia was in Port Royal where they were headed next.

The ship would have rounded the land on Cape Sable that Philippe and Madeleine would one day own. Pobomcoup was labeled only as “Micmacs, Indene du Cap de Sable,” although the word “Indene” is very difficult to make out. No Europeans had yet settled there.

As they rounded the point in 1651, Philippe and Madeleine would have had no idea that this inlet, today’s Pubnico Harbour, the peninsula, and surrounding land would define much of their lives.

Madeleine’s son, Philippe, would one day marry into the Indian people, not once, but twice, although he would not be born for another nine years.

Did they stop to trade in the sheltered bay on the way before continuing on to Port Royal, the seat of Acadian government?

Had Philippe and Charles been discussing Philippe’s eventual compensation package, and did it include land of his choosing?

Did Charles suggest that Pubnico would be a good choice? Could they have stopped not only to trade, but to meet the local Native people, who were clearly very friendly, with the idea that this would be an excellent trading post?

We don’t know where Madeleine and Philippe lived for their first couple of years in Acadia, although we do know that LaTour was gone on business and trading, and Philippe Mius governed in his absence. That was exactly why Philippe was brought to Acadia.

My wager would be that Philippe needed to be in Port Royal during LaTour’s absence, and that Madeleine had their second child there about 1652.

That child did not survive to 1671, so would have been buried in the graveyard at the fort in Port Royal, overlooking the Riviere Dauphin, if it perished as a baby.

Land Barons, Literally

Philippe apparently served well in LaTour’s absence, because on July 17, 1653, Charles St. Etienne de LaTour awarded a large land grant referred to as the “Baronnie de Pombcoup”, which is today’s Pubnico Harbour and surrounding land, to Philippe Mius and Madelaine Hélie, jointly.

They probably didn’t settle there right away, because it would have taken some time to build a proper mansion house – or a house of any kind. Their second child to survive to adulthood, Jacques, could have been born in Port Royal or Pobomcoup sometime around 1654.

A 1762 document found in the French archives details the land history and says, in part:

Concessions granted at Port Royal on July 17, 1653, by the high and powerful lord Messire Charles de Saint-Étienne, Seigneur de La Tour, Knight of the Order of the King, Governor and Lieutenant General, to nobleman Philippe Mius, esquire, Sieur d’Entremont, and to Demoiselle Madelaine Hélie, his wife…

The grant itself is missing, but the Nova Scotia Archives provides excerpts from the now-missing grant:

There was present and personally certified the high and powerful seigneur Charles de La Tour, Lieutenant General in all of Acadia. He voluntarily acknowledged the receipt and avowed that he had, by these presents, given and relinquished in perpetuity the title of baron and noble fief having the administration of justice, high, mean and low as paramount fief to the nobleman Philippe Mius, Esquire, sieur d’Entremont and Madame Magdeleine Hélie, his wife, who were present and accepted it for themselves and their heirs. In consideration of the particular merit of said Sieur d’Entremont and of the good and faithful services which he has personally rendered to us, we have given and granted and do give and grant by these presents to the said sieur d’Entremont the extent of one league in width and four in depth in the place called Pobomcoup to be enjoyed by the said grantees and successors with the title of baron, in consideration of an on condition of homage and a quichipoly (an Indian word meaning “a small bag” or “purse” made out of an animal skin) of beaver with two bouquets on the days and feasts of St. John Baptist for each year, and on condition that he occupies and establishes the said places. The said seigneur LaTour has today granted and placed in possession of the said seigneur d’Entremont the said land, fief and barony of Pobomcoup, promising and binding himself accordingly. — These renunciations were made and passed at the fort of Port Royal on July 17, 1653.

As a result of this substantial land grant, Philippe’s status was elevated to Baron, a Noble title, just above the gentry class who were high-status landowners – “gentle folk” who did not perform manual labor. This meant that Madeleine shared that status. Her official title would have been either Madame, La Baronne, or Madame la Baronne, which technically means “My Lady.”

However, in Pobomcoup, for a very long time, there was no one other than her family, the Mi’kmaq, and traders to address her as anything. Given what we know about early life in Pobomcoup, I’d wager they lived primarily from the bounty of the sea and established a trading center for Native people and English traders out of Boston.

Capture!

You might think that high drama in Port Royal had nothing to do with Madeleine in Pobomcoup, but it assuredly did. Some events occurred before Madeleine arrived, but the balance formed the chapters of Madeleine Hélie’s life in Acadia.

It’s also worth remembering that Madeleine wasn’t living in Port Royal during most of this time, so she would have anxiously awaited word of what was happening there, which was anything but dull. I wonder whether a woman there would have written her letters, assuming any of the women could write, or if she had to depend on sailors for news.

Philippe’s position as lieutenant governor didn’t last long, because the following year, on July 31, 1654, the English attacked and took Acadia, including Port Royal, Pubnico, and Cape Sable.

On their way to seize Port Royal, the English captured Fort Pentagouët in present-day Castine, Maine, and Fort St. Jean, on the Saint John River, across the Bay from Port Royal.

While the “taking” of Pobomcoup would have been largely symbolic, because there was only one European home there to “take,” all of Acadia fell under English rule. At one point, the English had supported LaTour in Acadia, in part, because they were both Protestant.

It’s unclear whether Philippe and Madeleine were Catholic or Protestant, but they were close to the LaTour family, and eventually, the two families would intermarry.

I strongly suspect that when the English arrived that July, Philippe Mius and Madeleine Hélie were already in Pobomcoup, and if not, they assuredly would have high-tailed it right home, where it was much safer than in Port Royal. There is no report of the English in either Pobomcoup, Fort LaTour, or La Heve.

Part of the reason I don’t think they were in Port Royal at that time is because they weren’t captured.

Charles LaTour was captured in Port Royal and taken to England as a high-profile hostage, but was treated more like royalty. He wasn’t thrown in prison but was placed under house arrest while the English tried to figure out what to do with him, and Acadia. In 1656, he talked his way out of his predicament and was returned to Acadia as the English-appointed Governor, having sworn allegiance to the English crown and agreed to sell his assets to Thomas Temple to pay his debts.

LaTour returned to Acadia in 1656, but soon realized he really wanted no part of governing the now-English colony of angry Acadians. He “retired” and returned to Fort LaTour at Cape Sable.

A lot is uncertain about this time in Acadia, but prior to the 1654 English attack, LaTour had already had his Governorship challenged by Emmanuel Le Borgne, a Catholic, who had a claim to LaTour’s holdings based on his marriage to Charles d’Aulnay’s widow in 1653.

The Backstory

Charles d’Aulnay governed Acadia until his death in 1650 and was LaTour’s vehemently despised arch-rival. They waged war for a decade, both claiming the governorship of Acadia. In truth, their valid claims overlapped, thanks to the French government.

In 1645, d’Aulnay’s men from Port Royal captured LaTour’s fort across the bay at Saint Johns while LaTour was in Boston seeking additional English support.

LaTour’s wife, Françoise-Marie Jacquelin, only 23, commanded the defensive battle to defend the fort, but eventually lost and surrendered. D’Aulnay then executed all of LaTour’s men after agreeing not to harm them in the surrender agreement. D’Aulnay held Françoise-Marie captive, and three weeks later, she suspiciously died in his custody.

The brutality of this event widely divided the Acadians’ loyalty.

D’Aulnay drowned in 1650, leaving his wife, Jeanne Motin to manage the colony he commanded, their eight children, and d’Aulnay’s massive debt.

If you’re thinking to yourself, “What a mess!”, you’d be exactly right.

Philippe and Madeleine Arrive

Philippe Mius and Madeleine Hélie arrived in Port Royal in 1651, just in time for the next chapters. Did they know any of this before accepting this assignment? We’ll never know.

In 1653, Charles LaTour returned to Acadia from his self-imposed exile in Quebec following his wife’s untimely death at d’Aulnay’s hands, and d’Aulnay’s widow married him in Port Royal. There could not have been a less-likely couple.

They hoped their marriage would heal the bitter feud between families, along with the resulting decade-old rift among Acadians. The added benefit (and maybe the overarching reason) was that they had competing legal claims. Regardless, the marriage did serve to heal the colony, at least somewhat, smoothing the way forward, although it wouldn’t last long.

After the English took Acadia in 1654, they ruled it as a colony, with Emmanuel Le Borgne being appointed as absentee Governor by the French in 1657. He “governed” from France and retained the title until 1667, when Acadia was officially returned to France by treaty.

However, it took three years of conflict on the ground in Acadia for the physical turnover to actually occur, with the English King finally commanding Thomas Temple to surrender the territory. However, instead of returning the governorship to Le Borgne, the French assigned a new governor.

Ironically, Le Borgne’s son, Alexandre Le Borgne de Belle-Isle had remained in Acadia the entire time and about 1675, married Marie Saint-Etienne de LaTour, Jean Motin’s daughter with LaTour.

Alexander reportedly had a significant drinking problem and was heavily addicted to wine. He would regularly become quite intoxicated and create havoc by granting the same tract of land to multiple settlers.

By this time, LaTour had died, in 1666, at Cape Sable – and there’s still no mention of Philippe Mius and Madeleine Hélie in any records – so we presume they are quietly going about their lives in Pobomcoup. Out of both harm’s way and the limelight. Sometimes, the best plan of action is to keep your head down.

In 1670, Acadia was actually returned to French control.

One of the first official French acts, aside from ordering a census, was to appoint Philippe Mius as the King’s Attorney.

Madeleine had been living in Acadia for almost two decades now, mostly in Pobomcoup. I wonder if she ever questioned her decision to leave France. Life had certainly not turned out how she would have expected.

The First Census

The 1671 and later censuses provide us with information about the ages of Madeleine’s children.

In 1671, the family was living in Pobomcoup and the ages of family members are listed as follows:

  • Philippe Mieux, squire, Sieur de Landremont – 62, so born about 1609
  • Madeleine Hélie, no age listed
  • Daughter Marguerite Marie is noted as married to Pierre Melanson, no age listed
  • Son (Jacques, listed by age but not by name) – 17, so born about 1654
  • Abraham – 13, so born about 1658
  • Philippe – 11, so born about 1660
  • Madeleine – 2, so born about 1669

We don’t know if Father Laurent Molins, the Franciscan Priest who signed the census and listed Philippe and Madeleine in Pobomcoup actually visited, but it’s unlikely since her age was missing, and their oldest son’s name was missing. I can just hear the conversation between Father Molins, who had probably never met any of the family, and someone else in Port Royal. “What was that oldest boy’s name, anyway? I can’t remember.” “I don’t know, but I think he’s about 17. He’s just younger than Marguerite.”

Census takers, priests or not, haven’t changed a lot. Father Molins could have asked Philippe and Madeleine’s daughter, Marguerite, who lived in Port Royal with her husband, Pierre Melanson or Melancon, but it seems they were, um, one would say, “uncooperative.”

Father Molins recorded that, “Pierre Melanson, tailor, would not give his age nor the number of animals, but his wife’s answers concerning their possessions were just as crazy.” This alone should tell us that in 1671, they were not a Catholic family.

One of the reasons I’ve wondered if Philippe Mius and Madeleine Hélie were Huguenots is because LaTour was, and one would think that he would select someone as his second-in-command whom he trusted completely. At that time, Catholics and Protestants were literally at war in France.

The second reason I wondered is because Madeleine’s oldest child, Marguerite, married Pierre Melanson, who was also a Protestant.

Pierre Melanson’s father, also named Pierre, was French, but Pierre (the younger) was baptized in London in 1632, and was well-educated and fluent in both French and English. The Melanson family arrived with the English, via Boston, in the company of Sir Thomas Temple in 1657. They supposedly converted to Catholicism in Acadia, based partly on the fact that their son, Pierre, married Acadian Marguerite Mius, who was presumed to be Catholic. However, based on that 1671 census reply, I’m not convinced.

Madeleine’s daughter Marguerite is shown in the 1686 census as 36 years old, which would have placed her birth about 1650, so she would have been about 21 in 1671 when the French census-taker, who just happened to be the local priest, arrived asking “nosey” questions. It appears that the Melanson family might not have been terribly happy about the French regaining control of Acadia.

The 1678 Census

In the 1671 census, Madeleine Hélie is accounted for, but her age is not given.

The 1678 census throws us a curveball. The family is enumerated in Port Royal instead of in Pobomcoup, which means that Philippe’s position as the King’s Attorney has required his presence in Port Royal. I don’t know how he could possibly have fulfilled his duties living remotely in Pobomcoup, so they probably moved to Port Royal not long after the 1671 census, which was signed and returned on November 8th that year.

Philippe and Madeleine would have lived on the main street of town, among the other administrators and officials of the colony.

In 1678, Philippe owned 12 cattle and had 9 arpents of land under cultivation.

Overlooking what’s left of the Queen’s Wharf today, before the fort expansion of 1705, where I am standing to take this photo, would have been 5 or 6 houses east of the Governor’s house. In other words, in the center of town, between Michael Boudrot and BelleIsle.

This is the area where they lived. In fact, I might be standing “in their house,” and if no, assuredly within sight. The main street of town was only a block long.

The 1678 census only listed children’s ages, not their names, but the Myus family was a rather strange mix of both named and unnamed children. The census showed the following, in order:

  • Philippe Myus
  • One girl age 10 (Madeleine, but not listed by name)
  • Jacques Myus, Abraham Myus and Anne (no ages listed and no surname for Anne who is presumed to be Madeleine (the daughter) born in 1669)
  • Marguerite (no age or surname – daughter Marguerite would be the wife of Pierre Melanson who had married about 1665)
  • 1 girl (age) 1 (which means she was born in 1677)

The 1678 census was transcribed by Tim Hebert, here, and Lucy LeBlanc Consentino, here. On their documents, Father Clarence d’Entremont had reconciled the children with their names and birth years based on other censuses and documents.

Who was this baby girl born in 1677? We have no idea.

But there’s something else.

Madeleine Hélie is Missing

Madeleine Hélie is missing.

This strongly suggests that the baby girl, who is age 1, was Madeleine’s last child, and Madeleine died between 1677, when the little girl was born, and 1678, when the census was taken.

Of course, I wonder if Madeleine died in, or as a result of, childbirth.

I can only imagine how Madeleine felt, knowing that she was dying, and leaving a baby behind.

Madeleine’s daughter born in 1677 would have been 9 in 1686 if she were living, but she is not listed, so she too had perished by then.

Calculating Madeleine’s Birth Year

We don’t know exactly when Madeleine Hélie died, but her last child (that we know of) was born about 1677 and Madeleine is gone by late 1678. If Madeleine was 44 at the time her last child was born, she would have been born about 1633 and married when she was about 16.

Between fourteen and seventeen would be a normal age for a French bride of that era.

Therefore, Madeleine was probably between 43 and 45 when she died between 1677 and 1678.

Babies Born, Babies Lost

There are a lot of blank spaces between Madeleine’s children where we know babies would have been born. Assuming a child was born every 24 months, and not closer, Madeleine buried more children than she raised. If a child died at or near birth, the next child generally followed a year later, if that long. So, if anything, this list is incomplete.

I’ve shown Madeleine’s children’s births on a timeline adjusted to accommodate her children who were born and died prior to the first census in 1671:

  1. Marguerite Marie or Marie Marguerite, born about 1650, probably in France
  2. Unknown child born about 1652, probably in Port Royal, died before 1671, probably in Pobomcoup
  3. Jacques – 17 in 1671, but not named in the census, born about 1654, probably in Port Royal. The 1686 census in Pobomcoup shows his birth year as 1659, but I doubt that was correct because he married about 1678 and, as the eldest son, inherited his father’s Barony. He is also shown visually as the firstborn son on the pedigree chart provided by Mius/d’Entremont/LaTour descendants in France in 1762.
  4. Unknown child born about 1656, died before 1671, probably in Pobomcoup
  5. Abraham – 13 in 1671, so born about 1658
  6. Philippe – 11 in 1671, so born about 1660
  7. Unknown child born about 1662, died before 1671 in Pobomcoup
  8. Unknown child born about 1664, died before 1671 in Pobomcoup
  9. Unknown child born about 1666, died before 1671 in Pobomcoup
  10. Unknown child born about 1668, died before 1671 in Pobomcoup
  11. Madeleine – 2 in 1671, so born about 1669, probably in Pobomcoup. Also listed as Magdelaine (in 1686, age 16), and died before 1693, probably in Port Royal.
  12. Unknown child born about 1671, died before 1678 in Port Royal
  13. Unknown child born about 1673, died before 1678 in Port Royal
  14. Unknown child born about 1675, died before 1678 in Port Royal
  15. Unnamed daughter born about 1677, age 1 in 1678, no name given, and died before 1686, probably in Port Royal

1686

In 1686, Philippe, listed as the “Royal Prosecutor,” is still living among the Acadian elite in Port Royal, listed between Michel Boudrot, the Lt. General of Port Royal, and Claude Petitpas, the Clerk of Court.

We know that Madeleine had already passed by 1678, and only two children are listed with Philippe Mius Sr.

  • Philippe Mius (the son), 24, who is himself a widower
  • Magdelaine, who was 2 in 1671 and is 16 in 1686.

This 1686 map shows the Governor’s House, #7, and Le Bourg’s House, #8, so Philippe Mius would have lived in one of the homes near his colleagues of similar social stature.

Magdelaine, the daughter born in 1669 is listed in this census at 16 years old. She would be expected to marry about this time, but she is never found in any records again, so she apparently died between the 1686 and 1693 censuses.

Madeleine Hélie’s children are being picked off one by one.

By 1686, Philippe Mius d’Entremont Sr. owned 40 arpents of land in Port Royal, which is twice as much as the next two most wealthy landowners, his neighbor Michel Boudrot and Jacob Bourgeois, each with 20 arpents.

Jacob Bourgeois, whose 20 arpent section of land was just at the end of the street on Hogg Island, would sell some of his land to Etienne Pellerin a few years later.

https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/btv1b530899866/f1.item

It’s really quite remarkable to realize that we are looking at a drawing of the home where Philippe and Madeleine lived 350 years ago. It has to be one of these larger homes – and there are only 17 shown in total, with three identified.

Given the amount of land that Philippe is credited with, he may have lived in one of the homes with the most garden space, or perhaps that “extra” lot was his, too. Or, maybe the field behind the fence on the right.

Given the sheer size of his holding, Philippe almost had to have been awarded land up the road leading away from town, or across the river.

In 1708, the Labatt map shows the Pleinmarais land, his son Abraham Mius’s dit name, above, at right. It’s nearly double the size of Port Royal, at left, which makes sense when you compare it to the 20 arpents of land on Hogg Island at the end of Port Royal extending down into the river.

It’s probably unlikely that Philippe lived in anything less than a “mansion house” when he moved to Port Royal as a Nobleman and as the King’s Attorney, sometime after the 1671 census.

Furthermore, it would have been very unlikely that he moved in Port Royal after arriving and becoming established. There wasn’t much land available there, on the waterfront where the administrators lived, so few houses to choose from. Therefore, if he had 9 arpents of land in 1678, and 40 in 1686, he had to have been awarded land elsewhere in addition to the 9 he had under cultivation in 1678.

It’s possible that the only land shown adjacent to the homes of the colony’s Administrators were their gardens, and the rest of their land was tended by others elsewhere.

No matter how much wealth and worldly goods Philippe and Madeleine Hélie accumulated, nothing could save Madeleine or her children from early graves.

The graveyard where her children rested was only a few steps away. The good news, if there was any, was that Madeleine could visit them often. The bad news was the same, and she would join them much too soon in unmarked graves.

Did Philippe and Madeleine Return to Pobomcoup?

Did Philippe and Madeleine ever move back to Pobomcoup? I don’t think so.

We know that Philippe was the King’s Attorney until about 1688. Given that he’s still living in Port Royal in 1686, and has, by 1686 standards, a massive amount of land, it’s unlikely that he ever returned to Pobomcoup.

By 1686, Philippe, then in his 80s, had conferred the Barony upon his son, Jacques, who was one of only five families living at Cap Sable, which is the name under which Pobomcoup was enumerated in 1686.

Philippe probably conveyed the Barony because one typically must live upon a Barony to retain it. In the rough archives translation of the now-lost 1653 deed, we find “on condition that he occupies and establishes the said places,” although the documents found in the French archives specifically state that continuous inhabitation was not a condition of land retention. Perhaps this was a bone of contention.

Regardless, both Jacques and his brother, Abraham, married daughters of Charles LaTour, and they would both have been quite comfortable with their families at Cape Sable. Trade there was probably very lucrative as well, with no competition.

Madeleine’s Known Children

Marguerite Marie Mius, Madeleine’s oldest daughter, married about 1665, when she was about 15, to Pierre Melanson, a Huguenot who lived in Port Royal. Even though the English were holding Port Royal at that time, the Mius family clearly visited Port Royal, or Charles Melanson visited Pobomcoup, because otherwise Marguerite would not have had the opportunity to meet Charles’s son, Pierre.

Marguerite and Pierre settled across the river from Port Royal, present-day Annapolis Royal, in the Melanson Village, near Pierre’s parents. Two years later, in 1667, they left for Boston, but Pierre and his brother remained in Acadia.

This map shows the Melanson Settlement with a red star on the 1686 map, across the river from Port Royal (red arrow).

In 1682, Pierre Melanson led one of the pioneering expeditions to Les Mines, where he and Marguerite settled sometime before 1686 and lived the rest of their lives.

After Pierre and Marguerite had relocated to Les Mines, the Melanson settlement itself continued to grow, fueled by Pierre’s brother, Charles. All three of the Melanson boys maintained close ties with Boston throughout their lives. After Pierre’s parents and brother, John moved to Boston in 1667, when Acadia was returned to France, both Pierre and his brother, Charles, remained in Acadia on their father’s land.

The Melanson family was an interesting bunch. Charles, the son, while living in Acadia, requested and received a militia captain commission in Massachusetts. He was also a pirate.

Perhaps the Melanson allegiance to England and connection with Boston lends more perspective to Pierre and Marguerite’s reaction to the 1671 census taker, especially given that Acadia had just been returned to the French.

There’s more too.

While Pierre Melanson and Marguerite Mius left for Les Mines and settled in Grand Pre, Pierre apparently went back and forth. They may not have sold their land in Port Royal.

In 1690, when the English sailed into the River on their way to attack Port Royal, they stopped at Pierre Melanson’s to check on the condition of the fort and of Port Royal. Pierre’s was the first homestead encountered after entering the mouth of the river.

This 1708 map shows the location of the Melanson settlement land, homes and fields. They were the most distant settlement, towards the sea, across the river from Port Royal.

I don’t think there’s any question that the Melanson family was loyal to the British, and retained their Protestant faith as well. At some point, they may have hidden their leanings, but that hadn’t happened by 1690.

This situation must have been awkward for Philippe Mius and by extension, Madeleine. I wonder how she navigated those waters, or perhaps she was Protestant herself. There’s so much we don’t know.

The Melanson settlement constituted a small village as it expanded over the years.

This drawing shows typical Acadian life in the Melanson Village, based on archaeological excavations there and elsewhere. The layout is strikingly similar to the 1686 map of Port Royal, with enclosed gardens.

The apple orchards were planted behind the homes and gardens, and the salt marsh fields were between the homes, protective dykes, and the river.

Excavations have unearthed several structures and the remnants of village life.

The bustling village of yesteryear, where Madeleine would have visited Marguerite and her family, lies abandoned today, having returned to nature – with no hint of the turmoil that was once found here.

Marguerite had five children that lived before her mother died between 1677 and 1678, and probably two or three who died, based on birth spacing. Tiny coffins would have been constructed for the children who perished, the pounding of the hammer ringing in the ears of Marguerite and Madeleine with each blow. Madeleine would assuredly have been with her daughter at this most devastating of times.

Mother and daughter would have washed their tiny bodies one last time, wrapped them lovingly, and placed them in their caskets for their final sleep.

What happened next is debatable.

If Catholic, they would then have been carried to the canoes or small boats and rowed across the river to the church.

Services were held in the church where a funeral Mass was celebrated before they were buried in the graveyard beside the church, either the same day or the next.

If they were not buried as Catholics, they would either have been buried in the same cemetery, without benefit of a mass, of course, or buried in a cemetery near where they lived.

We know that the Stoney Beach Cemetery, very close to the Melanson Settlement is the site of burials in the late 1700s, and it may well have been used before that by the residents on the far side of the river, especially Protestants.

Eventually, the family did convert, because they are found in the Grand Pre Catholic Church records, but we don’t know who converted, when, where, or why. They may have simply acquiesced to the traditions of their neighbors.

Marguerite’s five children who lived are probably the only grandchildren Madeleine Hélie was able to welcome and enjoy, even if only for a short time. We know that Madeleine died sometime between her last child’s birth in 1677 and the 1678 census, and that at least five grandchildren were born before 1678: in 1666, 1668, 1670, 1673, and 1676.

For several of those years, Madeleine and Marguerite were having children at the same time, likely helping each other through the process. It looks like two of Marguerite’s children died during that time, and five of Madeleine’s. Mother and daughter would have drawn strength from each other in their darkest hours.

Even though we know that they died before the next census where they should have been found, they may not have been stillborn.

Catholic babies were baptized as soon as possible after birth, and in emergencies, sometimes even in the birth canal by the midwife. Sometimes provisional baptisms occurred if a priest wasn’t readily available, the baby was in distress, or inclement weather prevented the trip to church.

Baptisms were events to be celebrated.

The family, including the mother if she was able, made their way to the church with the baby later that day or the following day, depending on when the baby was born. They gathered beside the baptismal font in the Catholic church in Port Royal as their babies were baptized. Perhaps Marguerite stood as godmother for her younger siblings, knowing that of the two women, she was more likely to outlive her mother.

In 1682, when Marguerite, then 32 or so, and her family said goodbye to Port Royal and sailed north, her mother had been gone for between four years and a decade.

Madeleine and Philippe’s children apparently didn’t all live in Port Royal, at least not full time during this period, because their son, Philippe (Jr), born about 1660 married a Mi’kmaq woman about 1678. He may well have been living with his older brothers, Jacques or Abraham, in Pobomcoup. They all married between 1676 and 1678.

Jacques Mius d’Entremont, born about 1654, Madeleine’s oldest son, married Anne Saint-Etienne de LaTour about 1678, and they lived in Pobomcoup. That’s probably when Philippe Mius (Sr.) conveyed the Barony to him. It’s possible that the Anne, with no other name, in the 1678 census with Philippe Mius Sr. is Jacque’s wife, Anne.

Although Jacques lived in Pobomcoup, he must have traveled back and forth to Port Royal, because he made a deposition in 1685 that James Taylor of Boston has stolen from him and others in Port Royal. Jacques is connected to fishermen, specifically Jean Le Roy dit Laliberte who is a shoremaster for both Jacques and Charles St. Etienne de LaTour at a location with a Mi’kmaq name. This makes sense, since in the 1696 census, La Liberte Le Neigre is living by himself at Cap Sable, but by 1698 was back at Port Royal, living in the Melanson settlement.

Jacques had nine children, most of whom used the surname d’Entremont and remained in the Pobomcoup, now Pubnico, area.

He inherited the Barony and maintained it until his death in 1735 or 1736. The manor house location continues to be widely debated, given that it was destroyed when the English expelled all of the Acadians beginning in 1755. I documented possible locations in this article.

Regardless of where the manor house stood, a mill wheel was found in Hipson’s Brook, indicating that this location was of primary importance, grinding grain for the Pobomcoup families.

Pubnico Harbour, where the Philippe and Madeleine established their Barony and where Jacques spent his life is stunningly beautiful.

I wrote about my experience returning home to Pubnico, complete with pictures, here.

The English began the expulsion of the Pubnico Acadians in 1756 and finished their dirty work by burning everything. Some of Jacques’ descendants were sent to the English colonies and a few made their way back to Pubnico a decade later. Others were tracked through the woods, eventually caught, and imprisoned at Halifax in 1659, then were subsequently sent back to France. I wrote about that, here, including their petitions to return. It’s heartbreaking.

Abraham Mius or Mius de Pleinmarais, his dit name, Madeleine’s second-oldest son, was born about 1658 and married about 1680 to Marguerite Saint-Etienne de LaTour. In 1686 and 1693, they are living in Pobomcoup aka Cap Sable.

By 1703, Abraham is living in Port Royal where he spent the rest of his life. Unfortunately, that census does not show the amount of land in each household. However, given that he is listed second in the census, called “Mr. Plemarais, and they are living beside his wife’s sister, Marie Saint-Etienne de LaTour, the widow of Alexander Le Bourg de Belisle, this makes sense. Owning land, especially for the wealthy did not equate to actually living on and farming the land. This also causes me to wonder if Abraham’s parents, Madeleine Hélie and Philip Mius, were living beside the Le Bourg home back in the 1670s.

If so, that may narrow the location to the homes beside #8 on the 1686 map.

If that’s the case, then that restricts the candidates to a few that I can correlate to contemporary locations.

My cousins and I just happened to have dinner along the boardwalk, behind what is today a wine bar, in this same location or at least nearby, looking out over the beautiful river.

Obviously the Acadian buildings are gone, burned in 1755, but the waterfront is every bit as beautiful now as then.

It makes sense that Abraham would have wanted to reclaim his father’s home in Port Royal, since Jacques had the manor house in Pobomcoup, and Philippe Jr. was living with the Native people.

We don’t know if that’s what happened, and the O’Dell House map shows that Abraham’s widow was living south of Port Royal along the road headed out of town, at location #9 in 1710. I tend to doubt that, in part because she is enumerated beside her sister in the 1707 census, assuming it was in procession order, and we know where her sister who was married to Le Bourge lived. Those outlots are also far from the elite part of town. Abraham’s widow was, after all, a LaTour, and the widow of a Mius, both Noble families.

Regardless, we are moving far from Abraham Mius and his widow – and with the passage of time and each subsequent step, it’s more difficult to discern what actually occurred.

Abraham Mius Pleinmarais died towards the end of 1707, after his daughter’s August wedding and before the census where his wife is listed as Madeleine Plemarais, with her five children.

At this time, she is living on only one arpent of land, which is confusing, especially given that Abraham’s holding shown on the 1708 map is extensive. She may well have moved back to town, and that’s assuming they weren’t already living in Port Royal proper.

Abraham’s land was not far from the Melanson settlement, and I suspect this is the land originally owned by Abraham’s parents. It’s even more likely given that Abraham was clearly the “second son” in Pobomcoup, but opted instead for this large parcel of land in Port Royal. His father died in 1700, leaving him a Sieur in his own right, according to the 1762 French depositions.

This 1708 Labatt map, which was drawn the year after Abraham died, still shows his land, and also states that Bernard Bourg is living at the place called Plemarais, although that word is difficult to see.

The 1707 census for Bernard shows him cultivating 8 arpents of land. In 1686, he has 3 arpents, in 1693, 30 arpents, in 1698, 35 arpents with 45 fruit trees, in 1700, he was cultivating 30 arpents. This is suspiciously close to the 40 arpents claimed by Philippe Mius Sr. in 1686, especially since he had 9 arpents in 1678. At 80 years of age, and a man of letters, Philippe was clearly not farming this land himself.

If Abraham moved back from Pobomcoup after his father died, Bernard may have released the majority back to Abraham. Born in 1648, Bernard was over 50 years old and probably no longer up to maintaining more land than any other landholder in Acadia. Abraham Mius Pleinmarais was a decade younger.

Philippe Mius Jr., born about 1660, spent most of his formative years learning to hunt and fish among their neighbors in Pobomcoup, the Mi’kmaq, so marrying a Native woman wouldn’t have been anything unexpected.

Philippe Jr. and his first wife, whose name is unknown, had about four children before she died sometime after 1684, when daughter Francoise Mius was born, and before the 1686 census when he is found in Port Royal with his father. By about 1688, son Philippe the younger had returned to his beloved forests, married again to a second Native woman named Marie, indicating that she had been baptized as Catholic, and lived the rest of his life among the Native people.

Madeleine would never have met any of those grandchildren, given that Philippe married about the time she died, and they lived far away, at Pobomcoup or maybe even further, at Merligueche, near present-day Lunenburg.

Philippe’s descendants generally used the surname Mius, and are found among the Mi’kmaq. Philippe’s son, Francoise Mius, born about 1700 and who died after August 1763, was appointed Chief of the Mi’kmaq and resided at La Heve.

Conclusions

What conclusions can we draw here?

This evidence, taken together, means that Madeleine Hélie most likely lived in Port Royal beginning after the 1671 census, and died there between 1677 and 1678, given that they appear to have never returned to Pobomcoup. It also means that the children born in 1671, 1673, 1675, and 1677, along with daughter Madelaine, born about 1670, are all likely buried with her in Port Royal, while Madeleine Hélie’s half dozen children who died before 1671 are buried in a lost cemetery somewhere near where they lived in Pobomcoup.

By accounting for her known children, we can tell that Madeleine was born about 1633. She married about 1649 to a much older husband.

Depending on which records we have more confidence in, Philippe was between 40 and 49 in 1649, when Madeleine was between 14 and 16. Despite a quarter-century age difference, he went on to outlive her by a substantial margin. Life was especially treacherous for women. Every childbirth was a tug-of-war between life and death for both mother and child – a battle Madeleine may have lost.

Madeleine buried at least six children between 1652 and 1671, and three more by 1678.

That’s a minimum of nine children buried during her lifetime, and likely more.

Her namesake daughter, Marguerite, as she was listed in the 1678 census, and called Madeleine in the 1686 census, outlived her mother by a few years. She is never found in any records beyond 1686, so likely died between 1686 and 1693, joining her mother in the Port Royal Cemetery.

And the one-year-old baby in 1678? She joined her mother and siblings before 1686.

That means that of the 15 children that Madeleine brought into the world, and possibly more, only four survived to adulthood, and none of the nine born after 1660.

How absolutely crushing.

Madeleine’s four surviving children could not have been more different.

  1. Daughter Marguerite married a Huguenot, acted “crazy,” and refused to answer the Priest’s questions in 1671, and was one of the founders at Les Mines.
  2. Son Jacques became the second Baron de Pobomcoup, continuing his father’s legacy, and established the Mius d’Entremont family of Pubnico.
  3. Son Abraham settled in Pobomcoup, but then returned to Port Royal where he lived for the rest of his life. He had a substantial piece of land, probably his father’s 40 arpents, across the river from Port Royal.
  4. Madeleine’s youngest son, Philippe, married into the Mi’kmaq Tribe, twice, and lived his life among the Native people. His son became their Chief, but Philippe’s descendants would suffer immense heartache.

Madeleine’s Journey

I can’t help but think about Madeleine Hélie as a carefree young girl in France, running and playing in the sun-drenched golden fields.

Acadia hadn’t yet been settled, so even if she had known that Acadia existed, she would never have dreamed of going there. Travel then, such as it was, was pretty much a one-way, no-return ticket.

Yet, she did sail to Acadia and became a Noblewoman there, elevated to the status of Madame of the Barony of Pobomcoup.

But she would not breathe her last in her barony.

If Madeleine’s life story were a book, one would swear it has to be fiction.

She traveled to La Rochelle as a young bride. Having not yet seen her 20th birthday, she climbed aboard a rocking ship with her husband and embarked on the adventure of a lifetime.

She arrived at La Heve with a babe in arms and perhaps pregnant for her second child who would perish in a foreign land. How did she feel, burying that baby, with no family surrounding her as those clods of dirt thudded on the tiny coffin?

Surveying her new world, maybe she wondered where the rest of the people were, because the land was densely forested and barren of European women, at least in La Heve and Fort LaTour. From a bustling community, established for millennia, someplace in Normandy, to unbroken forest dappled with Native villages that moved with the seasons – the contrast must have seemed surreal, and unreal.

She assuredly cried for her family, but there was no going back.

When they finally arrived in Port Royal, she probably expected a city, but what she found were dirt cart paths, a beleaguered earthen fort, and 38 or 39 families consisting of about 270 people, scattered up and down the river. That would have meant only 38 or 39 adult women in the entire colony.

Did she think, “Good Lord, what have I done?”

Two years later, her status was elevated when they were awarded a massive land grant in Pobomcoup, where she would live even more remotely, with NO European women for company. She didn’t speak the Mi’kmaq language and would have been terribly isolated.

After 18 or 19 years in Pobomcoup, they moved back to Port Royal. By then, it had grown substantially, doubling in size, and probably seemed quite busy by comparison.

Madeleine died there a few years later, before she was even 50. She buried 9 or 10 children, and left behind her last child – an infant daughter less than a year old who desperately needed her mother.

On the other hand, Madeleine’s life was astounding, especially for a woman in the mid-1600s. She saw unheard of places and prayed in the cathedral of the forest. Her life of adventure probably seemed like a dream to many, and evolved into something she could never have imagined. She was unique among women of her time.

Madeleine inhabited the most remote yet starkly beautiful stretches of the Atlantic coastline, with few, if any, other European women nearby, and later lived among the elite of Port Royal.

Her blood runs in the veins of the Mi’kmaq people, the Cajuns of Louisiana, the American colonies, many people who settled in Quebec, exiles in Cherbourg, Normandy and the people who returned to Pubnico in the 1660s.

The price was dear, though – having to leave her family behind in France forever.

In Acadia, she survived untold drama, including the 1654 capture by the English, and Acadia’s rocky return to the French sixteen years later. She became a Noblewoman and lived in a manor house on the shores of the Atlantic.

Regardless, Madeleine’s life was still cut short. She wept at the graves of far too many children and probably would have traded everything to be able to raise the children she could not.

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