Francois Violette - Part 1

I am a member of the Violette Family Association, my family on my mother's side. I recently received an article that describes where the first generation of our family settled in Canada. Francois Violette was my great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandfather, making me the 10th generation to live here. Incidentally, I am also the 10th generation in Canada on my father's side too.

David Violette wrote this article and I am posting it here, in case the internet link ever goes dead.

Description: When Francois Violet left Nova Scotia he was given a land grant by the English in the southern New Brunswick area

This aerial view shows the location of Francois Violet's 1787 Lot 14 land grant in lower New Brunswick, in the Quispamsis area and along the Hammond River.
Francois Violet was born in Saintes, France on October 16, 1744. He arrived in Louisbourg, Nova Scotia in 1749 with his father Charles and mother Marie David. Though his father Charles returned to France around 1759, we do not think Francois returned with him. Francois was French, but much of the population in that area was Acadian. We next find Francois working in St John NB in 1769. He married Marie Luce Thibodeau, from an Acadian family, in 1770 and they lived in a settlement along the Hammond River. However around 1783 British Loyalists were moving out of the United States after Independence, and they forced many Acadians off their lands in New Brunswick.

On April 12, 1787, grants of land were made to 15 Acadians and 27 Loyalists. The lots were awarded such that the Acadians were dispersed among the Loyalists. Francois was awarded lot # 14 containing 210 acres.

This aerial view from further out shows the region of southern New Brunswick where Francois Violet settled around 1769.
In 1754/55, the Privy Council in England decided on a final solution to the problem of the French population in Canada. If they expelled them from their lands they might have taken refuge in Louisbourg and Quebec, reinforcing the French colonies there. Instead, the Privy Council decided to capture and deport all 18,000 Acadians living in Nova Scotia at the time. Some such as Francois' father, Charles, left Canada, but we know that Francois and some other Acadians escaped capture and made their way to the St John River area. He seems to have found some work in that area. They may have been later chased off the St John River by the raids of Monckton, Hazen and Studholme between 1758 and 1763, and settled along the Hammond River because it was off the beaten track. Not once did the raiders of the St John River mention a settlement on the Hammond River. These raids were not just minor harassments; they were meant to destroy all property - both houses and animals - and in some cases resulted in the loss of life for the settlers.

The 1763 Treaty of Paris did not resolve the problems for the Acadians because they did not have title to their lands. They were still squatters on English soil.

So we have a period from around 1759 to 1769 during which we have no record of Francois' whereabouts. His name is on 1769 payroll records in St John NB of Simonds and White, the founders of the first permanent English settlement at St John. He is now 25 years old. And we then find him in 1770 married to Marie Luce Thibodeau.

We know that Francois must have been in the St John area in 1782 because he had an account with Hazen & White, merchants of St. John.

In 1785, 35,000 British Empire Loyalists left New Engand, where they were no longer welcome. They started displacing the Acadian "squatters" along the St John River. Some displaced Acadians migrated north along the St John River and were given grants of land in the Madawaska region. As mentioned above, Loyalists Winslow and Chipman convinced the British government to make grants to some of the Acadian/French settlers along with the Loyalists in the Hammond River area, and these grants were registered in Fredericton NB on April 12, 1787.

The land grants comprised some 42 lots, and our ancestor Francois Violet was granted Lot 14, a lot of 210 acres in size.

The grantees had to clear three acres of land each year for every 50 acres granted, had to erect a dwelling at least 20x16 feet in size, and had to meet other requirements. Plus, they had to pay two shillings per year per hundred acres for a period of ten years.

Apparently, those Acadians and Francois among them were not happy with their situation in the Kennebeccasis area, for they petitioned in 1789 - two years later - for land grants further north in the Madawaska region. This may have been partly because their lands were intermingled with lands owned and settled by Loyalists, so the culture was mixed and difficult. That story, however, will be told in Part 2.

The two aerial maps with this story were taken from Google Maps, and show the area as it looks today.

Some of this story's content was drawn from an article in Rita's book ("The Descendents of Francois Violet", Rita Violette Lippe, 1984) and other from Rod Violette's monograph "Francois Violet Life and Times."