| Gabriel's son Gabriel, ancestor of all the Acadian Samsons, emigrated to Port Royal, Nova Scotia, where on April 7, 1704, he married Jeanne Martin, the young widow of Louis Chesnay and daughter of Barnabe Martin and Jeanne Pelletret. Jeanne was born at Port Royal about 1675. A few months after his marriage, both he and his wife were captured in a British raid on Port Royal by Captain Phipps, and taken as hostages to Boston. Jeanne was pregnant at the time, and their first child, Madeleine, was born there in 1705. They were imprisoned in Boston for over a year, and were finally returned to Port Royal at the end of January 1706. Gabriel Samson is enumerated in the 1707 census of Port Royal, with 2 sons under 14 years of age, 2 daughters under 12 years of age (including the son and daughter of Louis Chesnay), 4 horned animals, 5 pigs, a half arpent of land, and 1 gun. He is included in the Port Royal census of 1710 and 1714, where he has 3 sons and 2 daughters. |
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Gabriel and Jeanne had a family of 11 children, 7 surviving to adulthood. He worked as an engineer at Port Royal, but left the capital when the British overtook the Port for the last time. In order to avoid taking the oath of allegiance to the British Crown, Gabriel and his family emigrated to Port Toulouse (present day St. Peter's, Cape Breton), on Ile Royale around 1720-21, where he built and navigated coasting vessels. In the census of 1722, at Port Toulouse, Gabriel Samson is listed, an Acadian, with 10 persons. In the 1724 census of Port Toulouse, he is enumerated, born in Canada, builder and navigator, with wife, 2 sons over 15 years of age, one son under 15, three daughters, and one ship for commerce. He is listed in the Port Toulouse census of 1734, born in Quebec, a carpenter, widower, with 2 sons under 15 years of age, and one daughter. |
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Jeanne died about 1728 and was buried at Port Toulouse, and her husband died several years later about 1757. Of their three sons, only two left descendants. Michel, born and baptized at Port Royal on July 12, 1706, married Anne "Jeanne" Testard dit Paris, and was deported to France with several members of his family in 1758 (see Isle Madame section). |
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Michel's younger brother, Mathieu, born July 13, 1709, at Port Royal, married about 1734, at Port Toulouse, Marguerite Poujet, daughter of Pierre Poujet and Francoise Moyse, and is the ancestor of the Samsons of L'Ardoise and River Bourgeois, Nova Scotia. The youngest son, Charles Samson, born October 1 , 1717 at Port Royal, married about 1752 at Port Toulouse, Marie Prejean, daughter of Nicolas Prejean and Marguerite Broussard. Charles and Marie were deported to France on the ship "La Reine d'Espagne" where Charles and his two children died during the crossing. |
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According to family traditions which persisted until the turn of the century, the Acadians of Port Toulouse who remained in Cape Breton after the Expulsion of 1758, lived a nomadic existence for some years thereafter, fearful of capture and deportation by the British. From the petitions of land grants presented by several of the Acadians of L'Ardoise (Public Archives of Nova Scotia: Calendar of Cape Breton Land Papers), it appears that the Samsons settled at L'Ardoise in 1765. The whole family group of Mathieu Samson and Marguerite Poujet appears in the missionary records of 1771 as living at L'Ardoise. All of Mathieu's sons remained at L'Ardoise except for Jean-Baptiste, who was one of the original settlers of River Bourgois, Nova Scotia, a neighboring community. |
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Written by Charles Samson, December 1997, revised in February 2002. Sources: Stephen A. White, genealogist at the University of Moncton, New Brunskwick; "Dictionnaire Genealogique des Familles Acadiennes", Stephen A. White; "Histoire et Genealogie des Acadiens", Bona Arsenault; and "The Acadian Exiles in Saint-Malo", by Albert Robichaux. |
History of New France And Acadia
Sieur de la Roque Census of 1752