News and Reflections: Ancient place-names close to home: "Lunenburg" -- May 15, 2023

"Lunenburg"

Photographs that accompany this article were graciously contributed
by Marcel Jean d'Entremont,
President, AAMS

"Welcome to Lunenburg"

Located on Mi’kmaq traditional territory and settled by French, Swiss, and German immigrants, the town of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia was founded in about 1753, and was named for the royal house of Brunswick-Lüneburg.

Called E'se'katik or “place of clams" by the Mi'kmaq, the town was also known as "Merligueche," and was settled by the Acadians, beginning in the 1630s, when Isaac de Razilly established LeHave. Acadians remained there until the the start of the forced deportation of Acadians from Nova Scotia, by the British, beginning in 1755.

A mural in downtown Lunenburg

Sign directing visitors to the "Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic" in Lunenburg

The Lunenburg Logo

Canadian Heritage Plaque at the Lunenburg Academy

The Lunenburg Academy 1895 -- a National Historic Site

East side of Lunenburg Harbour -- Old Labrador site

An echo of our peoples' past history and the ghosts of ancestors who lived there, arise from the pages of the 1708 census taken at La Have, often referred to as the "Indian" census of November 1708 and described as the Census of the Indians in Acadia residing on the East Coast and those of Pintagouet and of Canibeky. In La Heve, Acadia.

Here, in the 1708 census' original, non-transcribed format, may be found, along with the names of offspring, some of our oldest, most close-knit, and storied families on record including (1.) "Pierre Briart" and "Marie Thibodeau," (2.) "Joseph Boutin" and "Marie Briart," (3.) "Martin Briart" and "Marie Godet," (4.) "Jean Godet" and "Jeanne Briart," (5.) "Rene La Bauve" and "Anne Briart," (6.) "Jean Petit" and "Jeanne Fauveau," (7.) "Claude Guedry" and "Marguerite Petit Pas," and (8.) "Jean Baptiste Guedry" and "Madeleine Mieusse."

In his article, "A Case Study in Mi’kmaq-New England Relations in the Early 18th Century," Bill Wicken offers a historical context, and insights into the community and families of the area, as he explains the events and circumstances that led to the public hanging of Jean Baptiste Guedry and his 14-year old son, in Boston, for the overtaking of an English fishing sloop, the Tyrel, that had sailed into the harbor at Merligueche on the 25th of August, 1726.

To lend support for the tightly-woven, inter-relationships he observes among the Mi'kmaq and Acadian families in the area, in a footnote in this same article, Wicken writes, "This is shown by the 1708 census which records both Mi'kmaq and métis settlements at Mirligueche and lists Philippe d'Azit's family as part of the Mi'kmaq community. Moreover, Micmac and not French was the principal language of communication within d'Azit's family, as suggested by the fact that the Meuse brothers' depositions were taken in Micmac. Finally, all references in French correspondence refer to the "Indians" who were hung in Boston. See Saint-Ovide à Armstrong, 3 novembre 1727, vol. 38, fo. 203v, CO. 217."

Panel: Old French Cemetery

Tombstones in the Old French Cemetery

Lunenburg Wharf

For further reading and reference:

• Link to: DesBrisay, Mather B. (1895). History of the county of Lunenburg. Harvard University. https://archive.org/details/historycountylu00desbgoog
  
• Link to: McCann, L. (2022). Lunenburg. In The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/lunenburg
  
• Link to: Nova Scotia Archives. Place-Names and Places of Nova Scotia. https://archives.novascotia.ca/places/page/?ID=384
  
• Recensement general fait au mois de novembre mile sept cent huit de tous les sauviages de lAcadie qui resident dans la coste de l?est et de ceux de Pintagouet et de Canibeky famille par famille, leurs ages, celuy de leurs femmes et enfants. 1708-11. Description: "Unsigned census, possibly compiled in Acadia, and dated November 1708, of Indians and French residing on the eastern coast of Acadia, as well as those living in Pintagouet and Canibeky." https://collections.carli.illinois.edu/digital/collection/nby_eeayer/id/20888/rec/8
  
• Wicken, B. (1993). 26 August 1726: A Case Study in Mi’kmaq-New England Relations in the Early 18th Century. Acadiensis, 23(1), 5. Retrieved from https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/Acadiensis/article/view/11961