| CONNECTICUT - 731 Acadians
Perhaps the first ship to leave for Connecticut
was the Mermaid. Capt. Shirley sailed the Mermaid from
Annapolis Royal on Oct. 13 and was supposed to be bringing Acadians to
Connecticut. But it arrived at Massachusetts on Nov. 17. I
haven't found whether or not it made it to Connecticut.
A ship called the Two Sisters was supposed
to take 280 Acadians to Connecticut, but was replaced by the 166 ton ship,
Elizabeth.
Captained by Ebenezer Rockwell, it left Annapolis Royal on Dec. 8 with
the 280 Acadians. Three Acadians died on the way, but the ship finally
arrived at New London on Jan. 21, 1756 with 277 Acadians.
The following day, 173 Acadians from Pisiquid,
Grand Pre, and Mines arrived. (This is from Brasseaux.
Does this include the Dove mentioned by Lauviere below?)
Capt. Samuel Forbes sailed the 87 ton sloop
Dove
from Boudrot Point (Minas) on Dec. 18, 1755. His "cargo" of 114 Acadians
arrived in Connecticut on Jan. 30, 1756.
Lawrence specifically mentioned the Dove in an Aug. 11, 1755 letter
where he says "if it is not very inconvenient I would have you send the
Sloop Dove to Annapolis to take on board part of the inhabitants there
destined for Connecticut to which place that vessel belongs." [Selections
from Public Documents of the Province of Nova Scotia, p. 273]
The next group didn’t arrive until May 1756.
The 139 ton sloop Edward, captained by Ephram Cooke, had left Annapolis
Royal at 5 a.m. on Monday, Dec. 8, 1755 with 278 Acadians. A bad
storm blew it off course and and it docked in Antigua. While there, many
died of disease (smallpox). Eventually the Edward made it to Connecticut
on May 22, 1756 with only 180 Acadians. (Brasseaux
says 260 Acadians) LaFreniere states that almost 100 had died
of malaria. When they got to Connecticut, what little belongings
they had were burned so that the disease wouldn't be spread.
According to Al Lafreniere, the Connecticut
gazette noted that another unnamed sloop that left Minas on Nov. 30, 1755
with 173 exiles made it to Connecticut, arriving on Jan. 22, 1756.
The captain (Worster) may have been John Worster. Noted in Winslow's
Journa, John Worster left Fort Cumberland on Oct. 27, 1755. The other
ships to Connecticut sailed from Annapolis Royal and Minas, but some of
the Connecticut Acadians came from other areas of Acadia. Running
behind the other ships, it could be that he was assigned to pick up the
remaining Acadians from the isthmus and elsewhere. Since Osgood shipped
out 732 Acadians, and only 600 are "identified" ... this may be where the
other 132 ended up.
In 1763, 666 Acadians petitioned to be sent
to France, but were denied. Some of them subsequently migrated to Saint
Domingue to face hard labor and tropical weather. Some of these survivors
eventually made it to Louisiana. Of those Acadians who stayed in Connecticut,
240 chartered a boat (the Pitt) in 1767 and sailed north (to the
St. John River Valley, in New Brunswick or Quebec). There is some evidence
that some Acadians remained in Connecticut. |