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St. Malo was named after a Welsh mond named Maclou, or Malo. He fled
to Brittany in the 6th century and became the first bishop of St. Servan,
then called Aleth. The area was still sparsely populated until a
nearby group of people arrived in the 8th century seeking refuge from the
Normans. The bishopric was moved to the island in 1144. It was later
eliminated in 1790. St. Malo grew in the 17th and 18th centuries,
from traders, seamen, and privateers.
The 1758 deportation of the Ile St. Jean & Ile Royale inhabitants started in the fall. By April 1759, 1100 Acadians had arrived at St. Malo. It is estimated that 2000+ Acadians were shipped from Ile St. Jean to France. Two of the ships, however, sank en route ... the Duke William and the Violet. An estimated 700 Acadians drowned. For those that survived the trip, many died soon after arriving. Temporary housing was set up at St. Servan. While there, they tried to reassemble into family groups. Some of these Acadians would stay in the area for the rest of their lives, though most moved on to settle at Belle-Ile-en-Mer, Poitou (then Nantes), and finally Louisiana. The town names on the map below will show up in many Acadian records of the period.
Le Loutre convinced 22 families in the St. Malo area to migrate to Belle Isle en Mer in October of 1765. Other Acadians tried to resettle at St. Pierre & Miquelon in 1767; but the islands quickly became overcrowded and they were encouraged to settle elsewhere … 163 asked to move to Cape Breton. About this time, 586 Acadians arrived at Cherbourg, LaRochelle, Rochefort, and St. Malo. By the 1770s, the Poitou settlement was developing. But the Acadians had already heard of the success of the Acadians in Louisiana. They also thought about resettling in the Sierra Morena of Spain. But the Minister rejected both ideas. The representative for the relocation ideas was Jean Jacques LeBlanc. While waiting for the money to come through for the Poitou settlement, 8 Acadian families secretly moved from St. Malo to Jersey Island. When LeMoyne learned of this, he and others pushed to have the financing for Poitou approved. A census of that time showed 1727 Acadians in the St. Malo area. But LeMoyne was having a hard time recruiting for the Poitou settlement. The first subscription had only 14 Acadians. Others later signed up, and two boats (St. Claude, Sénec) brought 154 Acadians from St. Malo to La Rochelle … arriving in September 1773. They moved on to Poitou. As at Morlaix, some Acadians became pirates (after 1778). The decrease in Acadian male population in 1779 was no doubt partly due to this. The last major migration of Acadians from the St. Malo area occurred in 1785, when 316 Acadians left for Louisiana on the Ville d'Arcangel. Some Acadians remained in St. Malo. Below is a close-up (modern-day) map of the area of the St. Malo port area. At the bottom of the page is a more encompassing view of France. The area of St. Malo 75% destroyed in World War II, but much has been rebuilt. |
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shows all of France. The area that is enlarged (above) is pointed out for you.
St. Malo Links • St.
Malo Office of Tourism
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