LANCASTER IN ACADIE AND THE ACADIENS IN LANCASTER.
BY HENRY S. NOURSE.
It is almost one hundred and thirty years
" ... since the burning of Grand-Pre,
When on the falling tide the freighted vessels departed,
Bearing a nation, with all its household gods, into exile;
Exile without an end, and without an example in story."
Of the numerous readers of Evangeline in Lancaster, few now suspect how nearly the sad tale of wantonly-ravaged Acadie touched their own town history. From the archives of Nova Scotia all details of that deed of merciless treachery were left out, for very shame; but upon the crown officials then in authority over the Province, history and poetry have indelibly branded the stigma of an unnecessary edict of expulsion, which devastated one of the fairest regions of America, and tore seven thousand guileless and peaceful people from a scene of rural felicity rarely equaled on earth, to scatter them in the misery of abject poverty, among strangers speaking a strange tongue and hating their religion. The agents who faithfully executed the cruel decree were Massachusetts men, reluctantly obedient to "his Majesty's orders," given them specifically in writing by Charles Lawrence, Governor of Nova Scotia.
On the twentieth of May, 1755, Lieutenant-Colonel John Winslow embarked at Boston with a force of about two thousand men, organized in two battalions. They were enlisted for the term of one year, unless sooner discharged, for the special service of dislodging the French from their newly fortified positions along the north side of the Bay of Fundy, and on the isthmus connecting New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. Among the vessels of the fleet was the sloop Victory, and to this was assigned a company belonging to the second, or Lieutenant-Colonel Scott's, battalion, largely composed of, and officered by, Lancaster men, a list of whose names is subjoined:--
[pg 239]
Captain Abijah Willard.
First Lieutenant "Haskal." [Henry Haskell ?]
Second Lieutenant Willard. [Levi ?]
Ensign Willard. [Aaron ?]
SERGEANTS.
Thomas Beman, husbandman, aged 25
James Houghton, " " 25
CORPORALS.
Jacob Willard, husbandman aged 31
Thomas Willard, " " 23
DRUMMERS.
Joseph Farnsworth, husbandman aged 20
Joseph Phelps, " " 21
PRIVATES,
Benjamin Atherton, laborer aged 20
Phineas Atherton, " " 16
Daniel Atherton, " " 21
Jonathan Brown, " " 17
Joseph Bailey, " " 30
Phineas Divoll, " " 22
Abel Farnsworth, husbandman " 22
John Farnsworth, laborer " 30
Jeremiah Field, " " 18
Ephraim Goss, " " 22
Thomas Henderson, " " 40
Daniel Harper, " " 21
Elias Haskell, cooper " 19
William Hutson, cordwainer " 22
John Johnson, laborer " 22
Samuel Kilham " " 20
Matthias Larkin," " 30
Joseph Metcalf, cooper " 21
Joseph Pratt, laborer " 30
Joseph Priest, " " 45
Daniel Sanders, " " 19
Isaac Sollendine, laborer " 21
Jacob Stiles, housewright " 19
Lemuel Turner, laborer " 18
Nathaniel Turner, " " 18
William Turner, " " 18
Aaron Wilder, " " 30
William Warner, " " 20
David Wilson, " " 18
Levi Woods, laborer aged 20
Silas Willard, " " 19
Uziah Wyman, apothecary " 21
John Warner, laborer " 20
James Willard, " " 18
John Wilson, " " 20
Besides the above forty-five, there were, in other companies, three natives of Lancaster:--
Nathaniel Johnson, yeoman aged 25
Jonas Moor, " " 32
John Rugg, husbandman " 31
What special part these men took in the investment and capture of the formidable fort of Beau Sejour, or in the assaults upon the minor forts, neither record nor tradition tell, and we are equally uninformed respecting their participation in the pitiable scenes enacted along the shores of Minas and Chignecto Bays. The Massachusetts Archives contain no pay-rolls of this expedition, and no papers of Captain Abijah Willard are known to exist throwing any light upon its history. That the service was not only inglorious in part, and ungrateful to the truly brave, but attended with much hardship, is attested by the following documents copied from Massachusetts Archives, lv, 62 and 63. They are there in the handwriting of Secretary Josiah Willard:--
"Sir: I have received your Letter giving me an acct. of the Hardships your poor Soldiers are exposed to. I sincerely Compassionate their unhappy case & I pray God to find out some Way for their Relief. The Governor is not expected here till the month of December. When he arrives I shall endeavour to mention the affair to him. In the mean time, I have written a Letter to Major General Winslow which I have left open, Leaving it with you to deliver it or not as you shall judge best, First sealing it before you deliver it The Council being informed that I had a Letter from you upon the subject of these Hardships of the Soldiers desired me to communicate it to them, which I did. What they will do upon it I know not.
"Octob'r 31, 1755.
To ABIJAH WILLARD."
[pg 240]
"BOSTON, Oct. 31, 1755
"Sir: I have lately received a Letter from my Kinsman Cpt. Abijah Willard expressing his tender concern for his soldiers who are exposed to ly in Tents in this cold season now coming on and their cloath now worn out. I would fain use any Interest I could make that may contribute to the Relief of these and other the Provincial soldiers in Nova Scotia in the like circumstances, but I am a perfect stranger both to Governor Lawrence & Coll. Monkton. But the acquaintance I have of you & my knowledge of your compassionate spirit, especially towards the soldiers under your command in like circumstances, urges me to write to you on this occasion (not from any Distrust I have of your care in these matters, but possibly as your Distance from the Place where this Company is quartered may keep you in some Ignorance of the Difficulties these poor men labour under) to desire you would interpose your best offices for their Relief. It seems that these men can be of little service in act of Duty required of them while they are so destitute of the necessary. Comforts & Refreshments of Life. You will excuse this Freedom. With my earnest desires of the gracious Presence of God with you & particularly to prosper your enterprises for the Good of your nation & Countrey I am, Sir, Your very humble serv't,
"JOSIAH WILLARD."
This was not Captain Willard's first experience of Nova Scotia, nor was it to be his last. Ten years before he enlisted in the expedition against Louisburg, being first lieutenant of Captain Joshua Pierce's company, in the Fourth Massachusetts Regiment, of which his father, Samuel Willard, was colonel. He was there promoted to a captaincy, July 31, 1745, three days after his twenty-first birthday. Little more than twenty years had passed from the time when he had assisted in forcing the broken-hearted Acadien farmers into exile, and again he sailed for Nova Scotia, himself a fugitive, proscribed as a Tory, his ample estate confiscated, and his name a reproach among his life-long neighbors. As thousands of French Neutrals from Georgia to Massachusetts Bay sighed away their lives with grieving for their lost Acadie, so we know Abijah Willard, so long as he lived, looked westward with yearning heart toward that elm-shaded home so familiar to all Lancastrians. On the coast of the Bay of Fundy, not far west of St. John, is a locality yet called Lancaster. Colonel Abijah Willard gave it the name. It was his retreat in exile, and there he died in 1789.
Of the thousand Acadiens apportioned to the Province of Massachusetts, the committee appointed by General Court for the duty of distributing them among the several towns, sent three families, consisting of twenty persons, to Lancaster. These were Benoni Melanson, his wife Mary, and children, Mary, Joseph, Simeon, John, Bezaleel, "Carre," and another daughter not named; Geoffroy Benway, Abigail, his wife, and children, John, Peter, Joseph, and Mary; Theal Forre, his wife Abigail, and children, Mary, Abigail, Margaret. The Forre family were soon transferred to Harvard. They arrived in February, 1756, and the accounts of the town's selectmen for their support were regularly rendered until February, 1761. They were destitute, sickly, and apparently utterly unable to support themselves, and were billeted now here, now there, among the farmers, at a fixed price of two shillings and eight-pence each per week for their board. Sometimes a house was hired for them, and, in addition to rent paid, we find in the selectmen's charges such items as these:--
[pg 241]
£ s d gr
To cash pd for an Interpreter and
paper, 3 4
To what Nessecareys we found them, 1 0 8 0
To 472 weight of Befe cost, 3 3 2 1
To Corn that they have had &
yoused, with Sauss, 10 8
To one Bushel of Salt & Salting the
Befe, 5 6
to one washing tub, 2 earthen pots
& pail, 4 0
to wood for the winter season for the
year 1757, 1 6 8
Direct evidence to the helpless condition of the two families of French Neutrals in Lancaster is given in a letter from the selectmen, dated January 24, 1757, found in Massachusetts Archives, xxiii, 330:--
"and here Foloweth an account of the curcumstances, age and sexes of those people, thare Is two famles Consisting of fifteen In Number, the whole to witt. Benoni Melanso with his wife of about fourty four or five years of age, and they have seven children thre Boyes and four Girlls, the Eldest Girl about 17 years old, the boye Next about 15 years old, Sickly. Can Do Nothing. ye Next Boy 12 years old. ye Next boy 10 years old, and ye four Girles all under them Down to two years old, and the woman almost a Criple....
The Name of the others Is Jefray--& his wife, he almost an Idot and aboute 46 years old, ... they have four children 3 Boyes & one Girll. ye Eldest Boye 10 yeares old & ye Rest Down to two years old.
"WM. RICHARDSON }
"JOHN CARTER } Selectmen of Lancaster."
"JOSHUA FAIRBANK}
Shortly after the date of the above, these unhappy people suddenly disappeared from their habitation. Reckless with homesickness, they had stolen away, and made a bold push for the sea, in the vain hope that on it they might float back to the Basin of Minas. This was in the depth of winter, February, 1757. They came to the coast at Weymouth. There they soon encountered the questioning of local authority, and to excuse their intrusion Melanson made complaint against his Lancaster guardians, the history of which is in Massachusetts Archives, xxiii, 356.
"The Committee to whom was referred the Petition of Benoni Melanzan in behalf of himself and sundrie other French People, Having met and heard the Petition and one of the Selectmen of Lancaster, relating to the several matters therein Complained of and also have heard the Representative of Weymouth where the French People mentioned in s d Petition at present reside: Beg leave to report as follows. Viz: That it doth not appear that ye Petitioner had any Grounds to complain of the selectmen of Lancaster or either of them relating the matter complained of, and therefore Beg leave further Report that the Committee are of oppinion that the said French People be ordered forthwith to Return to Lancaster from whence they in a disorderly manner withdrew themselves, all which is Humbly submited.
[pg 242]"pr order of the Comitte
"SILVANUS BOURN."
"In Council, February 24, 1757.
"Read and ordered that this Report be so far accepted as relates to the Petitioners Complaint of his Treatment at Lancaster being without Grounds, but inasmuch as the Petitioner offers to undertake for the support of himself and the other French removed from Lancaster except in the article of Firing and House Room, and is likewise willing that two of his sons be placed out in Families and inasmuch as the Petitioner is by employment a Fisherman, which cannot be exercised at Lancaster, therefore, Ordered that he have liberty to reside in the Town of Weymouth until this Court shall otherwise order, and the Selectmen of said Town are impowered to place two of his sons in English families for a reasonable term and to provide House Room for the Rest, & the liberty of cutting as much Firewood as is necessary in as convenient a Lot as can be procured. The account of the Charge of House Rent and Firewood to be allowed out of the Province Treasury.
"Sent down for concurrence.
"THOS. CLARKE, Dpty. Secy.
"Feb. 25, 1757."
"In the House of Representatives.
"Read and unanimously non concurred, and ordered that Report of the Com'tee be accepted & ye the said French Neutrals so called be directed to return forthwith to ye Town of Lancaster accordingly.
"Sent up for Concurrence.
"T. HUBBARD, Spk'r."
"In Council, Feb. 25, 1757.
"Read & Concurred. A. OLIVER, Secy.
"Consented to S. PHIPS."
They were soon again in the quarters whence they fled. In June, 1760, the Melanson family were divided between Lunenburg, Leominister, and Hardwick, while the Benways remained. Among the petitioners for leave to go to "Old France," a little later, appear "Benoni Melanson and Marie, with family of seven," and from that date the waifs from Acadie appear no more in the annals of Lancaster.