Daniel LeBlanc (settler)

Daniel LeBlanc
Born	c. 1626 France
Died	1695-1698
Residence	Port Royal, Nova Scotia
Spouse(s)	Francoise Gaudet
Children	Jacques LeBlanc Francoise LeBlanc Etienne LeBlanc Rene LeBlanc Andre LeBlanc Antoine LeBlanc Pierre LeBlanc

Daniel LeBlanc (c. 1626 - c. 1695) was an early settler of the Port Royal area of Acadia, and ancestor to many LeBlancs.

Biography

Daniel LeBlanc was born in 1626^[1][2][3] and emigrated from France sometime before the year 1650.[1] However, his exact place of origin and ancestry are not known. Neither the ship that he used to reach Acadia nor the specific date of his arrival can be confirmed.[2]

After his arrival, Daniel LeBlanc settled on the north bank of the Rivière-au-Dauphin, to the northeast of the marsh at Bélisle, about 9 miles (14 km) up river from the fort at Port Royal and a half mile (1 km) below the chapel of Saint-Laurent. About 1650, he married Françoise Gaudet, a widow with a small daughter, Marie Gaudet, from her previous marriage. Together, they became parents to one daughter and six sons.

Children of Daniel Leblanc and Francoise Gaudet:

1. Jacques Leblanc, Born in 1651 in Port Royal.

2. Francoise Marie Leblanc, Born in 1653 in Port Royal.

3. Etienne Leblanc, Born in 1656 in Port Royal.

4. Renee Leblanc, Born in 1657 in Port Royal.

5. Andre Leblanc, Born in 1659 in Port Royal.

6. Antoine Leblanc, Born in 1662 in Port Royal.

7. Pierre Leblanc, Born in 1664 in Port Royal.

LeBlanc became a well-respected and relatively prosperous farmer in Port-Royal.[3] Around 1690, he became a member of a group of six commissioners who were charged with providing administrative and judicial oversight for the colony. Along with his neighbors, he was caught up in the settlement’s shifting political fortunes resulting from international conflict between France and England. In 1695, after a regime change, LeBlanc signed an oath of allegiance to the King of England.

Daniel LeBlanc died at Port-Royal sometime between the oath of 1695 and the census of 1698.^[4]

Descendants

By 1755, the descendants of Daniel and Francoise LeBlanc had created the largest family in Acadia. Le Grand Dérangement (The Great Expulsion) of the 1750s scattered this huge family to the winds. Since most of the LeBlancs lived in the Minas settlements, dozens of them fell into the hands of the British in the fall of 1755 and ended up on ships bound for Maryland, Virginia, and other English colonies down the Atlantic seaboard. Some were sent to Louisiana. LeBlancs were among the first families of Acadia and some of the earliest Acadians to find refuge in Louisiana. The first descendants of Daniel LeBlanc to emigrate to the colony reached New Orleans in February 1765 with the party from Halifax via Saint-Domingue led by Joseph Broussard dit Beausoleil. After a brief stay in the city, during which one of them exchanged his Canadian card money for Louisiana funds, they followed the Broussards to the Atakapas District, where they helped created La Nouvelle-Acadie on the banks of Bayou Teche. All of the LeBlanc's in Louisiana are direct descendants of Daniel LeBlanc and Francoise Gaudet. It is now estimated that there are somewhere between 300,000 and 500,000 descendants scattered over all the continents of the globe, the biggest concentration being in Canada (in the provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Quebec) and the United States of America (in Louisiana and the states of New England).

Notes

[1] Stephen A. White, “Origins of the Pioneers of Acadia according to the Depositions made by their Descendants at Belle-Île-en-Mer in 1767,” (2005, corrected 2014) www.acadian-home.org/acadian-origins.html; Stephen A. White, Dictionnaire généalogique des familles acadiennes, Part I, 1636 to 1714 (Moncton, N.B.: Centre d’études acadiennes, University of Moncton, 1999), 983f; Stephen A. White, English Supplement to the Dictionnaire généalogique des Familles acadiennes, Part I, 1636 to 1714 (Moncton, N.B.: Centre d’études acadiennes, University of Moncton, 2000), p. 209.

[2] Charles Vianney Campeau, “Navires venus en Nouvelle-France. Gens de mer et passagers des origins a 1699” http://naviresnouvellefrance.net/index.html#recherchegensdemer and

http://naviresnouvellefrance.net/html/vaisseaux2/Rechercheequipagespassagers.html#engagesBucheton

[3] See 17th and 18th century Acadian censuses available at the Library and Archives Canada (Ottawa), Film C-2752. These censuses can also be found at http://www.acadian-home.org/census-acadia.html.

References