Port-Royal Journal
A priest the Acadian resistance – Henri Daudin
Port Royal Journal 15
In October 1753 Henri Daudin arrived in Nova Scotia. He was one of the last priests to serve the Acadian population of Port Royal before the Deportation.
“The missionary had barely settled into his parish of Pisiquid (Windsor) when he gave his attention to the question of Acadian emigration. In order to bring this about he urged the Acadians to ask leave to make “visits” in the Chignecto isthmus. At the same time he informed the authorities at Louisbourg, Île Royale that the British “will go to any expense . . . not to let the Acadians be lacking in priests,” and that “they will apply to the Pope.” This plan, aimed at keeping the Acadians in Nova Scotia, worried him greatly. He therefore sought to obtain the recall of Jean-Baptiste de Gay Desenclaves, the parish priest of Annapolis Royal, whom he considered too favourable to the policy of the British. After Desenclaves’s departure in April 1754 for Pobomcoup (in the region of Yarmouth and Pubnico), Daudin became parish priest at Annapolis.”
“In keeping with his instructions he remained in correspondence with Le Loutre, who continued to be the soul of the Acadian resistance. Some of his letters were intercepted and made known in Halifax. In fact, a junior clerk at Fort Beauséjour, Thomas Pichon, was spying for the British and was transmitting much information to the authorities. Daudin became suspect and was arrested early in October 1754, along with four of his parishioners. Upon giving his solemn promise to change his conduct, he succeeded in obtaining his liberty and returned to his post at Annapolis on 21 October.”
The last surviving record in the Saint-Jean-Baptiste registers is from late January, 1755.
The Port Royal Journal is a series dedicated to revealing the stories of everyday life in the community.
Sources:
http://biographi.ca/en/bio/daudin_henri_3E.html
An Acadian Parish Remembered
The Registers of St. Jean-Baptiste, Annapolis Royal, 1702-1755
https://novascotia.ca/archives/acadian/
𝑀𝑎𝑝𝑝𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑂𝑢𝑟 𝑆𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑠 / 𝐷𝑖𝑠𝑐𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑂𝑢𝑟𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑣𝑒𝑠 / m𝑎𝑝a𝑛𝑛𝑎𝑝𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑠.𝑐𝑎