Person:Jacques Bourgeois (1)

Origins

The origins of Jacques Bourgeois are unknown. There are stories circulating that he was baptized as the illegitimate son of Marie Bourgeois of that he is the son of Family:Nicolas Grandjehan and Marguerite Bourgeois (1). There is no evidence that Jacques Bourgeois of Acadia is this same person.

!IMMIGRATION: Website of Francois Roux <http://person.wanadoo.fr/froux/divers/stfran.html>[bad link] has an image of the original three-page passenger list of the "Saint-Francois" dated 7 May 1641, when it left France for Acadia. On it one finds the name of Jacques BOURGEOIS, surgeon, who was to be given 45 sous per year and received in advance the sum of 17 4 [?]. The document is part of a statement drafted by Nicolas Denys on 12 Dec 1641, and which enumerated all that the expedition had cost.

!CENSUS: 1678, Clarence J. d'Entremont, "Recensement de Port-Royal," in MEMOIRES DE LA SOCIETE GENEALOGIQUE CANADIENNE-FRANCAISE; vol. 22, no. 4; p. 230; sent by PERSI in Jun 1999. On verso of Folio 18: Jaq BOURGEOIS & Jeanne TRAHAN, living with two [youngest] girls, ages 15 and 12. They have 20 arpents of land, with 15 head of cattle.

!CENSUS: 1686, Port Royal, Acadia, age 67 [birth year 1619?]. Living with wife 57 and son Guillaume, 31. They have 20 arpents worked land, but no animals. [Did he not live in Beaubassin, which he helped found around 1672?].

!CENSUS: 1693, Port Royal, Acadia, age 74 [born 1619?]. Living with wife, 64, and a 3-year-old granddaughter, Jeanne. They have 15 cattle, 20 sheep, 15 pigs, on 40 arpens of land, with 1 gun.

!BIRTH-MARRIAGE-OCCUPATION-RESIDENCES: Reginald L. Olivier, YOUR ANCIENT CANADIAN FAMILY TIES; Logan, Utah, Everton, 1972; pp. 35-36; Sutro California State Library, CS89 O4. Jacques BOURGEOIS, surgeon, was born in France in 1618, and married at Port-Royal, Acadia in 1643 to Jeanne TRAHAN. He arrived in Acadia on the ship Aulnay in 1642, having the rank of Military Doctor. He was the founder of Beaubassin. Reference: 4: Bk.I, Pg. 361.

!IMMIGRATION-OCCUPATION-MARRIAGE-CHILDREN: Benjamin Joseph Bourgeois, DESCENDANTS OF JACQUES BOURGEOIS IN LOUISIANA; 1618-1900; Houston, Bourg Research, 1994; p. 4; own copy. Jacques came to North America in 1642, with eighteen other families, in his early twenties and single. He married Jeanne TRAHAN, daughter of Guillaume & Francoise CHARBONNEAU, at Port-Royale in 1643; they had ten children. Jacques was a farmer, shipbuilder, and an English interpreter. He handled coatal shipping and trading with the Indians in Baie Francoise, and traded with the English colonists living in Boston. He moved to the Chignecto Basin in 1672 with two sons and two sons-in-laws, to found a colony known as Bourgeois, where he built a flour mill and a sawmill. It later became Beaubassin. He returned to Port-Royale in 1699, where he died in his eighties.

!RESIDENCES: "1672--Jacques Bourgeois, former surgeon to d'Aulnay, establishes his own and five other families in the Beaubassin area, thus beginning a process of outmigration and shift of population center from Fort Royal to the other dikable marshlands of the peninsula." Suggests that "these pioneers merely wanted to distance themselves from the government's reinforced garrison and its attempts to regulate such things as illegal trade with the New Englanders." (See Rushton, The Cajuns, p. 310.) He moved back to Port Royal in 1698, 2 years before his death.

!MARRIAGE-CHILDREN-RESIDENCES: Called "chirurgien" (surgeon) on daughter Marie's second marriage record, "of the parish of St. Jean Baptiste of Port Royal." (DeVille, ACR, 1.)

!OCCUPATION: Was he the "officier militaire de Coupreray en Brie, Champagne", see Pedigree Chart of Peggy Walker. Has this person been confused with his father? Which one came to Acadia with d'Aulnay in 1642?

!HISTORY: A deposition [from the Public Archives of Canada] dated 31 JUL 1699 has Sieur Jacques BOURGEOIS swearing to several facts regarding the establishment of colonies in Acadia. (See text).

!DEATH: Between Jul 1699 and 1702 (Ancestral File).

1. ↑ Nova Scotia, Canada. Recensements d'Acadie (1671 - 1752)
   pg. 4.

   Recensement 1671, Port Royal, Acadie
   "Chirurgien - JACOB BOURGEOIS aagé de 50 ans, sa femme Jeanne Trahan aagé de 40 ans, Leurs enfans 10, deux de marié un garson et une fille, Jeanne, aagée de 27 ans, Charles 25, Germain 21, Marie 19, Guilleaume 16, Margueritte 13, Francoise 12, Anne 10, Marie 7 ans, Jeanne 4 ans. Leurs bestiaux à cornes 33, Leurs brebis 24, Leurs terres Labourables et en valeur en deux endroits environ ving arpans plus ou moins."

   Census: 1671, Port Royal, Acadia. Name Jacob BOURGEOIS, age 50, a surgeon or physician ("Chirurgien"), living with wife Jeanne TRAHAN, age 40 and their children (they have 10, but 2 are married). They have 33 cattle and 24 sheep on 20 arpens workable land, more or less, "en deux endroit." He is listed first of all the census records. [Does this indicate his importance in the community, geography, or both?]
   [What were the functions of a 17th century doctor?]Karen Theriot Reader

2.   "Famille Bourgeois", in Gaudet, Placide. Acadian Genealogy and Notes. (Public Archives, 1906).

   1st generation at Port Royal for the BOURGEOIS family was Jacques, "chirurgien", born 1621 in France. Jacques married in 1643 at Port Royal to Jeanne TRAHAN, born 1631 in France. Three children are listed for them: Jeanne, born 1644; Charles, born 1646; and Germain, born 1650.
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3. ↑ White, Stephen A; Hector-J Hébert; and Patrice Gallant. Dictionnaire généalogique des familles acadiennes. (Moncton, Westmorland, New Brunswick, Canada: Centre d'études acadiennes, Université de Moncton, 1999)
   vol 1, pg 251-253.
   1. 1: Jacques dit Jacob BOURGEOIS, born around 1619, a surgeon and colonizer, married around 1643 to Jeanne TRAHAN, daugher of Guillaume & Francoise CORBINEAU;ten children. He died (Belle-Ile-en-Mer Declaration) at Port Royal in 1701 (according to C. CORMIER).
4.   La généalogie des trente-sept familles hôtesses des « Retrouvailles 94 » BOURGEOIS, in White, Stephen A. http://www.umoncton.ca/umcm-ceaac/files/umcm-ceaac/wf/wf/pdf/37fam-Bourg.pdf.

   Jacques BOURGEOIS, born in France around 1619, arrived in Acadia as surgeon in 1641 on the ship "Le Saint-Francois." Around two years later he married Jeanne TRAHAN, daughter of Guillaume & Francoise CORBINEAU, and settled at Port Royal. In 1672 he sent colonists to Beaubassin, of which he is consider the founder.
   [also published as La Societe historique acadienne, CAHIERS; vol. 25, nos. 2 & 3 (Apr-Sep 1994)]

5.   Arsenault, Bona. Histoire et généalogie des Acadiens . (Quebec: Editions Lemiac, Inc. (6 vols), 1978)
   p. 456 (Port Royal).

   Born in 1621, surgeon, arrived in Acadia from France in 1642, married around 1644. On the census of 1698 he lived at Beaubassin, but later he returned to Port Royal. He had received from Governor d'Aulnay some land "en censive." A footnote further states that in the censuses he is often designated by the name of Jacob. He was lieutenant of Port Royal until the surrender on 16 AUG 1654. Around 1672 he founded the colony "Bourgeois," known later by the name of Beaubassin, on the Bay of Chignectou.

6.   Arsenault, Bona. Histoire des Acadiens. (Montreal, Quebec: Lemeac, c1978)
   pg 48.

   Jacques BOURGEOIS was one of the first settlers in Beaubassin around 1672, with his sons Charles & Germain; his pilot Pierre ARSENAULT, and others.