APPENDICES

Acadians Who Found Refuge in Louisiana, February 1764-early 1800s

CORPORON

[CAR-puh-ronh]

ACADIA

Jean Corporon, a farmer from France, married Françoise, oldest daughter of François Savoie, at Port-Royal in c1670.  She gave him 15 children.  Four of their daughters married into the Boudrot, Doucet, Le Clerc dit Laverdure, and Hébert families.  At Annapolis Royal in the early 1700s, younger daughter Isabelle had a natural son by René Fontaine and other natural children by unrecorded fathers, and another younger daughter, Marguerite, had a natural daughter and a natural son by Jean Lecul and Jean Clémenceau, before they "married" into the Johnson dit Jeanson and Samuel families.  Three of Jean and Françoise's four sons created families of their own: 

Oldest son Jacques, born probably at Port-Royal in c1675, survived childhood but did not marry. 

Jean-Baptiste l'aîné, born probably at Port-Royal in c1677, married Marie, daughter of Philippe Pinet and Catherine Hébert, probably at Port-Royal in c1702.  They had 10 children, including two sons who married into the Bourhis and Viger dit Brigeau families.  Jean-Baptiste and Marie's daughters married into the Lartigue, Latapy dit La Fleur, Bourhis, and Lechoux families.  In the 1710s, Jean-Baptiste took his family from Minas to Port-Toulouse on Île Royale, today's Cape Breton Island, and died there in March 1741, in his mid-60s.  

Martin, born probably at Port-Royal in c1687, married first to Cécile, daughter of François Joseph dit Lejeune and Jeanne Lejeune dit Briard, and widow of Étienne Rivet, probably at Port-Royal in c1708.  They settled at Pigiguit in the Minas Basin and had three children, including a son, Pierre, who married into the Viger and Simon families.  Neither of Martin and Cécile's daughters married.  Martin remarried to Marie-Josèphe, daughter of François Viger and Marie Mius, in c1718; Martin's new wife was the aunt of his son Pierre's first wife, Marie-Josèphe Viger.  Martin and his second wife had six children.  Neither of their two sons created families of their own.  Their four daughters married into the Trahan, Roy, Dupuis dit Raymond, Lejeune, and Simoneau families.  Martin took his family to the French Maritimes and died probably on Île St.-Jean, today's Prince Edward Island, by July 1750, when his wife remarried to a Benoit at Port-Lajoie. 

Youngest son Jean le jeune, born probably at Port-Royal in c1692, married Jeanne Pichot in c1730.  He was recorded on Île Royale in 1749, but he died at Port-Lajoie, Île St.-Jean, in September 1756, age 68. 

[For more of this family in pre- and post-dispersal Acadia and Canada, see Book Three]

In 1755, descendants of Jean Corporon could be found at Mirliguèche on the Atlantic coast southwest of Halifax, perhaps in the Minas Basin, and especially on French-controlled Île Royale and Île St.-Jean. 

LE GRAND DÉRANGEMENT

[For the family's travails during the Great Upheaval, see Book Six]

LOUISIANA:  RIVER SETTLEMENTS

The first Corporon to find refuge in Louisiana was Marie-Osite-Anne, age 31, daughter of Martin Corporon and his second wife Marie-Josèphe Viger, who reached New Orleans from Maryland in 1766 with her husband François Simoneau, age 38, a native of Lorraine, France.  They and their four children, ages 6 to infancy, followed their fellow Maryland exiles to Cabanocé/St.-Jacques on the river above New Orleans.  By the late 1770s, they had moved downriver to Ascension.  

LOUISIANA:  WESTERN SETTLEMENTS

Marie-Osite-Anne's older sister Marie also came to Spanish Louisiana.  She arrived in October 1769 with husband Honoré Trahan, age 43, and their 18-year-old son Pierre.  They, too, had come to the colony from Maryland--in this case, Port Tobacco--but their experience was very different from that of Marie's sister Marie-Osite-Anne and the Simoneaus.  Marie and her family left Port Tobacco in early 1769 aboard the ill-fated British schooner Britannia.  With them were other Acadian families and eight German Catholic families who also chose to settle in Spanish Louisiana.  The English ship captain somehow missed the mouth of the Mississippi River, and the Britannia ran aground on the Texas coast near Espiritu Santo Bay.  Spanish officials, who feared that these ragged refugees were smugglers or spies, held them at La Bahía for six long months, until word reached the presidio commander that the crew and passengers of this vessel were harmless.  After a harrowing overland trek from La Bahía to Natchitoches, which they reached in October, Marie and Honoré chose to settle in the Opelousas District, north of Attakapas: They settled west of the Atchafalaya Basin in the Opelousas District, where Honoré had family.  Marie died at Opelousas in August 1810; the priest who recorded her burial said that she was "de cent ans et plus," or over 100 years old, when she died, but she was closer to 90.  

LOUISIANA:  LAFOURCHE VALLEY SETTLEMENTS

During the late 1780s and early 1790s, Spanish officials were counting Marie-Anne-Osite Corporon, her husband François Simoneau, and their children on upper Bayou Lafourche.  Marie-Anne-Osite died at Assumption on the upper Lafourche in September 1802, in her late 60s.

CONCLUSION

No male Corporon came to Louisiana, so this old Acadian family, except for its blood, did not take root in the Bayou State.  However, all of the many Simoneuxs of South Louisiana, and many of the Trahans, are Corporons through the maternal line.  

The family's name also is spelled Corporeaux, Corpran, Corpron.  [See also Book Ten]

Sources:  Arsenault, Généalogie, 494-95, 1366-68; Brasseaux, Founding of New Acadia, 105; Hébert, D., Acadians in Exile, 86; <islandregister.com/1752.html>; <perso.orange.fr/froux/St_malo_arrivees/5bateaux.htm>, Family No. 135; White, DGFA-1, 363, 411-17, 620, 1033; White, DGFA-1 English, 92-93, 130, 220.

Settlement Abbreviations 
(present-day civil parishes that existed in 1861 are in parenthesis; hyperlinks on the abbreviations take you to brief histories of each settlement):

Asc

Ascension

Lf

Lafourche (Lafourche, Terrebonne)

PCP

Pointe Coupée

Asp

Assumption

Natc

Natchitoches (Natchitoches)

SB San Bernardo (St. Bernard)

Atk

Attakapas (St. Martin, St. Mary, Lafayette, Vermilion)

Natz

San Luìs de Natchez (Concordia)

StG

St.-Gabriel d'Iberville (Iberville)

BdE

Bayou des Écores (East Baton Rouge, West Feliciana)

NO

New Orleans (Orleans)

StJ

St.-Jacques de Cabanocé (St. James)

BR

Baton Rouge (East Baton Rouge, West Baton Rouge)

Op

Opelousas (St. Landry, Calcasieu)

For a chronology of Acadian Arrivals in Louisiana, 1764-early 1800s, see Appendix.

The hyperlink attached to an individual's name is connected to a list of Acadian immigrants for a particular settlement and provides a different perspective on the refugee's place in family and community. 

Name Arrived Settled Profile
Marie CORPORON 01 Oct 1769 Natc, StG, Op born c1719, probably Annapolis Royal; daughter of Martin CORPORON & his second wife Marie-Josèphe VIGER; sister of Marie-Osite-Anne; married, age 27, Honoré, son of Étienne TRAHAN & Marie-Françoise ROY of Pigiguit, c1746, probably Pigiguit; at Baie des Espangnols, Île Royale, Apr 1752, age 33; moved to Lunenburg/Mirliguèche, NS, after Oct 1754; imprisoned on George's Island, Halifax, Sep 1755; exiled to NC, Dec 1755, aboard sloop Providence, age 36; moved to MD, c1760; in report of Acadians at Port Tobacco, MD, Jul 1763, called Marie TRAHAN, with husband, daughter, son, & 2 orphans; departed Port Tobacco 5 Jan 1769 aboard English schooner Britannia with husband, son Pierre, & orphan Joseph LEJEUNE; lost in the Gulf of Mexico & held by Spanish at La Bahia, TX; arrived Natchitoches Post, LA, 24 Oct 1769, overland from TX, age 50; settled below Bayou Plaquemine, St.-Gabriel District, with other Acadian exiles from the Britannia, Apr 1770; moved to Opelousas District; in Opelousas census, 1774, unnamed, with husband & 1 child; in Opelousas census, 1777, called Marie CORPRON, age 61(?)[sic], with husband & no others; in Opelousas census, 1785, unnamed, with husband & no others; in Opelousas census, 1788, Bellevue, unnamed, with husband & no others; died [buried] Opelousas 19 Aug 1810, age "de cent ans et plus," or "over 100[sic] years old"; one of the author's maternal ancestors~~
Marie-Osite-Anne CORPORON 02 Sep 1766 StJ, Asc, Asp, Lf born c1735, Annapolis Royal; called Anne; daughter of Martin CORPORON & his second wife Marie-Josèphe VIGER; sister of Marie; at Baie-des-Espagnols, Île Royale, Apr 1752, called Osite, age 17, with "cousin" Étienne TRAHAN, father of sister Marie's husband Honoré; returned to Minas Basin, early 1750s?; exiled to MD 1755, age 20?; married, age 24, François SIMONEAU of Lorraine, France, c1759, probably MD; in report on Acadians at Oxford, MD, Jul 1763, called Anne no surname given, with husband François SIMONET, sons Joseph SIMONET, René SIMONET, & Jacques SIMONET; arrived LA Sep 1766, age 31; in Cabanocé census, 1769, occupying lot number 129, left [east] bank, called Marie CORPRON, age 34, with husband François SIMON age 41, sons Joseph age 9, René age 7, Alexis age 3, Morize age 6 mos., & daughter Margueritte age 5, 6 arpents, 0 slaves, 7 cattle, 0 horses, 18 pigs, 0 sheep, 1 musket; in Ascension census, 1777, right [west] bank, family no. 29, called Marie CORPRON, age 41, with husband François SIMONOS age 47[sic], sons Joseph age 17, Renée age 16, Alexis age 10, Maurice age 8, daughters Margueritte age 12, Marie age 6, Françoise age 2, 12 arpents, 1 slave, 26 cattle, 3 horses 0 sheep, 23 hogs, 2 arms; in Valenzuela census, 1788, right [west] bank, called Marie, no surname given, age 52, with husband François SIMONEAUX age 59, sons Alexis age 21, Maurice age 19, daughters Marie age 16, Poulonne age 13, 1 slave, 6 arpents next to son Joseph, 10 qts. rice, 60 qts. corn, 12 horned cattle, 5 horses, 30 swine; in Valenzuela census, 1791, right [west] bank, called Marie CORPRAN, age 55, with husband François SIMONEAU, age 60, sons Alexis age 24, Maurice age 22, daughter [called "his wife" in error] Françoise-Poulone age 16, 1 slave, 3 arpents next to son Joseph, 0 qts. rice, 300 qts. corn, 18 horned cattle, 6 horses, 20 swine; in Valenzuela census, 1797, called Marie CORPRON, Widow, age 62, with son Morice [SIMONEAUX] age 27, 0 slaves, next to son Joseph SIMONEAUX; in Valenzuela census, 1798, called Marie CORPRON, age 60[sic], with son Morice SIMONEAU age 28, 2/60 arpents, 0 slaves; died [buried] Assumption 27 Sep 1802, age 67

NOTES

01.  Wall of Names, 26, calls her Marie CORPORON; White, DGFA-1, 415, calls her Marie [CORPORON], & provides her parents' names & other personal information; Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 1-B:711 (Opel. Ch.: v.1, p.111), her death/burial record, calls her Honoré (widow) TRAHAN, does not give her parents' names, & says she was buried "at age 'de cent ans et plus' (literally 100 years and more, over 100 years old."  See also De La Roque "Tour of Inspection," Canadian Archives, 2A:49; De Ville, Southwest LA Families, 1777, 25; Jehn, Acadian Exiles in the Colonies, 152.

She was closer to 90 when she died, but still. ... 

02.  Wall of Names, 25 (pl. 6L), calls her Marie CORPORON, & lists her with her husband & 4 children; Arsenault, Généalogie, 2593, her husband's profile, whom he calls Francois SIMON dit SIMONEAUX, calls her Marie CORPORON, says she was born in 1735, does not give her parents' names, & says she married Francois c1759 but does not say where; White, DGFA-1, 415, calls her Marie-Osite-Anne [CORPORON], provides her personal information, including her presence on the De La Roque recensement of Île Royale & Île St.-Jean in 1752 with a cousin, says she married Francois c1759 but does not say where, spells his surname SIMONEAU, & does not give his parents' names; BRDR, 2:204 (ASM-3, 33), her death/burial record, calls her Maria CORPERON, "widow of Francisco SIMONAUX," but does not give her parents' names.  See also Bourgeois, Cabanocey, 177; De La Roque "Tour of Inspection," Canadian Archives, 2A:50; Jehn, Acadian Exiles in the Colonies, 157; Robichaux, Bayou Lafourche, 1770-98, 13, 23, 67, 106, 113, 154; Voorhies, J., Some Late Eighteenth Century Louisianians, 477.

White & the Jul 1763 report in MD are not the only places where she is called Anne.  See the birth/baptismal record of Antonio PLASENCIA, daughter Francoise-Apolline SIMONEAUX's son, dated 28 Oct 1800, in BRDR, 2:595 (ASM-1, 185), in which the boy's maternal grandparents are called Franciso SIMONAUX & Ana CORPERON. 

Arsenault, p.2593, has François SIMON dit SIMONEAUX marrying a third time to Geneviève HÉBERT c1772, which is absurd considering the fact that Marie CORPORON did not die until 1802.  Arsenault, p. 2593, also insists that her husband François was a SIMON from Acadia.  Stephen A. White disagrees & says that there is no evidence that François SIMONEAU, who was born in the Lorraine region of northeastern France, ever lived in Acadia.  See White, p. 1471, profile of François SIMON, son of Pierre dit Pierrot SIMON dit Boucher, which fails to mention Marie CORPORON at all, so François SIMON was not her husband.  Her actual husband, François SIMONEAU, is considered a non-Acadian here because, according to White, he never lived in greater Acadia.  

What happened to her son Jacques SIMONEAU, who was counted at Oxford, MD, in Jul 1763?  Judging from the marriage date of François & Marie, Jacques could not have been very old in 1763, which means he probably died in MD between 1763-66 while still a youngster.

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