APPENDICES

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

PRÉCIEUX

[PRAY-see-oh]

ACADIA

Joseph Prétieux, whose name eventually became Précieux, born in Charente, France, in c1665, married Anne, daughter of François Gautrot, at Port-Royal in c1688.  Joseph must have been a sailor or a merchant because his son Joseph, fils was born at La Rochelle, France, in c1689.  A daughter, Anne, born in c1691, was their only other child.  Back in Acadia, Joseph, père and his family settled at Minas, where they were counted in the census of 1693, the year that Joseph, père died.  Daughter Anne bore an illegitimate son named Jacques in June 1708 and two years later married Pierre Lalande, alias Blaise des Brousses dit Bonapetit, at Port-Royal.  

In January 1719, Joseph, fils married Anne, daughter of Michel Haché dit Gallant and Anne Cormier, at Chignecto.  In c1724, Joseph, fils and Anne moved to Port-Lajoie on Île St.-Jean, today's Prince Edward Island, where they raised six children, including three sons:  Pierre, born in c1734, Pierre-Joseph, called Joseph, in c1739, and Louis in c1741.  

One of Joseph, fils's daughters, Marie-Anne, born at Port-Lajoie in c1732, married Augustin dit Justice, son of Jean Doucet and widower of Cécile Mius, at Port-Lajoie in December 1752.  Augustin and Marie-Anne were counted that year at Rivière-du-Nord-Est on the island with Augustin's sons Joachim and Joseph Doucet by his first wife.  Augustin and Marie-Anne had two children on the island:  Pierre Doucet, born in c1753, Marie Doucet, born in c1755, and Augustin Doucet, fils, whose birth year was not recorded.    

LE GRAND DÉRANGEMENT

When British forces rounded up the Acadians in Nova Scotia in the fall of 1755, the Précieuxs and Doucets on Île St.-Jean, living in territory controlled by France, remained unmolested.  Their respite from British oppression was short-lived, however.  In late 1758, after the fall of the French fortress at Louisbourg the previous July, British soldiers rounded up most of the Acadian habitants on Île St.-Jean and deported them to France.  Marie-Anne and husband Augustin Doucet made the terrible crossing aboard separate ships.  Marie-Anne, Pierre, Marie, and Augustin, fils crossed on the British transport Tamerlan, which left the Gut of Canso in late November and reached St.-Malo in mid-January 1759.  Marie-Anne and her older children survived the crossing, but little Augustin, fils died at sea.  Marie-Anne's father Joseph Précieux, age 67, her mother Anne Haché, age 50, and brothers Joseph, age 19, and Louis, age 16, also made the crossing on the Tamerlan; they all survived.  Marie-Anne's sister Louise, wife of Jean-Baptiste Chiasson, was not so lucky.  The Chiassons crossed on one of the five British transports that left the Gut of Canso in late November and reached St.-Malo in late January 1759.  Two of their children, son Jean, age 6, and daughter Anne, age 4, died at sea.  Louise survived the crossing but died in a hospital at St.-Malo in early February.  Only husband Jean-Baptiste survived the ordeal.  Meanwhile, Augustin dit Justice Doucet, who had landed at Rochefort in early 1759, was determined to reunite with his wife and children.  He sailed from Rochefort to St.-Malo in April 1759, and he and Marie-Anne settled at nearby St.-Énogat.  

In France, Marie-Anne and Augustin had more children, including two sons, Jean-Baptiste Doucet, born at St.-Servan, near St.-Malo, in September 1766, and François Doucet, born at St.-Servan in September 1770.  In the early 1770s, they ventured to the Poitou region with other St.-Malo-area Acadians as part of a settlement scheme near the city of Châtellerault.  Marie-Anne's brother Joseph Précieux married Marguerite Benoit at Châtellerault in February 1775 but died soon afterwards.  The Poitou venture failed after two years of fruitless effort.  Most of the Poitou Acadians, including Marie-Anne and her family, retreated in four convoys from Châtellerault to the port city of Nantes, where they survived as best they could on government handouts or what work they could find in the area.  Marie-Anne was a widow by September 1784, when she was counted at Nantes with two of her sons, Jean-Baptiste and François Doucet.   

In the early 1780s, the Spanish government offered the Acadians in France the chance for a new life in faraway Louisiana.  Marie-Anne Précieux, widow of Augustin dit Justice Doucet, was the only descendant of Joseph Prétieux who agreed to go to the colony.

LOUISIANA:  LAFOURCHE VALLEY SETTLEMENTS

Marie-Anne Précieux, age 52, and two Doucet sons--Jean-Baptiste, 19, and François, 14--sailed to Louisiana aboard L'Amitié, the fifth of the Seven Ships from France, which reached New Orleans in November 1785.   After a brief respite in the city, they followed the majority of the passengers from their ship to upper Bayou Lafourche.  They settled in a community the Acadians would call Assumption, in the district the Spanish called Valenzuéla.    

CONCLUSION

Marie-Anne was the only Acadian Précieux who emigrated to Louisiana, so the Acadian branch of this family did not take root in the Bayou State.  Its blood, however, was perpetuated in two lines of the Doucet family. 

Sources:  Arsenault, Généalogie, 1278-79; <perso.orange.fr/froux/St_malo_arrivees/Tamerlan.htm>, Family Nos. 5, 8; <perso.orange.fr/froux/St_malo_arrivees/5bateaux.htm>, Family No. 58; Robichaux, Acadians in Chatellerault, 35-36, 86, 121, 138; Robichaux, Acadians in St.-Malo, 276-78, 942, 943, 1084; White, DGFA-1, 1353.

Settlement Abbreviations 
(present-day parishes that existed during the War Between the States in parenthesis; hyperlinks on the abbreviations take you to brief histories of each settlement):

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. 

NOTES

01.  Wall of Names, 39 (pl. 10L), calls her Marie-Anne PRÉCIEUX sa [Jean-Baptiste DOUCET's] mère, & lists her with no husband & 2 sons; Arsenault, Généalogie, 1279, calls her Marie-Anne PRÉTIEUX, says she was born in 1732 but gives no birthplace, gives her parents' names, says her wedding date was 14 Feb 1752, calls her husband Augustin DOUCET dit Justice, gives his parents' names, & calls his mother Francoise BOURG; <perso.orange.fr/froux/St_malo_arrivees/Tamerlan.htm>, Family No. 8, calls her Anne PRÉCIEUX, femme de TOUSSAINT Augustin (déja en France), says she was 26 years old & shows that in the crossing to St.-Malo in 1758-59, she, son Pierre TOUSSAINT, age 6, & daughter Marie TOUSSAINT, age 2 survived the crossing, but that son Augustin TOUSSAINT, fils, no age given, died at sea; Robichaux, Acadians in St.-Malo, 276-78, Family No. 340, calls her Marie-Anne PRÉCIEUX, says she was born in c1733 but gives no birthplace, gives her parents' names, details her marriage, says she married on 14 Dec 1752, calls her husband Augustin DOUCET called JUSTICE, says he was born in c1719 but gives no birthplace, gives his parents' names, calls his mother Francoise BLANCHARD, gives his first wife's name, says she was born in c1717 but gives no birthplace, does not gives her parents' names, says he married her in c1742 but gives no place of marriage, says she was buried 26 Jan 1751, Port-Lajoie, includes the birth/baptismal & death/burial records of son Pierre DOUCET, born in c1753 but gives no birthplace, daughter Marie DOUCET, born in c1755 but gives no birthplace, daughter Rose DOUCET, born & baptized 15 Apr 1760, St.-Enogat, goddaughter of Joseph PRECIEUX (her maternal uncle) and Marie MACE, died age 7 on 28 Nov 1766, [buried] next day, St.-Servan, daughter Renée-Catherine DOUCET, born 29 Jun 1762, baptized next day, St.-Enogat, goddaughter of Jacques CORMIER & Renée GOUYON, son Augustin-Silvestre DOUCET, born & baptized 24 Jul 1764, St.-Enogat, godson of Pierre BOUDROT & Anne JACQUEMINE, son Jean-Baptiste DOUCET, born & baptized 11 Sep 1766, St.-Servan, godson of Geffray-Jean RUEL & Marie GROSSIN, son Francois-Adrien DOUCET, born 16 Apr 1768, baptized next day, St.-Servan, godson of Adrien BANASTRE & Francoise BOUDROT, died age 3 mos. 3 Mar 1769, buried next day, St.-Servan, & son Francois DOUCET, born & baptized 17 Sep 1770, St.-Servan, godson of Francois JEANBAR & Marie DOUCET, says that she, her husband, & his sons Joachim & Joseph DOUCET "were residents of Rivière-du-Nord-Est on Isle St.-Jean" in 1752, that "Anne PRÉCIEUX, wife of Augustin DOUCET and her children: Pierre and Marie DOUCET disembarked at St.-Malo on January 16, 1759 from the ship, Le Tamerlan," that "Augustin DOUCET arrived in France on a separate ship," that he "arrived at St.-Malo from Rochefort on April 18, 1759," & that her family resided at St.-Énogat from 1759-64 & at St.-Servan from 1764-72; Robichaux, Acadians in Châtellerault, 35-36, Family No. 72, calls her Marie-Anne PRÉCIEUX, says she was born in c1733 but gives no birthplace, gives her parents' names, details her marriage, says she married on 14 Dec 1752, calls her husband Augustin DOUCET called Justice, says he was born in c1719 but gives no birthplace, gives his parents' names, calls his mother Françoise BLANCHARD, gives his first wife's name, says she was born in c1717 but gives no birthplace, does not give her parents' names, says he married her in c1742 but gives no place of marriage, says she was buried 26 Jan 1751, Port-Lajoie, includes the birth/baptismal, marriage, & death/burial records of daughter Marie DOUCET, born in c1755 but gives no birthplace, married Anne[sic] SAMIE on 15 Apr 1777, Cenan, & son Augustin-Silvestre DOUCET, born & baptized 24 Jul 1764, St.-Énogat, godson of Pierre BOUDROT & Anne JACQUEMINE, buried 23 Apr 1774, St.-Jean-L'Evangeliste, Châtellerault; Hébert, D., Acadian Families in Exile 1785, 70-71, calls her Marie-Anne PRÉCIEUX, sa [Jean-Baptiste DOUCET's] mère, age 52, on the embarkation list, does not include her on the debarkation list, calls her Marie-Anne PRÉCIEUX, his [Jean-Baptiste DOUCET's] mother, age 52, on the complete listing, says she was in the 20th Family aboard L'Amitié with no husband & 2 sons, & details her marriage, gives her but not her husband's parents' names, gives her husband's first wife's name, & says she & her husband married in 1752 but gives no place of marriage.  

Why did the debarkation list for Tamerlan in Jan 1759 call her husband Augustin TOUSSAINT?  Was this a reference to his dit, Justice?  

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