APPENDICES

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

SAVARY

[SAH-vuh-ree]

ACADIA

François Savary, a mason and stone cutter, was indentured to Antoine Héron "for the company of Acadia" in 1686.  In c1689, free from his contract, he married Geneviève Forest at Port-Royal.  They had one child, a son named André, who was born at Port-Royal in c1690.  When the boy was age 2, his mother remarried to Louis Mazerolle dit Saint-Louis, so François must have died soon after his son was born.  Louis Mazerolle raised André, who, in February 1712, married Marie-Marthe, daughter of Bernard Doucet dit Laverdure and Madeleine Corporon, at Annapolis Royal.  He and Marie-Marthe had 11 children, including at least three sons who created families of their own.  Three of their daughters married into the Doiron and Horne families.  In the 1730s and 1740s, André and Marie-Marthe settled at Pigiguit and Grand-Pré in the Minas Basin before moving on to Île St.-Jean, today's Prince Edward Island, in c1750; one wonders if Marie-Marthe had died by then.  In August 1752, André, now a widower, age 60, was counted at Petite-Ascension in the interior of the island with son Bernard and six unmarried children:  Charles, age 25; Marguerite, age 23; Marguerite-Josèphe, age 21; Jean-Baptiste, age 20; Françoise-Anastasie, age 18; and Charles-Olivier, age 13. 

Oldest son Bernard, born at Annapolis Royal in October 1714, married Marie, daughter of François Michel dit La Ruine and Marguerite Meunier, probably at Pigiguit in c1734.  They followed his father to Île St.-Jean and were counted at Petite-Ascension in August 1752 with seven of their 13 children:  André le jeune, age 17; Jean-Baptiste le jeune, age 14; Agness (probably Anne-Marie-Madeleine), age 10; Isaac, age 9; Rose, age 7; Charles le jeune, age 3; and Louis, age 13 months.   The British deported Bernard and members of his family to France in 1758-59.  Daughter Anne-Marie-Madeleine was the only member of the family to emigrate to Louisiana, from France in 1785.

Joseph, born at Grand-Pré in February 1721, married Françoise, daughter of Antoine Barrieau and Angélique Thibodeau, probably at Pigiguit in c1747.  He and Françoise also followed his kinsmen to Île St.-Jean, where they were counted at Anse-à-Dubuisson near Petite-Ascension in August 1752 with two children:  Joseph, age 4; and Marie, age 2.  

Charles, born at either Pigiguit or Grand-Pré in c1727, followed his father to Île St.-Jean, where he was counted with him and his siblings there in 1752, and married Louise-Geneviève, daughter of Louis Closquinet or Clossinet and Marguerite Longuépée, on the island in c1755. 

Jean-Baptiste, born probably at Minas in c1732, followed his father to Île St.-Jean, was counted with him and his siblings there in 1752, and then disappears from history. 

Youngest son Charles-Olivier, born probably at Minas in c1739, followed his father to Île St.-Jean, was counted him and his siblings there in 1752, and became a carpenter.  Along with other members of his family, he was deported to St.-Malo, France, in late 1758.  In February 1760, perhaps having become a sailor, he embarked on the ship Le Prince-Édouard and disappears from history. 

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

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Jean-Baptiste, son of Jean Savary and Jeanne Baron of Burie, Saintes, France, born in c1730, probably not kin to François the stone cutter and his descendants, came to Acadia by the mid-1750s and also settled on Île St.-Jean.  In August 1756, he married Anne, daughter of Acadians Jean Léger and Marguerite Comeau, at Port-La-Joye on Île St.-Jean.  They had a daughter, Anne, born probably at Port-La-Joye in 1757.  No member of this family went to Louisiana. 

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Thomas Savary, born at Louisbourg on Île Royale and probably not kin to the other Savarys in greater Acadia, worked as a boatswain on the Maritime island.  He married Jeanne Thériot perhaps at Louisbourg.  Like many of his Acadian namesakes, he, too, ended up in France, where he remarried to Marguerite, daughter of Roch Fabre and Michelle LeGoux of St.-Similien, Nantes, and widow of Julien Denion, at St.-Martin de Chantenay, near Nantes, in October 1782.  No member of this family emigrated to Louisiana. 

LE GRAND DÉRANGEMENT

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

LOUISIANA:  LAFOURCHE VALLEY SETTLEMENTS

Anne-Marie-Madeleine Savary, age 31, widow of Pierre Potier, crossed to Louisiana aboard La Bergère, the second of the Seven Ships from France, with her two sons, Baptiste-Olivier Potier, age 12; and Jacques-Sylvain Potier, age 7.  They reached New Orleans in August 1785 and followed most of their fellow passengers to upper Bayou Lafourche, where Anne remarried to Joseph, fils, son of fellow Acadians Joseph Granger and Marguerite Gautrot, in June 1786.  Joseph, fils, also had come to Louisiana from France, though on which vessel the records do not say.  Anne-Marie-Madeleine had no more children by him.  Her younger son Jacques-Sylvain Potier seems to have died not long after the family reached Louisiana.  Older son Baptiste-Olivier Potier married Élisabeth or Isabelle, daughter of fellow Acadians Michel Aucoin and Élisabeth Hébert, who also had come to Louisiana from France aboard the third ship Le Beaumont.  Baptiste-Olivier and Isabelle set down roots on Bayou Lafourche.

NON-ACADIAN FAMILIES in LOUISIANA

Frenchwomen with a similar-sounding surnames lived in Louisiana during the early colonial period: 

Gabrielle, daughter of Pierre Savary and Jeanne Fautisse of St.-Denis, France, was one of the 23 French maidens who came to Old Mobile, then part of French Louisiana, in August 1704.  One of the last of the so-called Pélican girls to marry, she wed Canadian Jean-Baptiste Saucier in September and gave birth to their first child in the summer of 1705.  She gave birth to her third child, named Jean-Baptiste, in November 1707. 

Louise-Françoise, called Françoise, Sauary or Savarie of Dieppe, France, married Barthélémy, son of Pierre Madre, at Old Biloxi, then a part of French Louisiana, in June 1721.  Barthélémy died at New Orleans in December 1732, and Françoise remarried to edge-tool maker Martin, son of Jean-Baptiste Godar of St.-Denis, Paris, at New Orleans in January 1733. 

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During the antebellum period, non-Acadians with similar-sounding surnames settled in Pointe Coupee Parish, at Baton Rouge, and in Iberville Parish.  They probably were not kin to one another.  One of them, in fact, was Anglo American.  Another non-Acadian with a similar-sounding surname was living in Ascension Parish during the War of 1861-65:

Pierre-Paul-Marie "nat. of Garonna in France," son of Yrené Savary, "militia capt. of the region of Conti of St. Louis," and Louise-Josèphe ____, married Constance, daughter of French Creole Jean Baptiste Pourciau, at Pointe Coupee in June 1806.  Their son Pierre Paul, fils was born in Pointe Coupee Parish in July 1811. 

William Bekus, son of Joseph Savary or Savory and Elizabeth Johnson of New York, married Marguerite, daughter of Antoine Senz, Sons, Sonns, or Suns, at the Baton Rouge church, East Baton Rouge Parish, in September 1814.  Their son Ira Joseph was born near Baton Rouge in August 1815, Samuel Allain near St. Gabriel, Iberville Parish, in February 1826, Cornelius Samuel in February 1829, and Jules Stanislas in May 1834.  They also had a son named Édouard D., who married Marie Joséphine, daughter of Anglo American Jules Peters, at the Plaquemine church, Iberville Parish, in September 1862.  William B.'s daughter married into the Marionneaux family. 

Victor Savary, also called Sovere, married Félicie Acosta, place and date unrecorded, and settled in Ascension Parish by the early 1860s. 

François Savory married Sarah Ann Irvin, place and date unrecorded, and settled near Plaquemine, Iberville Parish, by the mid-1860s.  Was François kin to William Bekus and his sons?  Perhaps he was another son of William Bekus. 

CONCLUSION

No male descendant of an Acadian Savary emigrated to Louisiana.  However, the blood of one family, that of François Savary of Port-Royal and Île St.-Jean, survived through a line of the Potier family that sprang from one of his granddaughters.  The Savarys, or Savorys, of South Louisiana today are descended from Foreign French or Anglo Americans, not Acadians. 

The family's name also is spelled Sauary, Savari, Savarie, Savorie, Savory, Severio, Sevre, Sovere.  [See also Book Ten]

Sources:  Arsenault, Généalogie, 793-94, 2139-40; BRDR, vols. 2, 3, 5(rev.), 6, 7, 9, 10; De La Roque, "Tour of Inspection," Canadian Archives 1905, 2A:104-06; Hébert, D., Acadians in Exile, 140-41, 404; Higginbotham, Old Mobile, 584; <islandregister.com/1752.html>; NOAR, vol. 1; <perso.orange.fr/froux/St_malo_arrivees/Supply.htm>, Family No. 21; <perso.orange.fr/froux/St_malo_arrivees/5bateaux.htm>, Family No. 167; Robichaux, Acadians in Nantes, 152; Robichaux, Acadians in St. Malo, 725-27, 761, 855; White, DGFA-1, 1454-56; White, DGFA-1 English, 305-06.

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):

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, 30 (pl. 7L), calls her Anne SAVARY veuve POTTIER, & lists her with 2 sons; Arsenault, Généalogie, 793-94, 2140, profiles of her father in the Port-Royal & Île St.-Jean sections, call her Marie-Madeleine SAVARY, say she was born in 1756, implying that she was born on Île St.-Jean, give her parents' names, say they were married in c1734 but give no place of marriage, list her siblings as brothers André, born 1735, Jean-Baptiste, born 1738, Isaac, born 1743, Charles, born 1749, Louis, born 1751, Firmin-Bernard, born 1757, sisters Agnès, born 1742, Rose, born 1745, & Marie, born 1753, & say that her family was at Pigiguit in c1734, at Grand-Pré c1738, & at Rivière du Moulin-à-Scie, Anse-aux-Sauvages, & Petite-Ascension, all on Île St.-Jean, from 1750 to 1757; De La Roque, "Tour of Inspection," Canadian Archives 1905, 2A:106, has with her family a daughter named Agnesse, age 10, which was likely her; <islandregister.com/1752.html>; <pagesperso-orange.fr/froux/St_malo_arrivees/AutresPorts.htm>, lists an Anne-Madeleine SAVARY, age 17, going to Cherbourg; Robichaux, Acadians in St.-Malo, 725-26, Family No. 855, calls her Anne-Madeleine SAVARY, says she was born in c1743, which conforms to the age for her given in the "Autres Ports" website, above, Robichaux gives no birthplace, gives her parents' names, details her first marriage, says "On July 20, 1759, Anne-Madeleine, daughter of Bernard SAVARY and Marie-Madeleine MICHEL, arrived at St. Malo from Cherbourg," & says she lived at Pleudihen from 1759-71, & at Plouër in 1772; Robichaux, Acadians in St.-Malo, 855, the record of her first marriage, calls her Anne SAVARY, gives her parents' names, says that she was their "major daughter" & that they were "resident of this parish [Pleudihen]," calls her husband Pierre POTIER but does not give his parents' names, gives his previous wife's name, says that he was residing in "Plouere, diocese of Saint Malo," that he & Anne were "both natives of Acadie," & that the witnesses to their marriage were Étienne BOUDRAU (who signed), Charle BOURQUE (who signed), Jean METRA (who signed), & Ignace HAMON (who signed); Hébert, D., Acadian Families in Exile 1785, 18-19, calls her Anne SAVARY, veuve POTTIER, age 38, on the embarkation list, Anne SAVARY, on the debarkation list, & Anne SAVARY, widow POITIER, age 38, on the complete listing, says she was in the 31st Family aboard La Bergère with 2 sons, details her marriage, calling her Anne-Madeleine SAVARY & her husband Pierre POITIER but does not give the place of marriage, says that son Olivier POITIER was born in 1772 but does not give a birthplace, details son Baptise-Olivier POITIER's marriage in LA, calling her Anne-Magdalen SAVARIS, & lists the implements the Spanish gave to her & her family after they reached LA; <acadian-cajun.com/ship2.htm>, calls her Anne SAVARY, widow of Pierre POITIER[sic], age 38; BRDR, 2:183, 332-33(ASC-2, 3), the record of her second marriage, calls her Anne Magdalina CHAVINE, does not give her or her husband's parents' names [not unusual for the priest at Ascension at that time] or mention her first husband's name, says her husband was "of Acadia," & that the witnesses to their marriage were Abraham LANDRY & Jean-Charles BOUD[R?]EAU; BRDR, 3:778 (ASM-3, 86), her death/burial record, calls her Ana Maria Magdalena SAVARY "of Acadia, married to Josef GRANGER," does not give her parents' names, & says she died at "age 60 yrs."  See also Robichaux, Bayou Lafourche, 1770-98, 42, 60, 94, 144, 174.  

Her estimated birth year is taken not from her burial record or the LA censuses, but from the earliest records in which she is found.

Her middle names also can be found in son Baptiste-Olivier POTIER's marriage record, dated 30 Apr 1798, in BRDR, 2:600 (ASM-2, 31), which calls her Ana Magdalena SAVARIS of Acadia.  Note that Baptiste-Olivier is listed in his marriage record as a POITIER, but this was the same family as the POTIERs.

Who was Anne SAVARY's second husband?  Their marriage record in BRDR, vol. 2, cited above, says clearly that he was from Acadia.  However, according to the editors of Wall of Names, there were only 2 Acadian Joseph GRANGERs who came to LA, & neither one of them matches her husband's ages in the Valenzuéla censuses of 1788, 1791, 1795, 1797, & 1798.  See Robichaux, Bayou Lafourche, 1770-98, 42, 60, 94, 144, 174; Wall of Names, index.  So there must have been a third Acadian Joseph GRANGER, & he probably arrived in 1785 on one of the 7 ships.  Was he the Joseph, fils, son of Joseph GRANGER & Anne POIRIER, stepson of Simon BABIN, who was part of the failed settlement in Poitou in the early 1770s with his stepfather, mother, sister Luce, & 3 BABIN stepsiblings, & who took the Second Convoy from Châtellerault to Nantes with them in Nov 1775?  See Robichaux, Acadians in Châtellerault, 5, Family No. 8; Robichaux, Acadians in Nantes, 9, Family No. 15.  Or perhaps he was the Joseph, fils, son of Joseph GRANGER & Marguerite GAUTROT, born in c1753 at Grand-Pré, who was exiled to VA in 1755, deported to England in 1756, repatriated to France in 1763, & at St.-Servan from 1763-72.  See Robichaux, Acadians in St.-Malo, 365, Family No. 451.  If he was the latter Joseph GRANGER, his mother came to LA with her third husband Simon LANDRY aboard Le St.-Rémi.  

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