APPENDICES

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

SÉGOILLOT

[SAY-gwah-loh]

ACADIA

Émilien dit Sans-Chagrin, son of Dominique Ségoillot of St.-Pierre, Autun, Bourgogne, France, and Marie Boulet (Acadian genealogist Bona Arsenault says Étiennette Ducharme), born in c1714, served in the garrison of Louisbourg as a senior sergeant in the Troupes de la Marine beginning in the early 1730s.  Probably after he retired from the King's service, he moved to Île St.-Jean, today's Prince Edward Island, and married Élisabeth-Blanche, daughter of François Lavache and Anne-Marie Vincent, at Port-Lajoie in September 1752.  Later that year, a French official counted them at Grande-Anse on the island.  Élisabeth-Blanche gave Émilien dit Sans-Chagrin a son, François-Dominique, born at St.-Pierre-du-Nord in July 1753.  The old sergeant remarried to Marguerite, daughter of Jacques Naquin of Cobeguit, at Port-Lajoie in September 1755.  Marguerite gave him a daughter, Marie, born probably at Port-Lajoie in c1756.

LE GRAND DÉRANGEMENT

When the British rounded up the Acadians in Nova Scotia in the fall of 1755, the Ségoillots on Île St.-Jean, living in territory controlled by France, remained unmolested.  Their respite from British oppression was short-lived, however.  After the fall of the French stronghold at Louisbourg in July 1758, British forces swooped down on Île St.-Jean and deported most of the Acadians there to France. 

Émilien dit Sans-Chagrin, age 45, Marguerite, age 35, son François-Dominique, age 5 1/2, and daughter Marie, age 21 months, made the crossing aboard one of the five British transports that left the Gut of Canso in late November 1758 and arrived at St.-Malo in late January 1759.  All of the family survived the terrible crossing except little Marie, who died at sea.  

In France, Émilien dit Sans-Chagrin and his family settled at St.-Suliac, near St.-Malo.  Marguerite gave the old soldier another daughter at St.-Suliac:  Marie-Françoise, born in January 1764.  The year after Marie-Françoise's birth, the family moved from St.-Suliac to Belle-Île-en-Mer, where they joined dozens of other Acadians from the coastal cities who were determined to bring life to the sandy soil of the big island off the southern coast of Brittany.  Daughter Marguerite-Josèphe was born at Belle-Île-en-Mer in c1766.  A French official counted the family at Borbren, in the parish of Locmoria on the island, in February 1767.  Émilien dit Sans-Chagrin and Marguerite died on the island, he in c1769, in his late 50s, she in December 1773, in her late 40s.  After their parents died, François-Dominique may have remained on the island, but his sisters did not. 

In the early 1780s, the Spanish government offered the Acadians in France a chance for a new life in faraway Louisiana.  Marie-Françoise and younger sister Marguerite-Josèphe evidently agreed to take it.  In September 1784, Spanish officials counted Marie Sigoliau, probably Marie-Françoise, and an unnamed orphan, probably Marguerite-Josèphe, at Nantes in Brittany.  They would have been ages 20 and 18 respectively at the time of the survey, and they were recorded on a list of Acadians in the city who expressed interest in going to Louisiana at the expense of the Spanish crown.  When it was time to board a ship for New Orleans, however, Marie-Françoise did not go.  Perhaps she married a Frenchman at Nantes who insisted that they remain in the mother country, or she may have died before the first of the Seven Ships set sail from Nantes in May 1785.  Sister Marguerite-Josèphe had no reason to stay; she "embarked for Louisiana in 1785." 

LOUISIANA

Marguerite-Josèphe Ségoillot, age 19, crossed to Louisiana alone aboard La Bergère, the second of the Seven Ships from France, which reached New Orleans in August 1785.  After a short respite in the city, she may have followed most of her fellow passengers to upper Bayou Lafourche, or she may have remained at New Orleans. 

CONCLUSION

Marguerite-Josèphe Ségoillot was the only member of her family to emigrate to Louisiana, and there is no evidence that she married there.  The Acadian branch of this family, then, perhaps including its blood, did not take root in the Bayou State.  

One wonders what happened to her after she reached the colony with hundreds of her fellow Acadians from France.  One possibility is a tragic one.  According to the most careful study of the Seven Ships expedition, that of historian Oscar Wenzerling, the first ship, Le Bon Papa, reached New Orleans from Paimboeuf, the port for Nantes, in late July 1785.  Amazingly, Wenzerling writes, "The voyage was a success in its freedom from storms, and from epidemics and sickness of any kind.  Only one death," that of an infant, he adds, "marred an otherwise perfect voyage."  Such was not the fate of the second ship, La Bergère, which left Paimboeuf in May only four days after Le Bon Papa departed but did not get to New Orleans until the middle of August.  Le Bon Papa had carried 156 passengers; La Bergère, a frigate and a larger ship, was burdened with 273.  La Bergère reached New Orleans "fortunately without any mishap," Wenzerling notes, but the voyage was not as "perfect" as the previous one.  Six elderly persons had died at sea, but seven babies had been born before the ship reached the city.  Sadly, nine more passengers from La Bergère died at New Orleans while they recuperated from the 93-day voyage.  The debarkation list for La Bergère, which has survived, does not include the name of "single girl" Marguerite-Josèphe Ségoillot; she appears only on the ship's embarkation list.  Was the 19-year-old daughter of the old sergeant from Île St.-Jean one of the passengers who died at New Orleans during the period of recuperation? 

The family's name also is spelled Seboillot, Segoilot, Segoliau.

Sources:  Arsenault, Généalogie, 2140, 2382-83; Hébert, D., Acadian Families in Exile 1785, 26-27, 29; Hébert, D., Acadians in Exile, 573-74, source of quote; <perso.orange.fr/froux/St_malo_arrivees/5bateaux.htm>, Family No. 187; Robichaux, Acadians in St.-Malo, 727-28; Winzerling, Acadian Odyssey, 131, 133-37, source of quotes.    

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, 32 (pl. 7R), calls her Margueritte SÉGOLIAU, & lists her singly; Arsenault, Généalogie, 2140, 2382-83, profiles of her father, call her Marguerite-Josèphe SÉGOILOT & Marguerite-Josèphe SEGOILLOT, give her father's name, including his dit on p. 2140, his birth year, first 1717 on p. 2140, & then 1713 on p. 2382, his parents' names & place of residence, his service at Louisbourg, details his 2 marriages, lists his children by both wives, says that Marguerite-Josèphe, a child of his second marriage, was born in 1766, & says that the family was at St.-Juliac[sic], St.-Malo, in 1764, at Borbren, Locmaria, Belle-Isle-en-Mer in 1766, that he died in 1769, that is wife died in December 1773, & that daughter Marguerite-Josèphe went to LA; <perso.orange.fr/froux/St_malo_arrivees/5bateaux.htm>, Family No. 187, says that Émilien was from Dijon, was 45 when he reached St.-Malo in late Jan 1759, putting his birth year at c1714, that he was 27 years in the colonies, which I assume counts his time at Louisbourg as well as on Île St.-Jean, that Marguerite NAQUIN was 35 in Jan 1759, & that they traveled with son Francois-Dominique, age 5 1/2, & daughter Marie, age 21 months, who died at sea; Hébert, D., Acadian Families in Exile 1785, 26-27, calls her Margueritte SEGOILLOT, fille, age 19, on the embarkation list, says "apparently not listed" on the debarkation list, calls her Marguerite SEGOILLOT, single girl, age 19, on the complete listing, & says she was in the 66th "Family" aboard La Bergère with no one else; <acadian-cajun.com/ship2.htm>, calls her Marguerite SÉGOILLOT, single, age 19.  See also Voorhies, J., Some Late Eighteenth-Century Louisianians, 499.

What happened to her in LA? 

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Copyright (c) 2007-11  Steven A. Cormier