Étienne Simon Bellard (abt. 1767 - abt. 1843)

Born about 1767 in Province of Maryland [uncertain]

Ancestors

Husband of Marie Louise Comeau — married 7 Aug 1790 in St. Landry, Louisiana, United States

Descendants

Died about 1843 at about age 76 in Opelousas, St. Landry, Louisiana, United States

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Biography

Antoine Bellard is on the Wall of Names at the Acadian Memorial in St. Martinville, Louisiana Plaque 1-Right. Listed with him is his Acadian spouse Marie Trahan and their son Etienne Simeon [Bellard]. ^[1]

In 1769, Antoine Bellard, age 30, wife Marie Trahan, age 22, and son Étienne-Simon, called Simon, age 2, left Port Tobacco, Maryland, for Louisiana aboard the ill-fated British vessel Britannia. Also aboard the ship were Marie's parents, her brother Pierre, and five Lejeune cousins.

Copied in part from Acadians in Gray "No group of Acadians who came to Louisiana suffered as much as these folks to get to the promised land. The Britannia (sometimes spelled Britania) left Port Tobacco, Maryland, for New Orleans on 5 January 1769, with seven Acadian families aboard. Also on the ship were eight Catholic German families who, for reasons of their own, no longer wanted to live in a British colony. The crew of the Britannia sighted the coast of Louisiana on February 21, but the captain of the ship, either through bad luck or incompetence, missed the mouth of the Mississippi because of heavy fog. Strong winds drove the ship westward, and a few days later the Britannia ran onto the Texas coast at Espiritu Santo Bay. The crew went ashore and located a Spanish officer, who suspected them of being spies or smugglers. Instead of giving them food and fresh water, he arrested them and ordered his men to escort everyone on the ship to the interior post of La Bahía. The passengers and crew of the Britannia remained at La Bahía for six long months, waiting for the Spanish authorities to decide their fate. While at La Bahía, they were forced to work as semi-slaves around the presidio and on nearby ranches. Finally, in early September, a Spanish officer arrived at the presidio with instructions for the commandant there to send the captives overland to Natchitoches in central Louisiana. They could not return to the abandoned Britannia because the Spanish and the coastal Indians had stripped the vessel so thoroughly it was no longer seaworthy. On September 11, the Acadians joined the other passengers and the English crew on the 420-mile trek to Natchitoches, which they did not reach until late October. Louisiana's Spanish Governor Alejandro O'Reilly, meanwhile, had decided that the Acadian families in the group would settle at Natchitoches because of their familiarity with the growing of rye and wheat. Natchitoches settlers welcomed the newcomers and supplied them with food, tools, and animals. The German families were told that they could continue on to New Orleans via the Red and Mississippi rivers, pick up supplies, and then settle at St.-Gabriel d'Iberville on the Mississippi. The Germans accompanied the English crew to New Orleans and arrived there on November 9. Most of the Acadians, meanwhile, refused to remain at Natchitoches, which was too far away from their compatriots to the south. They, too, left the Red River valley and joined their relatives on the Acadian Coast and at Opelousas."

LOUISIANA: WESTERN SETTLEMENTS

After the Acadians from the Britannia refused to remain at Natchitoches Post, the Spanish authorities in Louisiana relented and allowed them to settle in the colony wherever they wanted. Antoine Bellard and his family lived for a time on the river at St.-Gabriel and then crossed the Atchafalaya Basin to the Opelousas District in the early 1770s.

Descendants of Antoine BELLARD (c1739-1805)

Antoine Bellard and Marie Trahan had many more children in Louisiana. Their daughters married into the Doucet, LeBoeuf, Ledoux, Matte, and Pariseau families. Antoine remarried to Marie, daughter of Acadian Jacques Foret and widow of Jean-Baptiste Aucoin, at Opelousas in October 1797. Antoine died at Opelousas in February 1805; the priest who recorded his burial said that Antoine was 63 years old when he died; his youngest daughter was born posthumously six months later. Most of his sons created families of their own in St. Landry Parish. Some of his grandsons moved to the Church Point area of what is now Acadia Parish.

Oldest son Étienne-Simon, called Simon, by his first wife, born probably in Maryland in c1767, married Marie-Louise, called Élise or Louise, daughter of Acadian Michel Comeaux, at Opelousas in August 1790; strangely, the marriage was recorded in the parish's slave register. Their son Jean was born at Opelousas in March 1795, a son, name unrecorded, died at age 3 months in 1802, Norbert was born in July 1803, and David, also called Cadet, was baptized at the Opelousas church, age 1, in February 1806. Their daughters married into the Carrière family.

Sources

1. ↑ "The Wall of Names at the Acadian Memorial"; Wall of Names Committee; Jane G. Bulliard, Chair; second edition, 2015; Bodemuller The Printer, USA; p. 10

• 1. http://www.acadiansingray.com/Appendices-ATLAL-BELLARD.htm#Etienne-Simeon%20BELLARD

• 2. http://www.acadiansingray.com/Appendices--Britannia,%201769.htm#Etienne-Simeon%20BELLARD

• "Louisiana Marriages, 1816-1906", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:HST7-8BW2 : 14 January 2020), Simon Bellard, 1790.

• "Louisiana Births and Christenings, 1811-1830, 1854-1934", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:HSRQ-MFPZ : 14 January 2020), Simon Bellard in entry for Marie Susanne Bellard, 1792.

• "Louisiana Births and Christenings, 1811-1830, 1854-1934", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:HS5X-QD6Z : 14 January 2020), Simon Bellard in entry for Marie Martha Bellard, 1794.

• "Louisiana Births and Christenings, 1811-1830, 1854-1934", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:HSRY-TNN2 : 14 January 2020), Simon Bellard in entry for Jean Bellard, 1795.

• "Louisiana Births and Christenings, 1811-1830, 1854-1934", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:HSR3-B6PZ : 14 January 2020), Simon Bellard in entry for Norbert Bellard, 1803.

• "Louisiana Births and Christenings, 1811-1830, 1854-1934", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:HS5X-8C3Z : 14 January 2020), Simon Bellard in entry for David Bellard, 1806.

• Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/160909342/etienne-sinon-bellard : accessed 14 September 2021), memorial page for Etienne Simon Bellard (1767–1843), Find a Grave Memorial ID Find A Grave: Memorial #160909342, citing Saint Landry Church Cemetery, Opelousas, St. Landry Parish, Louisiana, USA ; Maintained by cynthia jones (contributor 48988626) .