Antoine Hebert (abt. 1621 - aft. 1686)

Born about 1621 in France [uncertain]

Husband of Geneviève (Lefranc) Hebert — married about 1648 in Port Royal, Acadie

Descendants

Died after 1686 in Port-Royal, Acadie [uncertain]

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Categories: French Immigrants to Acadia | Port-Royal, Acadie | Acadians.

Antoine Hebert is an Acadian. Join: Acadians Project Discuss: ACADIA

Antoine Hebert migrated from France to Acadia.

Biography

The Acadian Hébert family stems from two brothers. Antoine Hébert (brother of Etienne) was born around 1621^[1] likely in France.^[2] The brothers are often believed to be the sons of Jacques Hebert and Marie Juneau, but this is most likely false.^[3]

Around 1648, Antoine married Geneviève Lefranc. Between about 1649 and 1656 the couple had three children: 1. Jean born c1649; 2. Jean born c1653 who married Marie-Anne Doucet c1676 and died before 1707; and 3. Catherine born c1656 who married Jacques LeBlanc c1673.

Antoine's brother Etienne married around the same time (1650). It is not clear when Antoine arrived in Acadia.

At the time of the first Acadian Census in 1671^[4], the family was living in Port-Royal, Acadia (Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, Canada). Fifty year old Antoine and 58 year old Geneviève were living with their four children. Antoine was a cooper. Six arpents ^[5] of their land (in two places) was cultivated and they had 15 cattle and 18 sheep. It is not clear where their homestead was situated, although their nephews' farms were on the south bank of the Dauphin (Annapolis River) east of the fort.^[1][6]

Antoine probably died by 1693, since he does not appear in that census.

Discussion

Parentage. There is a debate about the parents of the Hébert brothers.^[3] According to Godbout, the Hébert brothers may have been the children of Jacques Hebert and Marie Juneau. The evidence supporting this claim is a link between: a) the presence of a Jacques Hébert in Acadia 30 years before the presence of the brothers Etienne and Antoine; and b) the April 15 1688 marriage contract at Quebec (Notary Lecompte; witness Louis Hebert's daughter Marie-Guillemette Hébert) between Francoise Chevalier and a Jacques Hébert from Le Haye in the Touraine parish of Balsesne, who was the son of Jacques and Marie Juneau. Stephen White argues that the connection is tenous. The name of the Jacques in the aforementioned contract had a surname Habert. Moreover, the presence of the witness Marie-Guillemette Hébert was likely due to the fact that Francoise Chevalier was her servant.

Location of Birth. Stephen White remains silent presumably due to the lack of birth records. In contrast, Massignon ^[7] argues that a number of famillial alliances that existed among the first Acadian settlers PRIOR to their arrival from France points to a common French origin. She believes they lived in the Acadian Governor d'Aulnay's seigneury in France near Loudon (comprising of the villages of Angliers, Aulnay, Martaizé and La Chausée). In the case of the Hébert family, it was allied with the Gaudet through Antoine's marriage to Marie. Marie's sister Francoise was also allied with the LeBLanc family through her marriage to Daniel. Evidence of their marriages in France is found in the Belle-Isle-en-Mer declarations in 1767. Morevoer, a certain Jean Gaudet, was censistaire in 1634 on land at Martaizé (Vienne) in the Seigneurie owned by the mother of Acadian governour Charles d'Aulnay. However, Massignon's research failed to find any relevant baptismal or marriage records.

DNA. The French Heritage yDNA project, including Acadian lines, is posted here. Validated ancestral signatures for Acadians including brothers Antoine and Etienne Hébert are found here. As of June 2014, there were results from ten of their descendants including two family trees of Antoine and four family trees of Etienne.

Arrival in Acadia. I have not found any evidence supporting the couple's arrival in Acadia. It was certainly before 1671, as the family is listed there. Therefore it is not clear how the historical events in Acadia, provided in the timeline below, may have affected Antoine.

Timeline

c1621 birth

1632 Treaty Saint-Germain-en-Laye cedes Acadia to France; Razilly brings ~300 elite men^[8]

1636 Arrival of the first French families to settle permanantly^[7]

c1653 marriage to Geneviève Lefranc

c1649 birth, son Jean

c1653 birth, son Jean

1654 British capture Port-Royal; French settlement ceases^[9]

c1656 birth, daughter Catherine

1667-70 Treaty of Breda cedes Acadia to the French; settlement resumes^[10]

1671 residence, in Port Royal

1678 residence, in Port Royal

1686 residence, in Port Royal

b1693 death

Sources

• 1671 Acadian Census at Port Royal: Antoine HEBERT, cooper, 50, wife Genevieve LAFRAND 58; Children: Jean 22, Jehan 18, Catherine 15; cattle 18, sheep 7, 6 arpents in 2 places.

• 1678 Acadian Census at Port Royal: Anthoine Hebert & Geneviefve Le Fran, Jac Le Blanc & Catherine Hebert, 2 & 2 cattle 30 sheep, Jean Hebert & Marye Doucet, 1 boy: 1 1677; 20 cattle, 10 acres.

• 1686 Acadian Census at Port Royal: Jean HEBERT 32, Anne DOUCET 22; children: Jacques 9, Pierre 7, Jean 5, Joseph 2 months, Jeanne3. Antoine HEBERT 72, Genevieve LEFRANC 80.

• Hebert family crest (Ancestry subscription required)

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} White, Stephen A., Patrice Gallant, and Hector-J Hébert. Dictionnaire Généalogique Des Familles Acadiennes. Moncton, N.-B.: Centre D'études Acadiennes, Université De Moncton, 1999, Print, p798-801.
2. ↑ [ http://www.acadian-home.org/acadian-origins.html Antoine's brother Etienne came to Acadia from France. Source: White, Stephen A. Origins of the Pioneers of Acadia. According to the Depositions Made by Their Descendants at Belle- Ile-en-Mer in 1767].
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1} White, Stephen A. English Supplement to the Dictionnaire Généalogique Des Familles Acadiennes. Moncton NB: Centre D'Études Acadiennes, 2000, p 163-164.
4. ↑ Charles Trahan's translations adding land holdings to 1671 Census
5. ↑ Statistics Canada defines an arpent as 0.845 acres. According to Clark (Clark, Andrew Hill, Acadia: The Geography of Early Nova Scotia to 1760. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1968, p 87): "The arpent was a basic French unit of land measurement, both linear and areal, but its size at the time is uncertain. In length, 200 feet may be a rough equivalent for an arpent in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries; it was later standardized to 192 feet. An areal arpent may have been something less than an acre (the usual equivalent was .845 acres) although it has been given the equivalent of as much as an acre and a half in some twentieth century definitions."
6. ↑ 1707 homestead location of the farm of Jean, Jean Emmanual, and Alexandre Hebert. In Au Coeur de l'Acadie Acadian Settlement on the Annapolis River 1707 Map Parks Canada
7. ↑ ^{7.0 7.1} Massignon, Geneviève. "Les parlers français d'Acadie, enquête linguistique", Librairie Klincksieck, Paris, 1962, 2 tomes, p50, 47, 38.
8. ↑ George MacBeath, Biography – RAZILLY, ISAAC DE – Volume I (1000-1700) – Dictionary of Canadian Biography Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed November 20
9. ↑ William I. Roberts, 3rd, “SEDGWICK, ROBERT,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 1, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed November 20, 2013
10. ↑ In collaboration, “MORILLON DU BOURG,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 1, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed November 20, 2013

• Acadian-Cajun genealogy & history.
• Public Archives of Canada, Report Concerning Canadian Archives for the Year 1905 (Placid Gaudet)

• francogene.com Sources: Dictionnaire genealogique des familles acadiennes (Stephen A. White); Dictionnaire des Acadiens d' Archange Godbout; Memoires (Societe genealogique canadienne-francaise).

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