He arrived in Acadia about 1645 (Arsenault, Vol 2, page 648) and, according to Placide Gaudet "settled on the north bank of the Francaise river northeast of Belisle around nine miles from Port-Royal and a half mile above the chapel of Saint-Laurent" (Memoires de la Societe Genealogique Canadienne-Francaise,vol VI, no 6 & 7 April-July 1955, p.264) (Arsenault, ibid, fn 80). At the time of the 1678 census, he and Francoise Godet (sic) were living on 12 acres with 12 cattle and three boys, ages 20, 17, and 15 (born in 1658, 1661, and 1663, respectively). In 1690, when Port Royal fell to the British under the command of Sir William Phipps, Daniel was one of the six chosen to form a council to keep order under the British occupation FC&AG, Vol 4, p 20).
LeBlanc family
Telegraph-Journal, Wednesday, August 3, 1994; p. A6
Daniel LeBlanc and Françoise Gaudet are the ancestors of one of thelargest Acadian familie s in the Maritime provinces. Neither the place oforigin nor the parents of Daniel LeBlanc ar e known. Some have pretendedthat he came from Martaizé in Poitou, or from the province of Da uphiné.However, lacking proof or documents, his birth place has not beenidentified with an y degree of certainity.
Daniel came to Acadia in the spring of 1650 before the death of governorCharles de Menou d'A ulnay. He then married Françoise Gaudet, daughter ofDenis and Nicole Coleson, one of the old est families of the young colony.
It is likely that Daniel came to Acadia under contract to governord'Aulnay. He became one o f the most successful farmers in Acadia duringthe 17th century. He settled along the banks o f the Port-Royal riverwhere his children were born between 1651 and 1664. Five sons marrie dand gave the couple 35 grandchildren.
On the eve of the Deportation, the LeBlanc family was already the largestin Acadia and was f ound in all of the main Acadian communities such asPort-Royal, Grand-Pré, Rivièr-aux-Canards , Chipoudie, Port-Toulouse, andPort-Lajoie.
Along with their Acadian compatriots, the LeBlancs would undergo thetrials of the Deportatio n. Most of the victims of the expulsions between1755 and 1758 were exiled to anglo-America n ports, in France and inQuebec. Others managed to escape their enemies and found refuge i n theforests of present day New Brunswick. After a few years of resistancefrom the forest , these fighters surrendered to the British authoritiesin 1763, at the end of the Seven year s War.
Once freed from the forts, descendants of Daniel LeBlanc and of FrançoiseGaudet settled in d ifferent areas of the Maritime provinces. LeBlancfamilies are numerous in the Gaspé, in sout heastern New Brunswick, atBaie-Sainte-Marie and in Wedgeport in the southwestern area of Nov aScotia, as well as on Île-Madame and in Margaree on Cape-Breton.
Contributed by Fidele Theriault of Fredericton, NewBrunswick.[stuarts_old.ftw]
His birth and death dates come from Arsenault, Vol II, p 738, who adds that he settled in Pisiguit about 1689.
Her birth date and place come from Arsenault, Vol II, p 600.