Generation 1

Pierre Comeau & Rose Bayon

Our pioneer ancestors

Children of Pierre Comeau & Rose Bayon

Generation 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Main

Pierre Comeau

The progenitor of the Acadian Comeau Family was Pierre, born in France around 1598. Many presume that Pierre Comeau came to Acadia with Razilly in 1632. In fact, the first official document where we find our ancestor Pierre Comeau is in the 1671 census of Port Royal.

However, from that census, you can determine that Pierre already had 16 horned animals, 22 sheep and 6 arpents of cleared land in 1671. When comparing this to other families in that census, we could conclude that he had been established in Port-Royal for a few years already. These clues and his age, would lead us to believe that he had settled sometime between 1632 and 1654. About fifty French families had settled in Acadia during that period, before the transfer of the colony to the British in 1654.

By 1671, France took possession of Acadia again and held its first census. We know that Pierre Comeau was in Port-Royal in 1671 with his wife Rose Bayon. Pierre Comeau was a barrelmaker, a necessary skill during this period when barrels were used to transport fish and other goods by ship to France.

At the 1671 census, the eldest son Etienne, was married but living with his father. Pierre Comeau was mentioned for the last time in the 1686 census. He was 88 years old.

The origins of Pierre Comeau

The origins of Pierre Comeau are unknown to us. According to Father James Comeau o.p., our ancestor was the son of Jean de Comeau de Cr�ancey, seigneur de Chassenay, and of Marguerite Ocquidem de la Choselle. This contention remains without proof. Father Comeau found a named Pierre de Comeau born in 1606, son of Jean de Comeau de Cr�ancey. According to Professor Stephen White, similar names do not constitute by themselves a proof of identity. It is unlikely they are the same man since the prefix 'de' was never used by the Comeau family of Acadia. Furthermore, there is a difference of eight years between the Acadian Pierre Comeau and the 'Seigneur de Choselle'. Moreso, barrelmakers were rarely sons of nobility.
(White 65)

Rose Bayon

According to that same 1671 census, Rose Bayon was born around 1630. At the age of about 19, she would wed Pierre Comeau. Nine children were born of this couple. Rose Bayon will only live until her forties as she is no longer alive by the census of 1678 where her husband, Pierre Comeau is listed as a widower.

Nine children were born of Pierre Comeau & Rose Bayon of which six sons will ensure the progeny of this Acadian family.

�tienne COMEAU born around 1650, married 1� ca 1670 Marie-Anne Lefebvre ( Martin & Barbe Bajolet) 2� before the 1698 census Marie Landry (Ren� et Perrine Bourg) widow of Germain Doucet. �tienne Comeau passed away in Port Royal on January 22, 1723 at the age of 73.
Pierre l'a�n� (dit L'ESTURGEON) COMEAU born around 1652, married around 1677 Jeanne Bourg (Antoine et Antoinette Landry); Pierre dit L'Esturgeon Comeau died April 8, 1730 around the age of 80.
Fran�oise COMEAU born around 1654, married ca 1672 Jean Gaudet (Jean & Nicole Colleson) Fran�oise Comeau died before the 1678 census.
Jean l'a�n� COMEAU born around 1656, married 1� ca 1675 Fran�oise H�bert (�tienne & Marie Gaudet) 2� in Port-Royal on January 7, 1720 Catherine Joseph dit Lejeune (Fran�ois & Jeanne Lejeune). Jean l'a�n� Comeau died in Port-Royal November 14, 1720.
Pierre le jeune (dit LOUPS-MARINS) COMEAU born around 1658, married ca 1689 Jeanne Bourgeois (Jacques & Jeanne Trahan)
Antoine COMEAU born around 1661 (He disappears after 1686 census. Some say he would have gone to France. No document can confirm this rumor)
Jeanne COMEAU born around 1662, married ca 1676 �tienne H�bert (�tienne & Marie Gaudet). Jeanne Comeau died after October 8, 1725.
Marie (-Jeanne) (Marie-Anne) COMEAU married ca 1663, married around 1673 �tienne Rivet; Died in Ste-Famille de Pisiguit before the census of 1693
Jean le jeune (dit Jean-Augustin) COMEAU married ca 1665, married around 1686 Catherine Babin (Antoine et Marie Mercier)
(White 64)

HISTORICAL TIDBITS

PORT-ROYAL

The French were the first to settle permanently in North America when the establishment in Acadia was founded in 1604, by Sieurs De Monts, Champlain & Poutrincourt. Most of their men would not survive the first winter spent at Ile Sainte-Croix in Passamaquoddy Bay and in the Spring of 1605, they were established in Port Royal.

Virginia was founded by the British in 1607 and in six years later already had thousands of settlers who assumed right or wrong that in virtue of the discoveries attributed to John Cabot and his son Sebastian on the coasts of Newfoundland, in 1497 and 1498, the French establishments in the East were encroaching on the rights of the Crown of England.
In 1613, a fleet left Virginia under the command of Captain Argall, took over Acadia and totally destroyed this young colony. It would only be in 1629, that the King of England would send Scottish settlers to Acadia and for the first time, this territory will take the name of Nova Scotia.
The Scottish settlers were soon decimated by illness & hardships, and only seventy would be left in the colony when Acadia returned to France March 29, 1632 under the Treaty of St-Germain-en-Laye. Cardinal de Richelieu, minister to King Louis XIII, sent his cousin, Isaac de Razilly to Port Royal as Lieutenant-g�n�ral of the territory of Nouvelle France dit Canada and Governor of Acadia. Departure of John Cabot
(Arsenault 21-36)

Sieur de Razilly

Acadia was formally returned to France by the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye on March 29, 1632. Cardinal Richelieu, Minister to the King of France and a powerful influence, had appointed his cousin Sieur de Rasilly, Lieutenant General of Acadia in 1632. His objective was to re-establish the Acadian Colony which had been under Scottish occupancy for a decade. Rasilly settled 300 soldiers and colonists that he commanded from La H�ve. (Arsenault 36)

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