prepared 1999 by Charlene (Fraser) McKenzie updated April, 2001
The Fougère name is of French derivation meaning fern. A person who lived near where the ferns grew was called Fougère.
The ancestor of the Acadian Fougère family, Jean Fougère was born around 1685 in the parish of Pourpry on Beauce, in the diocese of Orléans, Chateaudun, Eure-et-Loir, in France, 15 miles north west of Orléans and less than a hundred miles south of Paris. His parents were Jean Fougère and his wife Marie Barré.
The earliest known record of Jean Fougère living at Port Royal in Acadia, was his signature on the church register of Feb 5, 1709. That day he attended the wedding of Claude Girouard and Élizabeth Blanchard and signed the register as a witness indicating to us he was a literate person or at least was able to write his name. Jean was about 24 years old at the time.
On Nov 27, 1713, Jean married 22 year old Marie Bourg (Bourque). Jean was then about 28. The Bourg family had been in Acadia for three generations, and can be found as far back as 1650. The name was spelled Bourq, Bourg or Bourque. It is now sometimes spelled Bourke or Burke. Their marriage was preformed by the Recollet Missionary priest, Fr. Justinian Durand and witnessed by Marie’s father, Abraham Bourg, Pierre Allain, Madeleine Bourg and Pierre Broussard. The groom and the first two witnesses left their signatures, while the rest made their marks.
By 1714, Marie Bourg and Jean Fougère had settled down to married life in Port Royal with the arrival of their first born , twin daughters. The Acadians are noted for an unusual number of twin births. Marie Bourg’s double first cousins, Claire Bourg and Renée Bourg each had 2 sets of twins. Even today with modern medicine, twins do not have a high survival rate. The Fougère girls lived only 3 months. The next child was a girl born a year after the twins deaths. She was named Marguerite after her lost sister. When the next daughter came along 5 years later, she was given the name Marie-Josèphe after the other twin. Two sons, Jean and Joseph were born in Port Royal.
The Port Royal church records show that on Apr 21, 1715, Marie Bourg, wife of Jean Fougère, was godmother to her neice Marie-Josèphe Bourq, daughter of Pierre Bourq and Élizabeth Broussard.
Jean Fougère's signature can be seen on a document signed by many Acadians in 1715 in Port Royal swearing allegiance to King George II of Great Britain. In the early 1720’s, Jean and Marie decided to make a move to French territory. Perhaps he had more interest in the fishing business than farming.
It was to Port Toulouse on Cape Breton Island that Jean Fougère took his family in the 1720’s. His descendants still live in the same village almost 300 years later. The name “Cap Breton” had been given to the island by the Basque fisherman. It was known as “Ile Royale” to the French and later reverted back to Cape Breton under the English.
The village of St. Peters on Cape Breton Island has a long history, among the longest of European settlements on the North American continent. The original European founders were Portuguese fisherman, who made it a fur trading and fishing station around 1521, naming it San Pedro. The French called it St. Pierre and it was know to the English as St. Peter’s. It was a well known stop-over to the the French entrepreneur, Nicolas Denys who built a fort and trading post there in the mid 1600’s on the isthmus connecting the Atlantic Ocean and the Bras d’Or Lakes. Denys built a portage roadway, over which shallops and carts were transported between the sea and the lake. The post and fort were eventually burnt as a result of in-fighting among the French entrepreneurs. In 1664, construction of a new fort was begun under the orders of the Commandant, Sr. Louis Tuffet.
As with most French settlements, the Mi’kmaq were not far away. There were two native villages at that spot where there is today a canal connecting the Bras d’Or Lakes with the Atlantic Ocean. One village was on the south, facing the Atlantic and the other was on the north edging on the Lake. Port Toulose was located just east of the present Canal with the fort to the west. The present day town is west of the canal leaving the original townsite a wooded area.
St. Peters had a brief name change during the French regime, lasting from 1713 with the Treaty of Utrecht, until the final fall of Louisbourg and loss of Cape Breton to the English in 1758. During this time it was known as Port Toulouse to the French and Potlotek to the Mi’kmaq. It became the centre of the shipping and fishing industry of Cape Breton. At that time it was almost impossible to judge longitude at sea, so ships traveling from Europe to North America kept to the same latitude. Goods and supplies were shipped from LaRochelle to Louisbourg since they are on the same latitude. The goods were then transported to the various ports in Cape Breton by the coastal shippers. Several heads of families were listed as navigators and coasters in the various censuses of the 1720’s and 1730’s. It was a centre for the fishing business with hundreds of fishermen out from France yearly. Supplies were obtained there, and fish dried on land and shipped to France in barrels. Port Toulouse was also a supplier for bricks, wood and building materials used in the construction of Louisbourg. It also supplied the new capital with poultry, vegetables and cattle. It was also the first line of defence in time of war with the English , with the fishing port of Canso nearby.
In the later part of the French Regime, Port Toulouse became a centre of refuge for those anticipating a clash between the two major powers. The Acadians felt protected with the building of the French stronghold of Louisbourg, just down the coast. The civilain population of Louisbourg was mostly of French origin with a few Acadian families. Port Toulouse had been destroyed by Pepperrell’s troops in 1745. The fort and village were burned. Some inhabitants were killed and women and children made prisoner. The Mik'maq cemetery was desecrated. The crosses were broken and burned along with bodies they exhumed. When la Roque took a census of the area in 1752, there were about 250 people settled at Port Toulouse, mostly Acadian and many of them refugees. Many of the residents declared they had lost the deeds to their properties during the previous war.
In the spring of 1756, the inhabitants of Port Toulouse, knowing war was imminent, abandoned the town and took to the woods. After the fall of Louisbourg, in 1758, many of the people of Port Toulouse were captured and transported to English prisons or French ports. However, a great number of the residents survived and managed to come out of hiding or to return to Cape Breton, to re-establish their families and form the base of the population of Richmond County.
When Jean Fougère arrived in Port Toulouse with his family around 1722, there were 13 Acadian families, numbering 76 individuals. There were also a small number of soldiers and civic officials involved in the constructions at Louisbourg.
In the 1724 census of Port Toulouse, Jean Fougère is listed as a navigator from Orléans, with a wife, 2 sons, 3 daughters, 1 servant and 3 “engages”. He had one boat or “geolette” for his fishing business. By 1726, he was employing 8 men. These "engages" were hired hands or "52 months men". The employer paid the passage from France with the agreement the man would work the designated time in return for board. Often they were badly treated.
Three children were born at Port Toulouse (now St. Peters) to Jean and Marie. But in 1727, Marie and their nine year old son, Jean, died. Within a few years, the widower married for a second time to Marie-Madeleine Belliveau, daughter of Jean Belliveau and Cécile Melanson. Jean and Marie-Madeleine had 10 children of which 3 died young. In all, Jean had 18 children of which 9 left descendants.
In 1740, Jean Fougère sold his boat, “Le St. Jean” to Michel Daccarette, a merchant living in St. Peters and Dominique Hirard, a naval captain. The whole payment was recorded as made Oct 12, 1740. (Michel Daccarette died tragically while walking on the ramparts of Louisbourg discussing military strategy during the seige of 1745. He was struck on the head with a cannon ball and died instantly. His companion was unharmed)
In 1744, France declared war on England. News from Eupope reached Louisbourg before any other port in North America. The governor of Louisbourg decided to get a head start on the war by attacking and capturing the English port of Canso, and by licencing privateers to capture English and New England ships. Jean Fougere, of Port Toulouse (St. Peters), captured a British schooner near the Canso islands on June 11, 1744 without possessing an authorized commission as a privateer. In its place he had handwritten permission from Pierre Benoit, the commandant at Port Toulouse. When Jean later brought his prize to Louisbourg, it was confiscated because he had not been properly licenced.
Jean Fougère died before Oct 3, 1749. This date was on the document regarding the guardianship of his minor children. His name was recorded on a list at Louisbourg of inhabitants who had died in the colony of Ile Royale during 1749 and 1750 leaving minor children.
After his death Marie-Madeleine married a second time to Claude Dugas, the brother of Madeleine Dugas who later married her stepson Charles Fougère. Not only did the Acadians of necessity marry relatives, but they frequently married into different generations of the same family.
As far as we know, no Fougères were deported from Cape Breton after the fall of Louisbourg. The name does not appear on any of the documents of refugees of the time. It is assumed they went into hiding and were perhaps helped by the Mi’kmaq.
The Frasers of Sydney Mines are descended from Jean Fougère and his first wife, Marie Bourg through their son Charles and from Jean and his second wife Marie-Madeleine Belliveau through their son Jean.
If you have any comments or questions, please contact me at
cfraser@accesscable.net