October 7th and 8th mark the beginning of the Acadian Deportation from their homeland

 October 7th and 8th mark the loading of Acadians on the first  2 ships and the beginning of "Le Grand Derangement". It was on the 7th and 8th, Oct 1755 that the British troops received the orders to load the ships leaving the Acadian's goods and belongings on the shores of l'Acadie. Many of these belongings were shockingly found 6 years later by the English Settlers of Nova Scotia sitting where the Acadians had left them while being dragged onto the ships.


It has been determined that members of my family from Grand-Pre were on either the "Elizabeth" or the "Leonard". Jean Dominigue Melanson, age 74 and his son Alexandre Miquoin Melanson along with Marie Osite Hebert Melanson and their children. In 1763 Alexandre and family were found in the French Neutrals section of Snow Hill Maryland: Alexandre Melanson, Osite Melanson, His wife and Jean Melanson, Melanson Magdelaine, Jacque Melanson, Joseph Melanson, Etienne Melanson, Paul Melanson ..................... 8. When the family arrived in the 1st Acadian Coast, St. Jacques de Cabanocey (St. James Parish - Convent, Louisiana) in 1766 Osite Hebert was listed as "widow of Alexandre Melanson" so Alexandre either died in Maryland or during the voyage to Louisiana, or quite possibly, right after arriving in Louisiana.


From "The Lion and the Lily" - Peter Landry -


"The Elizabeth and the Leynord were cleared and made ready to receive the first families from Grand Pré. Notices had gone out to the selected families to bring themselves and what of their personal possessions they could carry to the embarkation point. They were to meet on the 7th, but rainy weather delayed the embarkation of these first two vessels to the 8th.


In the meantime the news that it was now to really happen, that they were to be put on vessels and sent away from their lands, swarmed from family to family. The men, too, were to get the news from the family members who came aboard the prison ships as they had been allowed to do right along. A certain group of young men, about 24 of them, in the confusion of a rain storm, on the 7th, managed to make good an escape. According to an account given by Winslow, they had gotten away from two of the "prison ships" by disguising themselves as women. (It was a regular daily event for Acadian women to go back and forth to the vessels with baskets of food for their menfolk.) They got ashore and were on the loose for a number of days. Winslow was to launch an immediate investigation: he wanted to know how these men got loose. He was to determine that the escape took place mainly through the instigation of one Francis Hebert, "either the contriver or a better." Hebert, I believe, was one of the prisoners aboard the Leynord, presumably, one of the two vessels from which the young men had made their escape. Winslow was to pull Francis Hebert off the vessel together with "his effects shipt." Winslow then ordered that he should be brought to his (Hebert's) house, there, at Grand Pré. Herbert was then ordered to put all of his goods inside of his house. He then was made to stand there in front of his house, together, presumably, with a gathered crowd so that they might all witness the next event. The house was torched by the English together with all of Hebert's "effects." Then Winslow made pronouncement for all the spectators to hear, if "these men did not surrender themselves in two days, I should serve all their friends in the same manner."

So, it was, that the loading of the Acadian families started on October 8th, 1755. The Elizabeth and the Leynord were the first to be loaded and were to receive 80 families from the Grand Pré region. The Acadians embarked, as Winslow was to describe in his journal, "very sullenly and unwillingly, the women in great distress carrying off their children in their arms. Others carrying their decrepit parents in their carts and all their goods. Moving in great confusion and it appears as a scene of woe and distress."


"The Lion and the Lily" - Peter Landry
http://www.blupete.com/Hist/NovaScotiaBk1/Part6/Ch12.htm