[ganong] historic SITES IN NEW BRUNSWICK 31S 



3. The Fetitcodiac-Misseguash District. 



The fullest account we have of the seigniories and settlers in this 

 district is given by Eameau de Saint-Père in his " Colonie Féodale." 

 That of La Vallière was the most important of all seigniories in the 

 present New Brunswick. 



1676— Chignitou, or Beaubassin. To Michel 'Je Neuf, Ecuyer, Sieur de la 

 Vallière. (Oct. 24.) 



"L'étendue de dix lieues de terre de front, qui sont du côté du su<l, 

 entre le Cap-Breton tt l'isle Percée, à commencer dej^uis la rivière Kigis- 

 kouabouguet, icelle comprise jusqu' à une autre rivière appellee Kimout- 

 gouitche, aussi y comprise avec dix lieues de profondeur dans lesdits terres, 

 dont la baie de Chinigtou & le cap Tourmentin font partie." (Mem. 753.) 



The general location of this Seigniory is plain enough, and as shown on 

 map 39, though there is some doubt about its exact boundaries. The Kigis- 

 kouabouguet is probably River Philip, which the Micmacs now call Koos- 

 oos-ti-boo-giiac, but I cannot locate Kimoutgouitche, but it may be at or near 

 Shemogue. La baie de Chinigtou is, of course, the present Cumberland Basin. 



La Vallière, who was an important man in Acadia, made a successful 

 attempt to introduce settlers and cultivate lands, and thus became the only 

 seignior in what is now New Brunswick who to any degree fulfilled the 

 conditions of his grant, and the only one who can thus be reckoned along 

 with the seigniors of Quebec. He had a seigniorial manor, mentioned in a 

 document of 1705, whose site is unknown, though in all probability it was 

 on the island called always in French maps and documents Isle La Vallière, 

 now Tonges Island, (Map No. 24.) About 1702 he became involved in 

 disputes about boundaries with the settlers of Shepody and Petitcodiac, 

 and this was settled by a special act of the Conseil d'État, in 1703 (Rameau, 

 IL, 337), which extended his seigniory to include Shepody and Petitcodiac, 

 but forbade his disturbing the settlers there. 



In 1078 la Vallière gave a tract of land at Beaubassin for a mission, and 

 it was thus described in a document of that year : (Le Tac, 191. ) 



"La donation faite par le S"" de la Vallière, seigneur de Beaubassin 

 dans l'Acadie et Dam''« Denis, sa femme aux RR.PP. Recollets ... de 

 six arpens de front qui sont en prairies dans lad. seigneurie de Beaubassin 

 sur la rivière appellee la Rivière Brouillée vis-à-vis la pointe de Beauséjour 

 en montant au Nord-est & des terres qui se trouveront dans la profondeur 

 depuis lad'« pointe juisques à moitié chemin des habitations des nommez 

 Martin & La Vallée anisi qu'il est porté plus au long dans le contract de lad'« 

 donation passé aux Trois Rivières le 2« septembre 1G78 pardevant Ameau, 

 Notaire roïal." 



Since the identity of the Rivière Brouillée is unknown, it is impossible to 

 locate this grant with certainty. Of course, the church would have been 

 built u^jon it, and but two early churches are known in this vicinity, one at 

 Beaubassin, near Fort Lawrence, and the other near Fort Beauséjour, though 

 the earlier one burnt by Col. Church in 1696 perhaps stood on a different 

 site. The latter stood on the western slope of the Fort Cumberland Ridge, 

 not far from the fort (explained earlier), and from the mention of the 

 grant as " opposite the point of Beauséjour going towards the northeast," we 



