APPENDICES

Acadians Who Found Refuge in Louisiana, February 1764-early 1800s

CLOSSINET

[CLAWS-ih-nay]

ACADIA

Louis Closquinet dit Dumoulin, a carpenter, born at Verrier, Reims, France, in c1686, married Marguerite, daughter of Vincent Longuépée and Madeleine Rimbault, at Louisbourg on Île Royale, now Cape Breton Island, in c1722.  In c1737, they settled at Rivière-du-Nord-Est on Île St.-Jean, today's Prince Edward Island, where they had at least eight children, all born on the island:  François in c1723; Pierre in c1725; Marie-Madeleine, also called Marie-Marguerite, in c1727; Louis, fils in c1730; Joseph and Jean-Baptiste in c1732; Louise-Geneviève, also called Marie-Louise, in c1735; and Amable in July 1739.  Louis and Marguerite's daughters married into the Girard dit Saint-Crispin, Comeau, Savary, and Trahan families, one of them in France.  Louis, père and Marguerite were still alive in August 1752, when they were counted with five of their younger children on the west side of Rivière-de-Peugiguit in the center of the island.  At least three of their sons created families of their own:

Pierre married Marie-Josèphe, daughter of Paul Boudrot and Madeleine-Josèphe Doiron, at Port-La-Joye, Île St.-Jean, in January 1751.

Louis, fils, counted with his parents and younger siblings in August 1752, married Anne, daughter of Pierre Jaquemin dit Lorrain and his second wife Marguerite Haché dit Gallant, probably soon after. 

Joseph married Françoise, another daughter of Paul Boudrot and Madeleine-Josèphe Doiron, probably on Île St.-Jean in c1756.  

[See also Book Four]

LE GRAND DÉRANGEMENT

[For the family's travails during the Great Upheaval, see Book Six]

LOUISIANA:  RIVER and LAFOURCHE VALLEY SETTLEMENTS

Three Clossinets and their families came to Louisiana aboard two, perhaps three, of the Seven Ships from France in 1785.  All of them chose to go to Baton Rouge, but most of them did not remain there:

Marie Clossinet, age unrecorded, and husband Charles Comeau, age 37, a childless couple, came to Louisiana aboard Le Beaumont, the third of the Seven Ships, which reached New Orleans in August.  They settled at Baton Rouge.  

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Louis Clossinet, fils, age 54, second wife Marguerite Daigle, age 37, and stepdaughter Geneviève Giroir, age 16, sailed to Louisiana aboard La Ville d'Archangel, the sixth of the Seven Ships, which reached New Orleans in December 1785.  They followed the majority of their fellow passengers to the new Acadian community of Bayou des Écores, north of Baton Rouge.  After a series of hurricanes devastated the settlement in 1794, they moved on to upper Bayou Lafourche and settled among the hundreds of Acadians already there, including niece Jeanne Clossinet and her husband Étienne Peltier.  Louis and Marie-Marguerite brought no children with them to Louisiana and bore none there, at least none who survived childhood.

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The only member of Louis, fils's brother Joseph's family to emigrate to Louisiana was daughter Jeanne-Marguerite Clossinet, age 25, her French husband Étienne Peltier, who crossed as a stowaway on L'Amitié, and their infant son Jean.  If they sailed to Louisiana aboard one of the Seven Ships, they appear on none of the passenger lists.  They settled at Baton Rouge, where Spanish officials counted them in July 1788.  Jeanne and Étienne had more children in Louisiana.  By the mid-1790s, they had moved on to upper Bayou Lafourche, where Jeanne died in October 1800, age 40.  

NON-ACADIAN FAMILIES in LOUISIANA

In the spring of 1704, Laurent Closquinet and his wife Catherine Moulois sailed from Rochefort via Havana, Cuba, to French Louisiana aboard the ship Pélican.  Louisiana at the time was centered on Old Mobile in present-day Alabama.  Catherine served as the colony's mid-wife until her death later in the year; she was survived by her husband Laurent and their young son Henri. 

CONCLUSION

Acadian Louis Clossinet, fils and his wife, who came to Louisiana from France in 1785, had no surviving children.  The many children of Louis, fils's niece, Jeanne-Marguerite Clossinet, were Peltiers.  And the children of Marie Clossinet, probably a cousin, would have been Comeaus.  Except for its blood, then, the Acadian branch of the Clossinet family did not survive in the Bayou State.

The family's name also is spelled Clausinee, Clausinet, Clausquinay, Clauxinet, Cloccine, Clocine, Clocinet, Clocsinet, Clocsiney, Cloecinet, Cloguesiner, Cloosinet, Cloquesinel, Closinet, Cloxinet, Cloxinete, Cossinet, Croesinet, Croisinette, Crostine, Croixinet, Croixinette, Croxinet. [See also Book Ten]

Sources:  Arsenault, Généalogie, 1338, 1344, 2081-82, 2117; Vaughan B. Baker, "Cherchez les Femmes: Some Glimpses of Women in Early Eighteenth-century Louisiana," in Conrad, ed., The French Experience in Louisiana, 488; BRDR, vol. 2; Fortier, Louisiana, 1:52; De La Roque, "Tour of Inspection," Canadian Archives, 2-A:95; Hébert, D., Acadians in Exile, 81, 586, 593; Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, vol. 1-A; Higginbotham, Old Mobile, 138, 203, 251, 376; <islandregister.com/1752.html>; <perso.orange.fr/froux/St_malo_arrivees/Supply.htm>, Family Nos. 2,  9, 20, 21; Robichaux, Acadians in Châtellerault, 39; Robichaux, Acadians in Nantes, 62; Robichaux, Acadians in St.-Malo, 202-03, 300, 356-57, 726-27, 761; White, DGFA-1, 1098.  

Settlement Abbreviations 
(present-day civil parishes that existed in 1861 are in parenthesis; hyperlinks on the abbreviations take you to brief histories of each settlement):

For a chronology of Acadian Arrivals in Louisiana, 1764-early 1800s, see Appendix.

The hyperlink attached to an individual's name is connected to a list of Acadian immigrants for a particular settlement and provides a different perspective on the refugee's place in family and community. 

NOTES

01.  Not in Wall of Names.  Robichaux, Acadians in St.-Malo, 202-03, Family No. 248, her birth/baptismal record, calls her Jeanne-Marguerite CLOSSINET, gives her parents' names, says her godparents were Charles BOUDROT, her uncle, & Renée JUXTAUX, & that her family resided at St.-Énogat from 1759-65, at St.-Servan in 1765-66, at St.-Melior in 1767, & at St.-Servan again from 1767-72; Robichaux, Acadians in Châtellerault, 39, Family No. 78, the family of stepfather Marin DUGAST & her mother Françoise BOUDROT, calls her Anne CLOSSINET, a diminutive for Jeanne, & details the family's participation in the Poitou settlement of the early 1770s; Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 1-A:192, 616 (Book of Chantenay 1784: Nantes, France: Archives Dept. de la Loire Atlantique), her marriage record, calls her Jeanne-Marguerite CLOCINE, calls her husband Étienne PELTIER/PELLETIER, "tailleur de pierre (a stone cutter), native of the parish of Baune, Diocese of Angers, living in Sarigue in the same Diocese," gives her & his parents' names, says both fathers were deceased at the time of the wedding, & gives no witnesses to her marriage; BRDR, 2:192 (ASM-3, 25), her death/burial record, calls her Juana CLOSINET, "age 41 years, wife of Estevan PELLETIER," but does not give her parents' names.  See also Voorhies, J., Some Late Eighteenth-Century Louisianians, 526; Kinnaird, "Problems of Frontier Defense, 1792-94," 95; Robichaux, Bayou Lafourche, 1770-98, 57, 88, 139.

There is no doubt that Jeanne-Marguerite's parents were Acadians from Île St.-Jean.  They are listed as Family No. 20 on the passenger roll of the British transport Supply.  See <perso.orange.fr/froux/St_malo_arrivees/Supply.htm>.  One of her children's burial records says that her parents were Acadians.  Another says that she was from St.-Malo, France.  See BRDR, 2:583-84.  All of this evidence points to an arrival date in LA of 1785.  So why is she not on any of the Seven Ships passenger lists?  See Hébert, D., Acadian Families in Exile 1785.  Another of her children's baptismal records says that Étienne PELTIER's parents were Acadians, but I have not found this family in Arsenault or White.  As his marriage record indicates, he was born in France.  Neither of his parents was an Acadian.  His baptismal record, which says he was born on 22 Nov 1759 & includes his parents' names, is in Hébert, D., Southwest LA Records, 1-A:616 (Book of Baune 1759: Archives Departmentales Maine-35-Loire, 64 rue Saint-Aubin, Angers, France).  

02.  Wall of Names, 43, calls him Louis CLAUSINET, & lists him singly; Arsenault, Généalogie, 2082, profile of his father in the Île St.-Jean section, called him Louis [CLOSQUINET], gives his parents' names, lists his siblings' names & birth years, & says he was born in 1730; <perso.orange.fr/froux/St_malo_arrivees/Supply.htm>, Family No. 9, shows that in the crossing to St.-Malo in 1758-59, he & his first wife had no children & that she, too, survived the crossing; Robichaux, Acadians in St.-Malo, 203, Family No. 249, calls him Louis CLOSSINET, does not give his parents' names, says he was born in c1730 but gives no birthplace, calls his first wife Anne JACQUEMIN, says they married in c1758 but gives no place of marriage, says he & his first wife "disembarked at St. Malo on March 9, 1759 from the ship, du Supply," that they resided at Châteauneuf in 1759, at St.-Enogat from 1759-64, & at St.-Servan from 1764-72, details his second marriage, including his wife's parents' names & her first husband's name; Robichaux, Acadian in St.-Malo, 860, his marriage record, calls him Louis CLASTINET, gives his first wife's name, but not his second wife's parents' names, & says the witnesses to his marriage were Guillaume MENIAC, Delatouche DESAULNAIS, Louis HUETAUD, Pierre RUCET, & Giles RAFFRAY, all of whom signed; <acadian-cajun.com>, calls him Louis CLOSSINET & lists him on La Ville d'Archangel with his wife & stepdaughter, Geneviève GIROIR.  See also De La Roque "Tour of Inspection," Canadian Archives, 2A:96. 

Why are his second wife & stepdaughter not listed with him in Wall of Names?    

03.  Wall of Names, 33 (pl. 8L), calls her Marie CLAUSINET, & lists her with her husband & no children; Arsenault, Généalogie, 2081-82, her father's profile in the Île St.-Jean section, gives her parents' names, calls her Marie-Madeleine, & says she was born in 1727; Hébert, D., Acadian Families in Exile 1785, 32-33, calls her Marie CLAUSINET, no age given, on the embarkation list, Margarita Josef, su [Carlos COUMMEAU's] muger, on the debarkation list, & Marie CLOSSINET, no age given, on the complete listing, & says she was in the 9th Family aboard Le Beaumont with her husband & no children.  See also Hébert, D., Acadians in Exile, 586. 

Where did Arsenault get the name Marie-Madeleine?  Why was she called Marie-Josèphe on the passenger roll of Le Beaumont?  Was the Sieur de La Roque correct when he called her Marie-Marguerite?  Was her full given name Marie-Madeleine-Marguerite-Josèphe?  One doubts it.  She is the only Marie CLOSQUINET/CLOSSINET that this researcher has found in the French Maritimes, France, or French Guiane.  Evidently she was the Marie-Marguerite CLOSQUINET, age 25, "native of the country," counted in Aug 1752 on the east side of Rivière-de-Peuguiguit with husband Pierre-Mathurin GIRARD dit Crespin, age 31, "soldier of the former company of Monsieur DE BONNAVENTURE, native of the parish of St. Coulombin, bishopric of Nantes"; as well as the Marie CLOCCINET of Louisbourg, Île Royale, age 34, wife of Pierre-Mathurin GIRARD of the diocese of Nantes, age 39, & mother of Mathurin GIRARD, age 6, Jean GIRARD, age 4, & Anne-Marie GIRARD, born at Châteauneuf, France, on 28 Mar 1759, who crossed on the transport Supply to St.-Malo in 1758-59.  See De La Roque "Tour of Inspection," Canadian Archives 1905, 2A:95; <perso.orange.fr/froux/St_malo_arrivees/Supply.htm>, Family No. 2; Robichaux, Acadians in St.-Malo, 356-57, Family No. 434. 

Why was her age not given on the passenger list of Le Beaumont when almost everyone else aboard had their age recorded? 

Charles COMMAUX, born in c1747, son of Jean COMMAUX & Marguerite TURPIN, crossed to France in 1758 with his sister Marguerite & brother-in-law Jean DUPONT aboard the ill-fated British transport Duc Guillaume.  Charles lived at St.-Malo from 1758-61 & at Plouër-sur-Rance from 1761-64.  Like Marie CLOSSINET, her husband Pierre-Mathurin GIRARD, & their children, Charles COMMAUX left France for Cayenne aboard Le Fort in Apr 1764.  See Robichaux, Acadians in St.-Malo, 206, "Family" No. 253.  Evidently he was the Charles COMEAUX who married the Marie CLOSSINET who emigrated to LA in 1785.  Note that he would have been 20 years younger than the Marie CLOSSINET married to Pierre-Mathurin GIRARD. 

What happened to her in LA?  

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Copyright (c) 2007-22  Steven A. Cormier