Survival of a Family: The Family of Augustin Guédry and Jeanne Hebert - Update

by Marty Guidry

In the Summer 2005 (Volume 3, Issue 2) edition of "GENERATIONS" we discussed the family of Augustin Guidry and Jeanne Hebert. At the very end of the article on page 9, we noted that in 1763 Guillaume Mervin and his family embarked on the frigate L’Aigle for an unknown destination.

Eileen Avery of Santa Barbara, CA recently researched this family for a lecture she gave in February 2005. She kindly sent us additional information on the Mervin family. Thanks, Eileen, for sharing this with us.

When Guillaume Mervin and his family departed St. Malo France in 1763 on the frigate L’Aigle, they were determined to found a French colony on Iles Malouines (today, the Falkland Islands). ^{1 , 2} During this period the French made a number of attempts to found new colonies with the Acadians; however, most failed. The settlement of Iles Malouines, organized by the Frenchman Louis- ntoine de Bougainville, is counted among the failures. The expedition included two frigates, the L’Aigle and the Sphinx and included 20 single Acadian men and three Acadian families of which the Mervin family was one.

After an aborted sailing on 8 September 1763, when strong winds forced the ships to return to France, the expedition finally departed, less one Acadian family. They arrived at Iles Malouines on 31 January 1764. The Acadians found a bleak situation - an uninhabited island with no trees for building shelter and only peat for heating. They constructed a small fort (Fort Louis) on the north side of the bay and on 5 April 1764 the two frigates departed for France - leaving 29 Acadians on the islands.

Unfortunately the Spanish had a prior claim to the Iles Malouines and confronted the French about their new colony. In the interim, Bougainville organized a new expedition. It sailed from France on 6 October 1764 on L’Aigle with additional Acadians and arrived at Fort Louis in December 1764.

The initial Acadians had survived the winter relatively well; however, the lack of wood was an ongoing problem.

The Spanish continued to press the French about the settlement and in January 1765 the French government conceded ownership rights to the Spanish government. During this time a third Acadian expedition departed for the Iles Malouines. With the return of the Iles Malouines to the Spanish, most, if not all, Acadians returned to France between 1769 and 1775.