Follow Antoine de La Boularderie and his family as they navigate the most violent and uncertain years in Cape Breton’s history. As the shadow of the 1758 siege looms over the Fortress of Louisbourg, the Boularderies find themselves caught between a crumbling empire and an inevitable invasion. Experience a story of upheaval, survival, and the displacement that redefined Cape Breton forever.

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TRANSCRIPT 

1. After the French were defeated at Gabarus Bay, the New Englanders went on to lay siege to the Fortress of Louisbourg. The two sides bombarded each other day and night, but caught between the New England army on one side and the British Navy on the other, Louisbourg had no choice but to surrender. The Articles of Capitulation were signed on June 27 1745, a little over a month and a half after the siege began. An army of New England amateurs had done the impossible – face off against a European power, and win. 

2. The news reached the city of Boston in the Province of Massachusetts Bay on July 3. The people of Boston took to the streets in celebration, and fireworks lit the night sky.

3. Details about the siege and surrender of Louisbourg went to print in the form of a song called “New England Bravery” which now echoed through the city’s narrow streets. The lyrics were set to the tune of “Chevy Chase”, the song you are now listening to. (5, 10 second gap?) One verse of the song described the landing of New England troops at Gabarus Bay. We quote: “Though opposed by Morpang, with full two-hundred men, a handful of our gallant lads did drive them back again. Some few were taken prisoners, and many killed out-right, which taught the French at Louisbourg, New England men can fight.” 

4. Somewhere in Boston, Antoine de La Boularderie likely heard the commotion as it spread across the city. After he had been captured by enemy soldiers on the shores of Gabarus, he had been taken aboard the English fleet where he no doubt received needed care for his gunshot wounds. The night before the Articles of Capitulation were signed, the ship he was aboard weighed anchor and sailed for Boston, meaning that his arrival in the town would have coincided with the news of Louisbourg’s surrender. 

5. We don’t know if La Boularderie ever heard the lyrics of “New England Bravery” that mention Morpain and the “French prisoners” – which was a reference to himself –  or what he thought of them if he had. Regardless, there were likely more pressing things on his mind – how were his wife and children coping back in Cape Breton? Mme de La Boularderie was actually pregnant during this whole ordeal; Little Jean-Richard would be born in September of 1745. What would happen to their homestead in Little Bras d’Or? And who from Louisbourg had died during the siege and who had survived? 

6. Finally, after 3 months in Boston, Antoine was sent back to France with other French prisoners. He was given a certificate of good conduct from the leading men of the town which, among other documents, can be viewed in his online dossier on the Archives Nationale d’Outremer website.

7. With nowhere to go, La Boularderie requested an appointment to La Compagnie Franche de la Marine, France’s colonial troops. He lived in the city of Québec on a reduced military income; the whereabouts of his family at this time is not clear. 

8. Back in the Maritimes, years came and went, and the war dragged on. France concocted an ambitious plan to retake Louisbourg and Acadia from the British, but the endeavour collapsed when the French fleet tasked with the undertaking was struck with disease and the expedition’s leader, the Duke d’Anville, died aboard his ship in Chebucto Bay. Meanwhile in Louisbourg, the New Englanders continued to make themselves comfortable, working on the town’s fortifications and erecting new buildings. Although Great Britain would keep a hold on Louisbourg and mainland Nova Scotia for the time being, skirmishes between British and French forces ensured that the Maritimes remained a hotbed of military and guerilla activity.

9. In 1748, after nearly 8 long years of war, the belligerent nations sat down at the negotiating table and hammered out a draft of what would become the Treaty of Aix-la-Chappelle. In exchange for Madras, India, France secured the return of Cape Breton from the British. The New Englanders who had spent so much time investing in Louisbourg were furious; the French on the other hand prepared for their return to Île Royale.

10. Soon after the signing of the treaty, Antoine received the following orders from Versailles: 

Sieur de La Boularderie, half-pay captain of the troops in Canada, is ordered to proceed to Île Royale, to serve in the above mentioned capacity. Made at Versailles on the 14th of April 1749, signed Louis XV. 

The Boularderies were finally going home. 

11. Louisbourg and the island of Cape Breton were returned to the French on July 23rd, 1749, and Antoine was part of the first contingent to return. He saw active duty in the Louisbourg garrison for about a year, being 1 of only 4 garrison captains available who could mount a guard. 

12. According to a list of the Boularderie’s children found in Les Derniers Jours de l’Acadie, at least three of them would have been serving as cadets in the Louisbourg garrison – Francois de La Boularderie, Louis de Benneville and Jean-Richard de St Aubin, all between the ages of 3 and 10. Gaston du Boscq de Beaumont, who compiled the correspondence published in Les Derniers Jours de l’Acadie in the late 1800s, explains that it was not unheard of in the 18th century to have the children of officers enlist and fight in the army, a stark reminder of how very different things were three centuries ago.

13. The effects of the war and the New England occupation could be seen across the island. Ingonish, one of the largest settlements in Cape Breton outside of Louisbourg, was abandoned and remained uninhabited for over half a century. Port Dauphin, today’s Englishtown, had been burnt to the ground not long after Louisbourg’s surrender. Saint Esprit, a large cod-fishing settlement just north of today’s St. Peters, had been bombarded from sea by New England ships. And Little Bras d’Or, the settlement that the Boularderies’ had built from the ground up, had also been targeted during the war.

14. Although the order of events is not clear, at some point Antoine asked to be relieved of duty so he could go back to his land at Little Bras d’Or. Instead of finding his beautiful house, however, what he found was a pile of ash. Writing about this, Antoine said that ,“A party of French freebooters and Indians, under orders from Monsieur de La Galissonnière [the Governor of New France], failed to execute them as intended. Instead of ravaging the English, they came on Pentecost day and burned all my houses — though peace had already been signed on April 30.” We can’t begin to imagine how this news must have unhinged the Boularderies, who, with the birth of Michel Hypolite de La Boularderie on August 27 1749 were now a family of no less than 6. With no income from their land, and Antoine no longer serving as commandant of Ingonish, this must have been a very bleak time for the Boularderies.

15. That being said, the Boularderie’s orchards had survived the attack, the land itself was still valuable and, unlike Ingonish, people were still choosing to live in Little Bras d’Or. For example, in 1752 there was a population of 60, a decent number for the community. Antoine had also been promised the Cross of St. Louis, a military medal that included a pension, upon returning to Louisbourg. And so, with little alternative, Antoine began the difficult process of rebuilding their life at Little Bras d’Or. 

16. Although all was not lost, damage had been done. Perhaps due to the stress of this situation, Antoine and his wife Eleonore began to drift apart, and whispers of the Boularderies personal problems began to seep into the colonial gossip.

17. The Count de Raymond, Governor between 1751-1753, made the following ambiguous remark about Antoine in a letter written to the Minister of the Marine: “[La Boularderie] is a former officer who has been thoroughly corrected of all his past misconduct, and whom I have managed to restrain so well that there is no longer any issue with the continual disputes he used to have with his vassals and the people on his property in [Little Bras d’Or].” 

18. Historian Dale Miquelon says that, quote “There is evidence of [the Boularderies] estrangement as early as 1751, when he turned over to [Mme La Boularderie] the fishery at [Ingonish], she promising to demand nothing more from him “for any reason.”” Although we don’t know the context of Raymond’s and Mme de La Boularderie’s comments, it seems that Antoine’s proud and noble facade was beginning to crack under years of continuous strain.

19. The facade of peace between Great Britain and France was also starting to crack. When Great Britain handed Louisbourg back to the French in 1749, they simultaneously founded a new naval base only 320 kilometers, or about 200 miles, to the south called Halifax. Prior to this, the nearest major British port was Boston. This was the first indication that the British were going to challenge the French for control of modern-day Atlantic Canada. At the isthmus of Chignecto, the dividing line between French and British territorial claims during the 1750s, the British built Fort Lawrence to assert their presence; in response, the French built Fort Beauséjour only a mile down the road. In 1751, British settlers in the Dartmouth area were attacked and killed by a party of Acadians and Mi’kmaq. It soon became clear that peace was only paying the Maritimes a brief visit. 

20. While this situation simmered, Antoine chipped away at rebuilding his family’s prospects. [Sounds of summer – 5-10 seconds]  It’s now the late summer or early autumn of 1754, and we return to the very beginning of our three part episode. Antoine is in Little Bras d’Or inspecting the progress of his establishment. He lumbers down towards the shore, where the fishermen are hard at work. Suddenly, La Boularderie finds himself staring down the barrel of a gun held by one of his own hired labourers. His life flashes before his eyes. The man pulls the trigger [gunshot] and Antoine falls to the ground. 

21. Imagine the scene –  the assailant is overpowered by the fishermen who have rushed to Antoine’s aide, and his pistol is wrestled from his hands. Antoine is lying on the ground and bleeding, but miraculously the bullet only grazed his head. Soon after, the attempted murderer is rushed into a boat and sent off to Louisbourg for trial. Unfortunately, it seems the disputes between Antoine and his vassals were not over, as the Count de Raymond had previously suggested. This is now the second time that Antoine has been shot on Cape Breton soil.

22. News of this event spread throughout the colony, and what happened next is preserved in a letter written by one Michel des Bourbes on December 23rd 1754:

“…M. de La Boularderie received, some time ago, a gunshot to the head from one of his men, who fired at him in revenge for some lashes he had given him. The servant was arrested and thrown into jail. A few days later, M. de La Boularderie came to Louisbourg to denounce him to the King’s prosecutor. The trial was conducted, and the servant was about to be condemned when, one night, the corporal on guard at the fortress received orders to hand over the keys to the jail where M. de La Boularderie’s servant was being held. A locksmith was brought in, who cut off his irons as well as those of another criminal; both of them were taken out and put aboard the Esther, which set sail at daybreak for Saint-Domingue. Monsieur Prévost is the author of this escape…”

23. For some unknown reason, the financial administrator of the colony, second only to the Governor, had let Antoine’s attempted murderer escape. This was yet another blow to the Boularderies.

24. In the same year, some two thousand kilometres away, a skirmish between French and American colonists in the Ohio Country heralded the return of open warfare between the French and British to North America, and the repercussions reverberated all the way to Cape Breton. Although war had not yet been officially declared, the British took the initiative and captured Fort Beausejour in 1755. Then, the British Navy out of Halifax instituted a blockade of Louisbourg, capturing some twenty French fishing or merchant ships in 1755 alone. And later that year, the British began systematically removing the Acadian population from mainland Nova Scotia. Louisbourg officials did not deceive themselves – they knew that once war was declared, Louisbourg would be one of the first targets.

25. As if sensing the approaching storm, on September 1 1755, Antoine penned the letter that’s been woven through this three part episode. He addressed it to a high ranking military officer who had served in Louisbourg but was now back in France. It was Antoine’s hope that the letter would somehow find its way to either the halls of Versailles, where the nation’s ministers would realize they had forgotten about him, or to a wealthy protector who would advocate for him in France. In it, he outlines his service in the War of Polish Succession, as discussed in Part A of this episode. Then, he expounds on the hardships he had experienced carrying out the King’s orders with regards to his estate at Little Bras d’Or, and the courage he displayed in the face of extreme danger at Kennington Cove in 1745. But we truly start to sense Antoine’s mounting desperation when he cuts to the chase and states that the Cross of St. Louis promised him nearly seven years ago – and the pension that came with it – had never arrived. He wrote –  “I throw myself at their feet, imploring them to grant me the Cross of Saint Louis, the fixed command of Port Dauphin (which is near my estate), or a gratuity sufficient to restore it”. Historian Dale Miquelon, referring to Antoine’s pleas for help, said that it was quote “couched in the whimpering style then regarded proper in addressing a superior with favours to grant… The ancien régime saw La Boularderie as a gentleman. That he could not handle his money and … became hopelessly indebted … was regarded as … a natural consequence of his class.” unquote. Whether this letter had any effect on Versailles is not known, but for us, the letter helps us to appreciate just how dire the Boularderie’s situation had become by 1755. You can listen to a narration of this letter in the bonus episode that immediately follows this one. 

26. On May 17 1756, Great Britain and France formally declared war. In 1757, the British planned to attack Louisbourg, but due to logistical delays and uncooperative weather, the attack never materialized. In the spring of 1758, the British finally returned. Antoine received news from the governor that once again a British fleet carrying troops for an assault on Louisbourg was blockading the port and that his presence was required in the town. 

27. Antoine was not the same man he had been thirteen years earlier, when Louisbourg was first attacked. The stress of the last few years had left its mark on the fifty-year-old’s body – The wounds he had received at Gabarus Bay in May of 1745 frequently re-opened, and the bullet that had grazed his head four years ago had left a wound that never properly healed. Despite his physical condition, Antoine once again got into a boat and, avoiding the British fleet, slipped into Louisbourg harbour.  

28. In early June, a British fleet of about 150 ships anchored in Gabarus Bay and prepared to disembark some 14,000 soldiers, but the presence of thick fog and heavy surf kept them from moving forward with their plan. They had chosen Kennington Cove as a landing site, the same place that the New Englanders had landed in 1745. This time, however, the French were prepared – instead of sending only 80 volunteers to repel the enemy, 1,000 French troops lay waiting for the British along the length of Kennington Cove. 

29. We don’t know where La Boularderie was at this pivotal moment in Cape Breton history, whether posted at Kennington Cove or within the fortress walls. Due to his persistent health issues, it seems likely that he was within the walls of Louisbourg. But wherever he was, he no doubt waited with bated breath for the inevitable clash of world powers that now converged on Louisbourg. 

30. At 4 o’clock in the morning on Thursday, June 8 1758, the rumble of distant cannonfire was heard in Louisbourg. The weather conditions had finally cooperated, the British had begun their landing, and French forces had opened fire on the enemy. Within the next hour, people back in Louisbourg would have likely noticed a faint orange glow in the sky in the direction of Kennington Cove, framed against the blackness of night. It’s not difficult to imagine the town suspended in uncertainty in the minutes that followed, wondering what in the world would happen next.

31. After three long hours, French soldiers came racing down the road from Kennington Cove toward the town, slowly at first, then by the hundreds, then over a thousand in total. The French were in full retreat. As they did so, they had set fire to their defenses – the orange glow that was likely visible in the sky above Kennington Cove. 

32. When Antoine saw the French soldiers in retreat, he must have known that it was only a matter of time before Louisbourg once again fell into British hands and that his family’s time on Cape Breton Island was over.

33. In what seemed to be no time at all, the British army was everywhere. British and French batteries around Louisbourg cannonaded each other day and night. British bombs fell inside the town. Women and children took shelter in the King’s Bastion casemates; perhaps Mme de La Boularderie was one of them. A British battery on the far side of the harbour pounded the Island Battery, a fort built on an island at the entrance of the harbour, into a mound of rubble. Enormous French navy ships, anchored as close to the town as possible to avoid the falling bombs, burned to the waterline and then floated aimlessly to the bottom of the harbour. Then one night, a heated shot fired by a British cannon ignited a fire in the King’s Bastion citadel. In a display of great symbolism, the largest building in North America burned through the night. By morning, the French in Louisbourg knew that it was all over. 

34. Once again, Louisbourg surrendered, and The British formally took possession of the town on July 27 1758. Hugh Boscawen, “The Capture of Louisbourg 1758” describes what the British saw when they finally entered the town. quote “They were struck by the smell of burning and the stench of sewage and gangrene from the hospital. Most buildings had suffered from shot and shell. Barricades, trenches, and shelters obstructed movement, and debris was scattered everywhere; rotten tobacco lay on the quay. The harbour was littered with wreckage, the high water mark being delineated by charred jetsam. The hulks of warships burned on the 21 of July lay near the barachois…small craft, many waterlogged or stove, were beached, while broken spars, rigging, anchor buoys, tobacco, and corpses moved in the swell. “The Town of Louisbourgh,” Lt. Henry Hamilton observed, “was almost a heap of ruins.”” unquote. 

35. At some point during this ordeal someone scribbled down a list of La Boularderie’s sons, who were quite likely all inside Louisbourg during the siege. This document has miraculously survived to our day, and a descendant of Antoine de La Boularderie has kindly provided us with a transcript of this document prepared by France’s Department of Cultural Affairs. It lists Antoine’s sons and their ages at the time of the second siege of Louisbourg: From oldest to youngest, they were – Antoine fils, 22, Francois, 20, Louis, 17, Jean Richard, 14, Michel, 10, and Ferdinand, 9. As far as is understood from the documentation, none of them were killed during the siege. Soon after the surrender, the estate at Little Bras d’Or was burned down and the family was shipped off to France with the rest of Louisbourg’s population. In all likelihood, the second siege of Louisbourg was the last time that the family was together in one place. 

36. What was it like for the Boularderies to watch their world collapse around them during the final days of Louisbourg’s second siege? To realize that the last ten years of rebuilding in Little Bras d’Or was for nothing and that their family’s prospects were now ruined? What was it like for Antoine’s children to know that in all likelihood they were going to leave the only home they’d ever known and never return? That they would never again lay eyes on Cape Breton’s rugged yet gentle landscape? That they would have to go back to a mother country that they never knew? The historical record is silent. 

37. Back in France, Antoine lived off of charity. Hoping desperately to gain an audience with one of the ministers, he would hang around the Palace of Versailles until one day he was granted a sum of money on the condition that he would leave and never return. He also wrote the government incessantly begging them to compensate him for his losses in Cape Breton. In one of these letters, Antoine said: “[I am] covered with wounds, deeply attacked by the stone which torments me cruelly, an ulcer on my leg resulting a long time ago from a cannonball explosion… my eyesight is suffering, my linen was stolen during my illness, for three years I have had the same black suit on my body.” He died penniless in Paris around 1771, at about 66 years of age. 

38. After returning to France, Mme de La Boularderie spent the rest of her life in a convent. She died around the year 1784. Antoine fils, the Boularderies oldest son, disappears from known records after 1758, and so does Jean-Richard. François, Louis, Michel and Ferdinand would go on to serve in the colonial troops of French Guiana in South America. 

39. Two other names traditionally appear in the list of Antoine and Eleonore’s children – Jean-Charles and Gerard, however both Antoine and historian Dale Miquelon confirm that the Boularderies only had six sons. This is a good mystery for another time. 

40. One of the La Boularderie’s sons would resurface twenty years later during the American War of Independence and would re-invent himself as John Laboularderie de Treville. It’s impossible to say exactly which of the Boularderies sons this was, but there’s no doubt it was one of Antoine’s and Eleonore’s boys. Treville, like many French soldiers, fought with the Americans against the British, but his story takes a surprising turn. Treville was suspected of being a British spy. Somehow, Treville was acquainted with General Charles Cornwallis, the British general famous for his surrender at Yorktown, Virginia in 1781. How this relationship came about and how true it is that Treville was actually spying for the British is a question best left for historians of the American Revolution. After the war, Treville settled down in South Carolina, fighting to restore his reputation and often dueling with those he felt offended his honour. He died in 1791. The story of how a Frenchman, born and raised in Little Bras d’Or in Cape Breton during the 18th century went on to fight in the American War of Independence, be suspected of spying for General Cornwallis and then go on to build a life for himself in the newly created United States of America is one of the most surprising things we have discovered here at The Lost World of Cape Breton Island. 

41. How can we summarize our episode on the Boularderies and their impact on the history of Cape Breton Island? They made all the right moves for a family endowed with nobility, but owing to their prominence, the Boularderies found themselves bearing the brunt of the imperial clashes that took place on Cape Breton Island, and the family and their prospects never recovered. The upheavals of the 1750s and the struggle for empire laid waste to peoples across the Maritime region – French, Acadians, Mi’kmaq, and the Boularderie family were no exception.

42. Unlike other historical figures we’ve studied at length like the Chevalier de Johnstone or Christophe Chiquelier, whose personalities and characteristics seem to leap off the page, Antoine de La Boularderie’s personality remains ambiguous. He was idealistic but obviously flawed. His praises were sung by everyone who met him, followed immediately by some thought that nobody wanted to say out loud. He was often the most qualified in the room, but frequently disregarded. Without more 18th century commentary, it’s challenging to harmonize the ‘Antoine’ who served in the military campaigns of “Kehl, Philippsburg and Clauzen” to the ‘Antoine’ of Little Bras d’Or and Kennington Cove. 

43. Despite the passing centuries, the Boularderies legacy continues to arrest the imagination of Cape Bretoners, Nova Scotians and Canadians alike. When much of what happened before 1800 is relegated to the pages of a history book, this family’s hopes, dreams, setbacks and failures echo from the distant past and into the collective cultural memory of Cape Bretoners – a  stark reminder of a time when Cape Breton and Atlantic Canada were not the calm, peaceful places that they are today.  

44. About seven years after the capture of Louisbourg in 1758, Samuel Holland, a British surveyor, began the difficult task of assessing Cape Breton Island for the possibility of future British settlement. During this survey, he or a member of his team reached the old Boularderie homestead at Little Bras d’Or. – Holland wrote – “Monsieur Boulandrie had a convenient Habitation with a fine Farm, which produced Grain of all Sorts, equal to any in Canada; this House was burned by us after the taking of Louisburg, but the Orchard, which was very good remains with all Sorts of Fruit Trees; by this it appears, that many Parts of Cape [Breton] are as capable of Improvements in Agriculture as Canada.” Holland noted that Little Bras d’Or was now home to a handful of Acadian and English families who had settled there in the years following the second siege of Louisbourg. The early 1800s saw the arrival of families from the Scottish Highlands who, like Louis-Simon de La Boularderie nearly a century before, chose to make Boularderie Island their new home. Today, the communities of Alder Point and Point Aconi, both located in the Boularderie’s old concession, have a combined population of over 500. Although the Boularderies of Little Bras d’Or are long gone, their name, legacy and the community they created live on in Cape Breton Island.