Pierre “des Loup Marins” Comeau (1658 – 1740)

Pierre Comeau le jeune dit Des Loup-Marins was the second son of Pierre Comeau (b. 1597) named Pierre.

We find in Stephen A White's entries for Pierre Des Loups Marin & Pierre Esturgeon these notes:

- août 1695 (vieux style): Pierre Comeau le jeune prêt le serment de fidélité au roi d'Angleterre à Port-Royal; it fait sa marque (Mass. Arch. vol II, fol 540). | - Aug 1695 (old style): Pierre Comeau the elder took the oath of allegiance to the King of England at Port-Royal; he made his mark on the document

- août 1695 (vieux style): Pierre Comeau l'aîné pret le serment de fidélité au roi d'Angleterre à Port-Royal; it fait sa marque (Mass. Arch. vol II, fol 540). | - Aug 1695 (old style): Pierre Comeau the younger took the oath of allegiance to the King of England at Port-Royal; he made his mark on the document

The Oath of Allegiance

Archived in Massachusetts, the document itself bears a date of August 1695, with a note seeming to indicate that this was when it was submitted to an official. The history around the document dates to May 1690, when Sir William Phipps left Boston to subjugate the inhabitants of Port Royal, an incident documented in a journal but also in a French testimony recorded by M. De Goutin (against whom the complaint in the 1704 letter below was made).¹ According to the French version of the events, the inhabitants were summoned to the church were they were told to swear allegiance or see their homes burned:

Les douze jours que les Ennemis ont esté au Port Royal furent employez a fair venir les habitants des mines [Minas], a faire assembler tous les habitans du Port Royal, et leur ayant assigné un jour ils firent mettre toutes leurs troupes sous les armes et environnerent l'Eglise, et ayant pris tous les noms des habitans, ils dirent qu'il falloit qu'ils prétassent serment de fidelité au Prince d'Orange, et a Marie d'Angleterre, comme roi et reine d'Angleterre, sinon et a fautes de ce quils seroient tous faits prisonniers de guerre et qu'on bruleroit les maison.2

The twelve days that the Enemy stayed in Port Royal were spent to bring the inhabitant of the mines [Minas], to gather all the inhabitants of Port Royal, and in a certain day they gathered their troupes under arms and surrounded the church, and took the names of the habitants, and told them they were to take an oath of fidelity to Prince Orange and Marie of England, as king and queen of England, if not they'd be prisoners of war and their houses would be burnt.

On the Mass. Archives document which we now know dates from May 1690, there are two signature-marks for two Pierre Comeaus. The settler Pierre Comeau (b. 1597) was not listed in the census of 1693 and so is presumed to have died by this time, but he may have still been alive in 1690. The two Pierre's listed could be the two sons or the father and one son.

In his article on the origin of the Comeau name, Jacques A. Comeau wrote about this:

In 1690 on an Oath of Allegiance signed in Port Royal most of the habitants used a cross as mark. Pierre COMMEAU, one of old Pierre’s son wrote “co”. It looks like the mark of an artisan. Could this be Pierre trade mark? Or could it be Pierre himself? He was gone in 1693, but was possibly alive in 1690.

On this document we see four COMEAU, two Pierre, Jean and Etienne. Pierre with the “co” is the first on the right column followed by Emmanuel HEBERT, then comes Jean, my ancestor. The younger Jean is absent, he was living in Riviere aux Canards. Next is Etienne. The other Pierre is seen in the central column, a simple cross. Antoine, decease or gone does not figure on this document. In 1690 there was only 2 adults Pierre COMEAU in Port Royal beside old Pierre, Pierre dit l’Esturgeon and Pierre dit Loup-Marin, both son of Pierre. Most could not sign, they use a cross for the most and in some case an initial.. They are mostly from the first generation of Acadian.

As described above, in the central column, one Pierre marked a cross, and the in the third column the other Pierre marked a craftsman's mark, which suggests it is the mark of Pierre the Elder, who was listed in the census of 1671 as a "tonnelier" ie a cooper / barrel maker. However, it is noted by John M Faragher in A Great and Noble Scheme ³ that Acadians adopted the ideograms of indigenous Mi'kmaq, so this could also be an example of such an ideogram, as can be seen drawn by other signatories:

Inhabitants commonly communicated with their Míkmaw cousins in a composite trade-jargon and some men who could not sign their names used native-style ideograms as personal marks on documents.

Since the 1704 letter found in French archives⁴ by Pierre is also marked by a cross, it follows that it was signed by the same cross-marking Pierre. This site showing scans of the Oath identifies central-column Pierre as Le Jeune / Loups Marins.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Comeau-8

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1. Report of the work of the Archives Branch for the year 1912 • Alt link
Doughty 1913; pages 54-63; p 67-73.
2. Testimony of De Goutin, Ibid, p.69-70
3. A Great and Noble Scheme, John Mack Faragher; p.79
4.Lettre du nommé Pierre Comeau (Source | Archive.org)