Julien Lamontagne L'Or (1652 – 1724)

We find in Stephen A White's entry for Julien L'Or (Lord, Laure) dit Lamontagne this note:

- août 1695 (vieux style): Julien Lord prête le serment de fidélité au roi d'Angleterre à Port-Royal; il signe (Mass. Arch. vol II, fol 540).

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- Aug 1695 (old style): Julien Lord took the oath of allegiance to the King of England at Port-Royal; he signed.

Archived in Boston, the document bears the date of August 1695. This document, referenced elsewhere online, shows that some interpret the flourish above the abbreviated "Aug" to read 16, thus August 16 1695; "A list of French at Port Royal to whom Captain Fleetwood Emes Comander of the Sorlings Frigatt gave the Oath of Allegiance". It is archived in a collection of colonial documents from 1695 which also contain a letter from Charles Melanson, dated August 25^th 1695, that also mentions Captain Emes:

"Sir, if Captain Emes should come to Port Royal this fall, I humbly beseech your honor to inpower him with a commission to do justice here. For there bee some people that hath been wronged about there land I hope that Captain Emes will right them that hath been wronged for I cannot doe nothing myself having no commission nor orders to shor for Monsieur DeBruil hath gott the Commission & orders from me that Sir William Phipps sent last year having no more at present". (Transcription also on Facebook)

This letter followed one apparently dated August 3^rd where Melanson reported "that his Majesty['s] two ships are both here at Port Royal." Thus it is evident that two English ships, one of which was the frigate Sorlings, were moored in the area that August, and during that time, Captain Emes administered another Oath of Allegiance following those applied in 1690.

The Oaths of 1690

In May 1690, Sir William Phipps sailed from Boston on a mission to subjugate the inhabitants of Port Royal. This was documented in a journal¹ but also by testimony by Mathieu De Goutin² (against whom Pierre Comeau made his complaint in the 1704 letter). According to the French version of the events, the citizens were summoned to the church where 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.3

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.

During the tumultuous month while Phipps was in Port Royal, the area was effectively conquered by New England. From this point forward, trade with Boston increased and Acadia would become integrated into the New England economy. This would culminate sixty-five years later in The Deportation, when once again, Acadian men would be gathered into a church to be read a statement by English authorities.

August 1695

Julien L'Or's signature is at the bottom of the central column.

Relevant Links for The Oath

Sir William Phipps (1650-1694)

Fleetwood Emes

HMS Sorlings Wikipedia • ThreeDecks.org

Letters of Charles Melanson
1695-08-03 (source) & 1695-08-25 (source)

Scans of photocopies of the Oath from 2008

Scan on Oath FamilySearch.org (verso dated August 1695)

High Resolution of Oath image below (4.5 MB)

Reverse of Oath image below with August 1695 date (4.2 MB)

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