Nicolas Denys
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Nicolas Denys (1598? – 1688) was a French-born merchant, governor, author, and settler in
New France New France (, ) was the territory colonized by Kingdom of France, France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Kingdom of Great Br ...
. He founded settlements at St. Pierre (now
St. Peter's, Nova Scotia St. Peter's (Scottish Gaelic: ''Baile Pheadair''; formerly known as "Santo Pedro", "Saint-Pierre", "Port Toulouse", and "St. Peters") is a small incorporated village located on Cape Breton Island in Richmond County, Nova Scotia, Richmond Count ...
), Ste. Anne ( Englishtown, Nova Scotia) and Nepisiquit (
Bathurst, New Brunswick Bathurst () is a city in northern New Brunswick with a population of 12,157 and the 4th largest metropolitan area in New Brunswick as defined by Census Canada with a population of 31,387 as of 2021. The City of Bathurst overlooks Nepisiguit Ba ...
). Denys' writings about the lands and peoples of
Acadia Acadia (; ) was a colony of New France in northeastern North America which included parts of what are now the The Maritimes, Maritime provinces, the Gaspé Peninsula and Maine to the Kennebec River. The population of Acadia included the various ...
were published in two volumes in 1672. The work, entitled ''The Description and Natural History of the Coasts of North America'', remains the leading authority regarding the conditions of Acadia for the years 1632 through 1670.


Life


Early years in France

Nicolas Denys was born in
Tours Tours ( ; ) is the largest city in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Indre-et-Loire. The Communes of France, commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabita ...
,
Indre-et-Loire Indre-et-Loire () is a department in west-central France named after the Indre River and Loire River. In 2019, it had a population of 610,079.France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...
, about 1598, the son of Jacques Denys, a captain in King Henri IV's Royal Guard and equerry to the king. His mother was Marie Cosnier. He was baptized in 1603.


Early years in Acadia

When
Cardinal Richelieu Armand Jean du Plessis, 1st Duke of Richelieu (9 September 1585 – 4 December 1642), commonly known as Cardinal Richelieu, was a Catholic Church in France, French Catholic prelate and statesman who had an outsized influence in civil and religi ...
authorized a stronger French presence in the New World, he commissioned
Isaac de Razilly Isaac de Razilly (1587–1635) was a member of the French nobility appointed a knight of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem at the age of 18. He was born at the Château d'Oiseaumelle in the Province of Touraine, France. A member of the French n ...
to be lieutenant-general of
Acadia Acadia (; ) was a colony of New France in northeastern North America which included parts of what are now the The Maritimes, Maritime provinces, the Gaspé Peninsula and Maine to the Kennebec River. The population of Acadia included the various ...
and Nicolas Denys accompanied the expedition as one of de Razilly's lieutenants. The expedition set sail in 1632 with 300 hand-picked men, supplies, six
Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent Religious institute, religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor bei ...
missionaries, and Simon Denys (Denis) de La Trinité (1599-1678), brother of Nicolas Denys. Simon Denys was a future seigneurial attorney and receiver general for the Compagnie des Cent-Associés, who was appointed to the ruling Sovereign Council of New France in 1664, then
ennobled Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally appointed by and ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. Th ...
by
Louis XIV LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...
, in 1668. They founded a colony at the LaHave River where Denys engaged in inshore fishing, lumbering and fur trading. French administrators, including nearby Port Royal's lord, the Sieur Charles de Menou d'Aulnay, thought little of the colonists’ reclaiming tidal marshlands. Denys was very impressed with the “great extent of meadows which the sea used to cover and which the Sieur d'Aulnay has drained”. It was this extensive system of dikes and drainage sluices (called ''aboiteaux'') that set his colony apart from any others. It allowed the colonists to reclaim land that the
Mi'kmaq The Mi'kmaq (also ''Mi'gmaq'', ''Lnu'', ''Mi'kmaw'' or ''Mi'gmaw''; ; , and formerly Micmac) are an Indigenous group of people of the Northeastern Woodlands, native to the areas of Canada's Atlantic Provinces, primarily Nova Scotia, New Bru ...
nation had no use for. This greatly aided peaceful co-existence with their neighbors, and Mi’kmaq trade, friendship and intermarriage was and is an immensely important part of the Acadian identity and heritage. When Denys arrived in 1632 the aboriginal community was already using iron kettles, axes, knives, and arrowheads, but few had firearms. Before the use of kettles the Mi’kmaq used hollowed out tree trunks in which to boil their unsalted food, dropping in hot stones to heat the water. Possessing kettles, they were free to move anywhere and became more mobile, changing their habitations often. Denys remarked on excessive hunting in his diaries.
Moose The moose (: 'moose'; used in North America) or elk (: 'elk' or 'elks'; used in Eurasia) (''Alces alces'') is the world's tallest, largest and heaviest extant species of deer and the only species in the genus ''Alces''. It is also the tal ...
, formerly in great numbers on
Cape Breton Island Cape Breton Island (, formerly '; or '; ) is a rugged and irregularly shaped island on the Atlantic coast of North America and part of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. The island accounts for 18.7% of Nova Scotia's total area. Although ...
, had been exterminated by hunting with muskets. There were no longer any moose on Prince Edward Island and the caribou were in reduced number. Alcohol, however, not over-hunting, was a major cause of Mi’kmaq decline. When de Razilly died in December 1635 the colony broke up and Nicolas Denys returned temporarily to France. In 1636, Denys was granted a seignory by the French crown, apparently the third grant in the colony of Acadie, and in 1642 he married Marguerite de Lafitte in France, but soon took his new family across to his adopted lands of Acadia. Denys was a witness to one of the most unfortunate chapters of early Acadia's history: the rivalry between the Lords d’Aulnay and
Charles de Saint-Étienne de la Tour Charles de Saint-Étienne de La Tour (1593–1666) was a Huguenot French colonist and fur trader who served as Governor of Acadia from 1631–1642 and again from 1653–1657. Early life Charles de Saint-Étienne de La Tour was born in France i ...
, as it dissipated efforts to grow the colony. La Tour had claimed royal permission to ply the fur trade in the American Northeast. His rival outposts were in often-open hostility with the budding d’Aulnay colony, competing for resources and markets. Decades of sparring led to bloodshed. In the Spring of 1643 La Tour led a party of English mercenaries against the Acadian colony at Port Royal. His 270
Puritan The Puritans were English Protestants in the 16th and 17th centuries who sought to rid the Church of England of what they considered to be Roman Catholic practices, maintaining that the Church of England had not been fully reformed and should b ...
and
Huguenot The Huguenots ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...
troops killed three Acadians, burned a mill, slaughtered cattle and seized 18,000
livre Livre may refer to: Currency * French livre, one of a number of obsolete units of currency of France * Livre tournois, one particular obsolete unit of currency of France * Livre parisis, another particular obsolete unit of currency of France * Fre ...
s' worth of furs. D'Aulnay retaliated in 1645 by seizing all of La Tour's possessions and outposts while La Tour was drumming up more support for his cause in the English colonial port of
Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...
. Denys’ letters and journals give vivid descriptions of the drama.


Governor

Once he secured rights to his own lands in Acadia through the Company of New France, Denys continued to seek his fortunes now as the Governor of Canso and Isle Royale (present-day
Cape Breton Island Cape Breton Island (, formerly '; or '; ) is a rugged and irregularly shaped island on the Atlantic coast of North America and part of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. The island accounts for 18.7% of Nova Scotia's total area. Although ...
). Denys founded settlements at St. Pierre (now
St. Peter's, Nova Scotia St. Peter's (Scottish Gaelic: ''Baile Pheadair''; formerly known as "Santo Pedro", "Saint-Pierre", "Port Toulouse", and "St. Peters") is a small incorporated village located on Cape Breton Island in Richmond County, Nova Scotia, Richmond Count ...
, site of the Nicholas Denys Museum), Ste. Anne ( Englishtown, Nova Scotia) and Nepisiquit (
Bathurst, New Brunswick Bathurst () is a city in northern New Brunswick with a population of 12,157 and the 4th largest metropolitan area in New Brunswick as defined by Census Canada with a population of 31,387 as of 2021. The City of Bathurst overlooks Nepisiguit Ba ...
). His 'fortunes' had some reversals, however. Sieur Emmanuel le Borgne, a rival with holdings at Port Royal, seized his properties by armed force in 1654 while Denys was at Ste. Anne. Later that year, King Louis XIV recognized Denys’ claims to the property lost to le Borgne, and Le Borgne was commanded to restore them to Denys. The Denys family, including his wife and son Richard Denys, made their home in St. Pierre, and dwelt there in relative calm until the Winter of 1669, when Nicolas’ home and business were consumed in a fire. Denys relocated his family to Nepisiquit, on Baie Chaleur, just south of the
Gaspé Peninsula The Gaspé Peninsula, also known as Gaspesia (, ; ), is a peninsula along the south shore of the St. Lawrence River that extends from the Matapedia Valley in Quebec, Canada, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It is separated from New Brunswick on it ...
, and there he turned his efforts to writing. Leaving his son Richard in charge of his holdings, he travelled to Paris to publish his ''Description Géographique et Historique des Costes de l’Amérique Septentrionale: avec l’Histoire Naturelle du Païs.'' Released in 1672, it was not a success. He remained in Paris for several years, returning impoverished to Nepisiguit a few years before his death.


Legacy

Denys died in 1688 at Nepisiquit, a town of his own creation. During his tenure in the New World, he appears to have offered more stability of governance than those other royal appointees around him. Denys is well known through his writings about the lands and peoples of Acadia, especially his ''Description'', published in two volumes in 1672. This work was edited and translated into English by Professor William Francis Ganong and published in 1908 as part of the Champlain Society's General Series. Ganong was a distant cousin of Denys. Nicolas Denys and his work, translated as ''Description and Natural History of the Coasts of North America'', remains the leading authority regarding the conditions of
Acadia Acadia (; ) was a colony of New France in northeastern North America which included parts of what are now the The Maritimes, Maritime provinces, the Gaspé Peninsula and Maine to the Kennebec River. The population of Acadia included the various ...
for the years 1632 through 1670.


Falsified genealogies

There are numerous published genealogies on the Denys history that are unreliable. Noted
genealogist Genealogy () is the study of families, family history, and the tracing of their Lineage (anthropology), lineages. Genealogists use oral interviews, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family ...
Yves Drolet, in ''The Aryan Order of America and the College of Arms of Canada 1880 - 1937'', discredited genealogies linking Nicolas Denys to Frederick Gilman Forsaith alias Frédéric Gregory Forsyth de Fronsac' alias Forsyth de Fronsac alias Viscount de Fronsac. "In fact, the registers of Maine confirm his birth in Portland, but also reveal that his real name was Frederick Gilman Forsaith and that he was born on July 18, 1855" Fraudulent lineages written by Forsaith (posing as Forsyth) and others have been widely distributed and used as reference in several books. One example includes the following fraudulent misinformation deleted from this article on July 10, 2017: Marguerite, the daughter of Nicolas Denys and Marguerite Lafitte, died in 1654, unwed, at the innocent age of eight. As Forsyth, he also crafted a false descendancy from John Erskine, Earl of Mar. Other Forsyth publications by Forsaith containing false genealogies include: * ''Memorial of the family of Forsyth de Fronsac'' * ''A genealogical record : Forsyth of Nydie'' * ''Rise of the United Empire Loyalists: A Sketch of American History'' Another author, once a widely respected professional genealogist, Charles Henry Browning, also perpetuated Forsaith's false Denys relationship, as well as other false lineages. Browning was a member of the Aryan Order of America (1880-1937), which was founded by Forsaith, under his alias, Forsyth. Some of Browning's false lineages are included in ''Americans of Royal Descent''.


Notes


References

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External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Denys, Nicolas 1598 births 1688 deaths Acadian people People of New France Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada) Governors of Acadia Acadian writers