Okay, this is out of left field but I found this this weekend and thought i would share.
In doing my family history, I found I am descended from (among other things) the French royal governor of Acadia (Nova Scotia): Alexandre Le Borgne de Belle-Isle. His father Emmanuel le Borgne (born in 1610 in Calais) had been named governor of Port Royal, but had not been able to assume his office. Alexandre led a military expedition and made some small conquests. Apparently he was quite the drinker.
Alexandre's grandson Jean Pierre Barnabas Leborgne Bellisle was born in 1740 in Port Royal. In 1754, refusing to take an oath of loyalty to the British Crown (Britain running the colony by this time), he was sentenced to 12 years in prison in Middlesex England. Convicted of some other crime, he was sentenced to go to America as an indentured servant to a Colonel Tyson in upstate New York. He was a ferryman at a place called King's Ferry. He worked off his indenture and petitioned his master for payment, and surprisingly was awarded $125. He moved to Henry County Virginia. He then moved to Wilkes County, NC, married a girl, had some kids. She died so Barnabas farmed out the kids to members of her family, and moved back to Henry County. Here he married an Indian girl named Susannah, settled down and started to raise tobacco and five sons there. Barnabas and Susannah were both murdered in 1798.
Barnabas's life reads like an Alexander Dumas novel, like the Count of Monte Cristo. Petty nobility to prisoner, to indentured servant to small landowner.
Anybody else got an interesting story from family history?
In doing my family history, I found I am descended from (among other things) the French royal governor of Acadia (Nova Scotia): Alexandre Le Borgne de Belle-Isle. His father Emmanuel le Borgne (born in 1610 in Calais) had been named governor of Port Royal, but had not been able to assume his office. Alexandre led a military expedition and made some small conquests. Apparently he was quite the drinker.
Alexandre's grandson Jean Pierre Barnabas Leborgne Bellisle was born in 1740 in Port Royal. In 1754, refusing to take an oath of loyalty to the British Crown (Britain running the colony by this time), he was sentenced to 12 years in prison in Middlesex England. Convicted of some other crime, he was sentenced to go to America as an indentured servant to a Colonel Tyson in upstate New York. He was a ferryman at a place called King's Ferry. He worked off his indenture and petitioned his master for payment, and surprisingly was awarded $125. He moved to Henry County Virginia. He then moved to Wilkes County, NC, married a girl, had some kids. She died so Barnabas farmed out the kids to members of her family, and moved back to Henry County. Here he married an Indian girl named Susannah, settled down and started to raise tobacco and five sons there. Barnabas and Susannah were both murdered in 1798.
Barnabas's life reads like an Alexander Dumas novel, like the Count of Monte Cristo. Petty nobility to prisoner, to indentured servant to small landowner.
Anybody else got an interesting story from family history?