Page:1898 NB Magazine.djvu/58

Abraham Dugast, armorer, who was 55 years old, was married to a woman named Doucet, and as she had eight children, a son of 19 and daughters possibly still older, we may assume that she was then not much less than 40 years old. Pierre and Germain Doucet and Abraham Dugast's wife were probably the children of the original settler Doucet who may have come to Acadia in 1632. At all events, Doucet is one of Acadia's ancient names and the Doucets are among our first families. Peltret, the name of Pierre Doucet's wife, was also the name of the wife of Barnabé Martin, who had two young children. Doubtless the two women were sisters and both quite young, the children of a deceased original settler. This conjecture is strengthened by the fact that, although there was no male head of a family named Peltret in Acadia in 1671, there was a family named Peltret at Port Royal in 1686, when the census of Acadia was again taken. In that year Port Royal was still the home of the Doucets, but in 1714 some of them were residing at Mines. The oath of allegiance of 1736 was signed by no less than fifteen men named Doucet. There were only three families of the name deported from Mines by Winslow in 1755, but in 1752 there were ten families of that name at Beausejour, all of them, except one from Cobequid, being residents of the settlements in the vicinity of the fort.

In 1783 when the Loyalists came to St. John, there was one family named Doucet, numbering five persons, residing on the St. John River. The Doucets in Madawaska county are doubtless descendants of this family. Among the matters connected with this family that are worthy of mention is the fact that in 1749 Joseph Doucet was one of the deputies from Chignecto who met Governor Cornwallis at Halifax immediately after the founding of that settlement. The name and