Short History of Bonaventure
Prior to the arrival of the Europeans, the Bonaventure area was home to Micmac natives.
Early in the days of European exploration of the American continent, the abundance of fish in the waters around the Gaspé peninsula was recognized, and fishermen of many European nations made seasonal visits to the area long before any permanent settlements were formed. From at least 1608 until 1758, fishermen from France were regular visitors, often making seasonal camps on land at places along the Gaspé coast such as Bonaventure.
The permanent settlement of Bonaventure was formed in 1760 when acadian refugees of the Battle of Ristigouche arrived and settled. Based on the early censuses of Ristigouche and Bonaventure and other documents, these first settlers included Joseph Arseneault and family, Joseph's brother Jean Arseneault and family, Joseph Bourg and family including his father-in-law Ambroise Commeau, Joseph Bernard and family, and five families of Bujolds. By 1765 there were about 210 people settled at Bonaventure, mostly Acadian.
There were also a few British, Irish, Dutch, and non-Acadian French in the Gaspé area at that time but not all were permanent residents. One of these was William Van Felson, Master of the schooner Sally, who appears to have operated a fishing business out of Bonaventure.
The Acadians who settled here, including the Arsenault's, initially understood that they had the permission of the government to settle there and cultivate the land. However, it eventually became apprenet that there were conflicting claims to the land upon which the Acadians had settled, and it took decades to resolve the matter before title to the land was cleared up once and for all. See farm ownership dispute for further detail.
By the time of the 1774 census, even with new families arriving in the intervening period, the population had dropped significantly to about 158 people, but this is largely because some of the families relocated to other new settlements such as Carleton. The Arsenaults, Bourgs, and probably Bernards (the Bernards are absent from the 1774 census but appear again in the 1777 Bonaventure census) were still at Bonaventure in 1774, and by this time had been joined by other families including the Gilles Caillouette family.
Later in 1774, a party of Acadian exiles who had been living in St. Malo, France, arrived in Gaspé on a ship belonging to Charles Robin. Some of these settled at Bonaventure, including the Robichaud family.
Sometime between 1774 and 1776, Jean-Baptiste-Michel Lepage, a non-Acadian French-Canadian from Québec City, arrived at Bonaventure. He married Joseph Arseneault's daughter Marie-Rose and started a family in Bonaventure.
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