♂Antoine Bajolet

Antoine Bajolet lived at Piney, in what is now the Aube department of France, at the beginning of the seventeenth century. He was the father of Barbe Bajolet, who crossed to Acadia and was counted as a widow at Port-Royal in the census of 1671. He was the tenth great-grandfather of Floyd Amatus Delahorne (1922–2014) by two separate lines of descent, through his daughter Barbe Bajolet (born about 1608).

On Sunday 22 June 1608 their daughter Barbe was baptized at Piney; the register calls her “fille de Anthoine Baiolet & de Jeanne sa femme”, and her godfather was Anthoine Contant. Antoine is said to have been the first muleteer of Queen Marie de’ Medici^W, the wife of Henri IV of France. Barbe is said to have married Isaac Pesseley, a merchant of Piney, and gone with him to Acadia.

Lines of descent

Floyd Amatus Delahorne (1922–2014) reaches the couple by two separate lines of descent, both running down through their daughter Barbe Bajolet (born about 1608). Each line runs twelve generations from Floyd up to them. Both lines reach Floyd through his mother’s side, through Ida Serrette (1903–1990).

The two lines meet again in Amelia Pennison Daigle (1869–1906), whose parents, Jean Baptiste Daigle (born about 1847) and Melia Thibodeaux (born about 1850), both descend from the couple, Antoine Bajolet and Jeanne.

Notes

The queen’s muleteer

Bona Arsenault’s compiled Histoire et généalogie des Acadiens (volume 2, page 718), in its entry for Isaac Pesseley, calls Barbe the daughter of Antoine Bajolet, “premier muletier de la reine Marie de Médecis” (first muleteer of Queen Marie de Médicis). Léopold Lanctôt’s compiled Familles acadiennes (volume 2, pages 150 and 197) gives the same title. No record of the post is known. Arsenault’s entry is also the source for Isaac Pesseley as “marchand à Piney” and for the couple’s going to Acadia.

Barbe of Piney and Barbe of Port-Royal

The child baptized at Piney in 1608 and the Barbe Bajolet of Acadia are joined by Arsenault, who makes her first husband a merchant of Piney and gives her birth as 1608. Léopold Lanctôt’s Familles acadiennes (volume 1, page 127) quotes the list of those who sailed for Acadia on the Saint-Jean from La Rochelle on 1 April 1636, which names “Isaac Pesseley, marchand, de Piney, en Champagne”. The census of 1671 gives her age as sixty-three, which agrees. The transcription of the Piney entry given here is provisional.