♂Pierre Theriot

Pierre Theriot (born about 1671) was an Acadian farmer, born at Port-Royal, who was among the early settlers of Cobequid, at the head of the Minas Basin. He was the seventh great-grandfather of Floyd Amatus Delahorne (1922–2014), through his son Joseph Theriot (died before 1766).

Early life

Pierre was born about 1671 at Port-Royal, a son of Germain Theriot and Andree Brun. His father was a young farmer at Port-Royal in the census of 1671, with a wife of twenty-five and one small son. Germain died young; by the census of 1686 his widow had married Emmanuel Hebert, and her household listed her younger Hebert children alongside the three Theriot children of her first marriage: Germain, 18, Pierre, 15, and Catherine, 12.

That census is the main evidence for Pierre’s parentage: no marriage or baptism entry naming his parents has been found. It is supported by a Germain Terriot, apparently his brother, who settled beside him at Cobequid and stood godfather to one of his sons.

Cobequid

Pierre married Marie Bourg. A compiled online tree dates the marriage to 1698 at Port-Royal; the parish record has not been found. By 1701 the couple had moved to Cobequid, a frontier settlement on the Minas Basin, and each census that followed shows the household growing. In 1701, on the Rivière Saint-Antoine, Pierre and his wife had one son and one daughter, three arpents under cultivation, twenty-one cattle, nine sheep, twelve hogs and a gun. In 1703 they had a son and two daughters; in 1707, a son and four daughters, eight arpents, fifteen cattle and fifteen hogs; and in 1714, four sons and five daughters.

Cobequid had no resident priest, and its children were baptised when one could be reached, sometimes weeks after birth. Their daughter Isabelle, born on 22 July 1710, was baptised at Cobequid on 24 August; their son Pierre, born on 5 September 1712, was baptised on 20 October, with a Germain Terriot, almost certainly the boy’s uncle, as godfather. Their eldest son, Joseph, married Francoise Melancon at Grand-Pré in 1724.

Notes

A burial at Grand-Pré on 22 March 1725 of a “Pierre Terio, age 60” names no wife or family and gives an age a few years too high for this man, who would have been about fifty-four; it may or may not be his. A compiled online tree gives his death as 1724.