Among the later arrivals were the Le Blancs, whose children added
considerably to the growth of population, and whose importance and
prosperity make them outstanding persons in the country.
The first Le Blanc was Daniel, born in France in 1626. Thousands of his
descendants are to be found in America to-day. He arrived in Acadia in
1650, with his wife, Françoise Gaudet. He settled in Port Royal about
nine miles above the fort. When that place fell to the English under
Phipps, in 1690, Le Blanc was among those appointed to administer the
affairs of the Province until the arrival of a Governor. His name is
found on the census of 1671, 1686, and 1693. He had probably died before
the next census in 1698, as his name does not appear then or afterwards.
He lived to be about seventy years old, in spite of the trying and
laborious period through which the people of Acadia lived.
The four sons of the first Port Royal Le Blanc settled upon the present
Grand-Pré lands very soon after Melanson had become established on the
Gaspereau and Terriot on the Cornwallis.
The village, Jean Le Blanc, in 1775, had eight families. Village Pierre
Le Blanc had fourteen, and Grand Le Blanc had thirteen. The Le Blancs
appeared also in other villages.
This family was related to all the older stock of Acadian families, to
be found in 1755 throughout the whole of settled Nova Scotia.
The history of Grand-Pré, by which is meant, the annals of the country
contiguous to the Memorial Park, the Grand-Pré of the present day, in a
sense, is the family history of the Le Blancs. One member of the family,
René, was an historical character.