Bonjour Everyone,
For those of you who might be interested is more info. on Joseph MARCFEAU of
Australia, I am sending this nice story that was written by my friend,
Maurice St. Yves of Quebec.
The Story of Joseph Marceau, exiled patriot whose place of exile became his
adopted country
Of all the political exiles to Australia in 1840, JM was the only one to
settle and raise a family from which arise all the Marceaus of Australia.
The works of Mr. Mackaness, professor at the U. of Sydney enable us to know
about the odyssey of this Quebecker deported to the other end of the earth.
In this land of exile, he made a home. He was the only one of 58 exiles to
do so.
It wasn't until the winter of 1845 that the first contingent of repatriates
come back to Canada after a five-year exile in what was still a penal colony
of the British empire. Three deportees did not return; two died in exile,
and a third, Joseph Marceau, had decided to make a home in Australia.
Joseph Marceau, like everyone with the same family name, was one of the many
descendants of Francois Marceau, who came from Poitou in 1665, to settle on
the Isle of Orleans, first as a tenant worker, then later as owner of a
parcel of land. From 1730, the Marceaus will migrate towards the south shore
of the St Lawrence. It's at Berthier in 1730 that Jacques Marceau marries
Marguerite Beaudoin. Jacques Marceau dit le Patriote was his grandson; he
was born at L'Acadie, Quebec on January 24, 1806. Probably it is his father,
also named Jacques, who left the shores of the St Lawrence to settle in
L'Acadie where he married Archange Bourgeois in 1794. Many young men at this
time left the overpopulated seigniories and settled in areas newly opened to
colonizing. Jacques Marceau, the Patriot, was a farmer at Napierville. After
marrying Emilie Piedalue on October 5, 1830 at L'Acadie, their first child,
named Emilie like her mother, was born on September 21, 1834. Two other
children would be born in this home before the tragic events that changed the
lives of all the members. Zephirin, born at Napierville on May 1, 1836, and
Odilon, born at L'Acadie March 21, 1838.
These children were very young when destiny came knocking on their door.
The dates speak for themselves.
During the insurrection of 1837-38, Joseph Marceau was one of the
organizers of the entrenched faction in Napierville. He was at the head of
a troop of some 50 men at the battle of Odeltown on November 10, 1838.
Evidently he was a man of influence and must have been highly regarded to be
entrusted with such a strategic position. Courage was also required of the
young father to enter a combat in which victory was far from being assured.
After the defeat of 1837, at St-Denis, the British army had reorganized and
their commander Colborne decided to play hardball with the Patriots and the
help that was expected from the United States failed to materialize. These
men set out to fight for a desperate cause, but they set out anyway.
Joseph Marceau was captured November 14, 1838 and imprisoned in the
notorious prison called "the bottom of the current" at Montreal. He was
arraigned in a military court January 28, 1839, and was sentenced to be
hanged along with many of his compatriots from Napierville and L'Acadie.
Many were executed. Nevertheless, a large number had their sentences commuted
and they were condemned to deportation to Australia, at that time the largest
penal colony of the British empire.
These events were more than his wife, the young mother of three children one
of whom a 9-month old baby, could bear. On May 23, 1839, Emilie
Piedalue-Marceau died while her husband was in prison and about to be
deported to the other side of the world 4 months later. Three young children
thus became orphans with neither mother nor father.
In fact, on September 26, 1839, four months after the death of his wife,
Joseph Marceau along with 57 other Patriots went into exile. He would never
again see his country. The voyage to Australia was long and difficult. One
of the Patriots recounted the tale in a journal which was later published.
Six long months on the high seas, including a crushing detour to
Brazil....such was the fate of these men condemned to a penal colony because
they sought to improve the lives of their contemporaries by gaining for them
a bit of freedom.
Thus, it wasn't until February 25, 1840 that Joseph Marceau and his
companions in exile disembarked in Sydney, in New South Wales. They were
given hard labor, especially in road construction. Many sections of the route
of Paramatta, today still an important communication link with Sydney, were
built by the deportees. Some were even sent to Tasmania, an especially
severe penal colony. It is amazing that these men all survived these
terrible experiences. Only two died in exile: Louis Dumouchel, inn-keeper
from Sainte-Martine, and Ignace-Gabriel Chevrefils, a farmer in the same
parish.
We can't be sure where Joseph Marceau lived during these first years of
exile. His Australian descendants may have some answers. It would be
interesting to contact them to obtain from them some pertinent information in
order to better understand how this French Quebecker could make this land of
exile his adoptive country. All we know is that Joseph Marceau met a young
19-year old girl in Australia named Mary Bennett, and they married on October
9, 1844, four months after all the other political prisoners were repatriated
to Canada.
For it has to be noted that this story which began on a tragic note finally
ended happily. At the very start of the deportation, both in Ontario as well
as Quebec, certain influential individuals start a campaign aimed at
obtaining a royal pardon for these men who, it was felt, were deported out of
revenge pure and simple. In 1844, the pardon was given, and on July 9, the
first contingent of 38 political prisoners were on the road to freedom.
Others would follow. During the course of that year, all returned to Canada,
except one: Joseph Marceau. His marriage to the Australian Mary Bennett no
doubt was a reason for the decision, despite the fact that he had three
children in Quebec whom he had not seen since his arrest in Noverber of 1838.
These children had surely found a home among family relatives, as happened
whenever parents died while the children were still young. Joseph Marceau
was 38, exiled with no contact with his country of origin, decided then to
remain in Australia and build a new life. On October 8, 1844, he entered a
licit marriage at Dapto, in New South Wales. Father John Rigney celebrated
the marriage in accordance with the rites of tthe Catholic church, even
though Mary Bennett was Protestant.
With this second marriage, Joseph Marceau becomes father to 9 children who
form the first generation of Marceaus in Australia originating from the
Marceau family of Canada, which came from the Marceaus of Poitou in France.
We have the description of some of his children: John, born in 1845; Joseph,
1851; Edward, 1853; Emilia, 1855; Benjamin, 1860; James, 1861; Perpetua,
1862. Two other children whose names are not known. Joseph raised his
family in the township of Dapto in New South Wales. He died June 8, 1883 at
the age of 77. A tombstone in in the Catholic cemetery of West Dapto stands
in his memory. His wife survived him by more than a quarter of a century,
since she died February 14, 1909 at the age of 84. Her son James also
attained an advanced age, dying in 1947 at the age of 86.
The children of Joseph Marceau and their descendants have migrated
throughout Australia. There are today several hundreds in the country. In
1988 on the occasion of the Australian bicentennial, a member of the family,
Kevin Marceau of Sydney, brought together more than 300 people descended from
the famous French-Canadian patriot. Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, who was
in Sydney, was invited to dedicate a monument in memory of the exiled
Canadians; he met with the members of the large Australian Marceau family.
Historians are interested in the story of Joseph Marceau. Professor George
Mackaness of the University of Sydney took a special interest in retracing
the history of these Canadians exiled from their country to the antipodes.
He initiated the publication of the memoires of two of the exiles. Leander
Ducharme left behind "Journal of a Political Exile to Australia", translated
to English and published by Professor Mackaness. There is also the text of
Prieur: "Notes of One Condemned to Australia" which provides information
about Joseph Marceau. Finally, several recent works add details to this
unique story in the annals of the Canadian-French nation.
Australian historians have uncovered in newspapers, letters, and diaries
many details about this dark period in which Australia was a vast penal
colony for arbitrary punishment. The vast majority of prisoners were
illiterate, and so, left no writings testifying to their experience.
However, in the group of deportees from Canada, whether French or English,
many were sufficiently educated to record day by day what they experienced.
These are the materials that form the base of historical material needed to
reconstruct the daily lives of the exiles at this period.
Evidently, it would be helpful if the Marceaus of Quebec could be in touch
with the Marceaus of Australia so that they might learn from each other about
their family's past. The historic roots in France suggest an ancient family
which probably lived in eastern France in view of the cross of Lorraine on
the coat of arms of this family.
Note:
These notes are based on various documents collected by Antoinette Marceau
Lavallee. The present writing was done by Maurice Saint-Yves, husband of
Ghislaine Marceau, daughter of Donat Marceau, direct descendant of Francois
Marceau, the French ancestor of the Marceaus of Canada and of Australia.
Quebec, May 20, 2000 >>
translateed from french to english by Patrick Beaulieu, 2001