Noel, Nova Scotia - Acadians

Acadians

The community of Noel was named Trejeptick by the Mi'kmaq and was renamed Noel. Noel Doiron settled in the community around 1710 and lived there for forty years. During that time he and others in the Noel Bay built a chapel at Burntcoat Head, Nova Scotia, eight dwellings and dykes that are still there to this day. During this time, the village of Noel was in the middle of a war zone between New England and New France fighting to maintain control over Acadia. Upon his return from the New France victory in the Battle of Grand Pre (1747), military officer Daniel Liénard de Beaujeu stopped into Noel to tend to his wounded soldiers. Liénard de Beaujeu is the first recorded visitor to the village.

At the beginning of Father Le Loutre's War, Noel Doiron and many others joined the Acadian Exodus from mainland Nova Scotia to the French colony of Ile St. Jean (i.e., Prince Edward Island). Noel was accompanied by the Acadians in Selma, Nova Scotia and Maitland, Hants County, Nova Scotia. Noel specifically settled Pointe Prime, Ile St. Jean (present day Eldon, Prince Edward Island).

Noel Doiron was an Acadian who was deported to France on a vessel known as the Duke William after the Siege of Louisbourg (1758). The Duke William sank on December 13, 1758. At least three hundred and sixty Acadians, including, Noel and most of his extended family perished. The sinking of the Duke William is one of the worst marine disasters in Canadian history (as measured by Canadian lives lost)--see list of disasters involving Canadians by death toll. According to the Captain of the Duke William, William Nichols (mariner), Noel Doiron was "head prisoner" aboard the doomed vessel and was described as the "father of the whole island", a reference to Noel's place of prominence among the Acadian residents of Isle St. Jean (Prince Edward Island). For his "noble resignation" and self-sacrifice aboard the Duke William, Noel was celebrated in popular print throughout the 19th century in England and America.