Pierre  ARSENAULT (ARCENAULT) (ARSENEAU)

ARSENAULT/ ARSENEAU/ ARSENEAULT - deformation of Archenault, from the Germanic name 'Archenwald', which means 'sincere-who governs'. Or, deformation of Arsonneau, from the old French 'arson', the nickname of a manufacturer. Pierre Arseneault was born around 1650. Of unknown origin and filiation, he married Marie Guérin, daughter of François and Anne Blanchard, before the 1686 census. From this union were born 7 children. Arriving in Port-Royal after the 1671 census, he was a coastal pilot. He owned property in Beaubassin, but was based in Port-Royal. The date of his death, which occurred before the 1714 census, remains unknown.

Pierre Arsonneau, Arseneau or Arsenault, a coastal pilot born perhaps in the hamlet of La Flamancherie, Saintonge, France, in September 1646, may have come to Acadia from La Rochelle aboard L'Oranger in 1671. He married Marguerite, daughter of Abraham Dugas, in c1675. They had two sons, both of whom created families of their own. After Marguerite died, Pierre remarried to Marie, daughter of Francois Guérin, in c1686. They had seven children, including five more sons who added substantially to the Arseneau clan. Pierre was a pioneer of the Acadian settlement at Chignecto, where all of his sons were born:

Oldest son Pierre, fils, by his first wife, born in c1676, married Marie-Anne, daughter of Jean Boudrot, probably at Chignecto in c1697. They had 10 children, including six sons who married into the Cormier, Breau, Hébert, Bourgeois, Boudrot, and Nuirat families. Their daughters married into the Daigre, Desroches, and Delaunay families. The family moved from Chignecto to Île

Pierre ARSENEAU 50; Marie GUERIN (wife) 38; Abraham 22; Charles 11; Jacques 8; Francois 6; Claude 1; 16 cattle, 13 sheep, 12 hogs, 24 arpents, 4 guns.