3He was a soldier at Port Royal when he and his pregnant wife were captured and taken to Boston by a Privateer who was raiding in the area.

4Gabriel's fourth son, who was also named Gabriel for reasons now lost to time grew to manhood and settled in Port Royale, Annapolis, Nova Scotia. In a 1704 raid on Acadia by the British, Gabriel along his wife Jeanne was captured and taken as hostage to Boston, Massachusetts. Jeanne, as life would have it was pregnant at the time with the couple's first child. This child a girl whom the couple named Madeline was born on January 9, 1705 in Boston. Later that same year or early in 1706 Gabriel and Jeanne were returned by the British to Port Royal.

Around the year 1720 or perhaps even 1721Gabriel and his family were once again on the move. This move was to Port Toulouse [known today as St. Peters] on Cape Breton Island. This move was made to escape having to swear an oath of allegiance to the British Crown which was being demanded by the then Governor of Nova Scotia. The Island of Cape Breton you see was at that time still under French rule. In Port Toulouse Gabriel earned his living by the building and navigating of coastal vessels called "Coasters" around the Port Toulouse area. Gabriel and Jeanne are believed to have had eight children.

They were captured in a British raid on Nova Scotia in 1704 and taken as hostages to Boston. The raid was mounted by the Governor of Massachusetts in retailation for the earlier French inspired Indian raids into Maine and Massachusetts. Jeanne was pregnant at the time of her capture and their first child, Madeline, was born in Boston in 1705. They were returned to Port Royal in 1706.

Gabriel Samson left Acadia in 1720 or 1721 and moved with his family of Ile-Royale to avoid taking the oath of allegiance to the British Crown the Governor of N.S. was then trying to impose. The Samsons settled at St. Peters (Port Toulouse), where Gabriel built and navigated coastal vessels.

THE SAMSONS OF ACADIA

The younger Gabriel, ancestor of all the Acadian Samsons, emigrated to Port Royal, where on April 7, 1704, he married Jeanne Martin, the young widow of Louis Chesnay, and daughter of Barnabe Martin and Jeanne Pelletret. A few months after his marriage, both he and his wife were captured in a British raid on Port Royal by Captain Phipps, and taken as hostages to Boston. Jeanne was pregnant at the time, and their first child, Madeleine was born there in 1705. They were imprisoned in Boston for over a year, and were finally returned to Port Royal at the end of January 1706. Their first son Michel was born and baptized at Port Royal on July 12, 1706.

Gabriel worked as an engineer at Port Royal, but left the capital when the British overtook the Port for the last time. In 1713, Acadia had been lost to England, with France retaining only the northern island of Cape Breton, which they named Ile Royale. In order to avoid taking the oath of allegiance to the British Crown, Gabriel and his family emigrated to Port Toulouse (present day St. Peter's), on Ile Royale around 1720-21, where he built and navigated coasting vessels.

Gabriel and Jeanne had a large family of 11 children, the first 9 born at Port Royal; Jeanne died in 1728, and her husband died almost 30 years later in 1757. Their oldest son, Michel was about 15 years old when his family settled at Port Toulouse. There he met, and in 1729 married Anne "Jeanne" Testard dit Paris, born at Port Royal on April 19, 1713, the daughter of François Testard and Marie Doiron. The Testards had also relocated to Port Toulouse from Port Royal, with many other Acadian settlers. Michel's younger brother, Mathieu, born July 13, 1709, at Port Royal, married about 1734, at Port Toulouse, Marguerite Poujet, daughter of Pierre Poujet and Françoise Moyse. Mathieu is the ancestor of the Samsons of L'Ardoise and River Bourgeois, Nova Scotia.

THE "GRAND DERANGEMENT"

Tensions between the French and the English continued to escalate, as each battled for supremacy on the continent. In an effort to protect their interests at Ile Royale, the French erected a large fortress at the northern part of the island. It was hoped that the fort of Louisbourg would secure their last remaining stronghold in Acadia, as well as protecting the mouth of the Saint Lawrence seaway, gateway to Quebec. Though the fortress was solidly built, its design was critically flawed; it had been built on marshland and often shrouded in fog. Superior English forces overtook the fort in 1745, only to return it three years later. The British finally won the fortress for the last time in 1758.

Following the first Acadian deportation on mainland Nova Scotia in 1755, the French residents of Ile Royale were naturally fearsome for their lives, especially after the fall of Louisbourg. In fact, a second deportation did take place in 1758. Michel Samson and several of his other Samson relatives were taken prisoners and sent by ship to France. Many of these Samsons did not survive the journey to Europe, especially the young children, and most died en route. A few others did make it to France, but died in hospitals in the port city of St. Malo. When the Acadians were allowed to return to Nova Scotia, Michel and his family crossed the ocean bound for Cape Breton, or the French islands of St. Pierre & Miquelon (where many Acadians had taken refuge). In the Spring of 1764, Michel, his wife Jeanne, their sons Fabien and Louis, daughters Judith and Marie-Josephe, and grandchildren Madeleine and Louis (Martel) were abord the ship "Le Neptune" when it sank off the coast of Newfoundland. The family drowned in the cold waters of the North Atlantic, and were buried at St. Pierre on April 22, 1764.

ACADIAN EMIGRATION TO ILE ROYALE (CAPE BRETON), 1713-1734
The arrival of Richard Philipps as a new governor of Nova Scotia was the prelude to the departure of the fifth group of Acadians. In April,1720 a proclamation was issued by him to have the Acadians finally take the oath of allegiance to George I within four months, under pain of forced removal from the Province. As a result of this confrontation nine families left Acadia and settled in Cape Breton.
GABRIEL SANSON, b. about 1683 Pte. de Levis, Quebec and m. 1704 Jeanne Martin; builder navigator. He was from Port Royal. He had 4 horned animals, 0 sheep, 5 pigs, _ acre of land. He was in Port Toulouse in 1722. He appears on the 1724, and 1726 censuses of Port Toulouse as a builder and navigator. He appears on the 1734 census of Port Toulouse as a carpenter.