JULIAN, FRANCIS (1729-1830)

JULIAN, FRANCIS, Micmac Indian chief; b c1729, s/o John Julian Sr; brother of John Julian; m. Madeleine David; d. Miramichi, Apr 1830.

In 1779 Francis Julian was second chief of the Micmac tribe on the Northwest, after his brother John Julian. By 1801, and probably from the 1770s onward, he was also the band or village chief at Red Bank. In 1802 he and his family were occupying "a good square log house," which was the only such structure on the Little Southwest branch of the river.

In the 1770s, when John Stuart and other British settlers came to the Red Bank area to occupy lots within Davidson & Cort's grant, Francis Julian and his fellow Micmacs acted as their hosts and protectors. This made it possible for some of these settlers to stay on the grant throughout the troubles which erupted during the Revolutionary War, while William Davidson himself and most of his other followers thought it prudent to seek safety at Maugerville.

In the 1780s and 90s, as the competition for land intensified, Julian had to fight vigorously to keep squatters, fishermen, and others from taking over or despoiling the Red Bank lands. In this struggle he did not hesitate to seek the aid of the provincial administration and the courts. He was relieved in 1804 when he and his tribe received a license for a 10,000-acre tract of land on the Little Southwest which had been surveyed by Dugald Campbell. A problem which caused no end of difficulty later, however, was that he came to conceive of this tract as his personal property, rather than the common property of all band members. In 1806 he had an affidavit entered in the county deed book stating that in the event of his death the tract was to pass to his sons Mitchell and Barnaby Julian.

Julian was paid special tribute by Bishop Joseph-Octave Plessis when, during his visit to the Miramichi in 1812, he noted in his journal that Francis Julian's personal conduct was above reproach and that his was the most respectable of the Micmac families on the river. As elsewhere noted, the bishop also remarked approvingly in his journal on the activities of Julian's wife, Madeleine (David) Julian (q.v).

Julian lived to age 101. When he died in 1830 his remains were consigned to the old Catholic cemetery at Bartibog.