Bourg was born in
Rivière-aux-Canards, the eldest son of Michel and Anne Hébert Bourg. In 1755 he was deported with his family to
Virginia where they were refused asylum. They were then sent to
England where they were held as prisoners until the
Treaty of Paris was signed in 1763 and the Bourg family went to
Saint-Malo, and eventually wound up in nearby
Saint-Servan. In 1767 he attended the Séminaire du Saint-Esprit in Paris, under the patronage of the Abbé de L’Isle-Dieu, the bishop of Quebec's vicar general in France. In 1770, he received minor orders in the parish church of
Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet in Paris. The following year he was sent to Quebec, where on 19 September 1772 he was ordained priest by Bishop
Jean-Olivier Briand in the chapel of the
Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal. He was sent by his superiors to work in
Baie des Chaleurs area. He was in charge of the missions of Nova Scotia, which also included
New Brunswick and
Gaspé. Bourg chose
Tracadièche as his base. He learned the
Mi'kmaq language and was greatly appreciated for his mediation efforts between
Mi'kmaqs and white settlers. He lived in what is now
Carleton and is responsible for the very first census of Carleton and
Nouvelle. In February 1786, he once again visited the Acadians of Nova Scotia, then returned to Baie des Chaleurs. In March 1795, after a serious illness, he was given charge of the parish of Saint-Laurent, near Montreal, where he remained until his death on 20 August 1797. == See also ==