Pierre Douville

Who was Pierre Douville?

Captain Pierre Douville was born in Prince Edward Island and survived the 1755 Acadian deportation to France. He joined the French Navy and lived in Rhode Island during the American Revolution serving as French military intelligence officer who provided General George Washington with British ship and troop movements. For this he was decorated after the war. Capt. Douville was killed at sea on board his ship in an armed action.

He also smuggled weapons for the Americans in 1775 from Saint-Pierre and Miquelon Island. Enraged, the British burned the island house and farm because of it.

According to the Lineage Book of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Douville was an original member of the Society of the Cincinnati. There is now a portrait of Douville hanging at the Confederation of the Arts in Charlottetown Prince Edward Island commemorating the Acadian deportation to France