Lt-Col Robert Monckton, New Eng > Nova Scotia,1755
France first sent colonists to Acadia (Nova Scotia) in 1604. Most of these colonists were Basques or from the province of Poitou. In 1713, after a number of disputes with England, France signed the Treaty of Utrecht giving it jurisdiction over Île Saint-Jean (now called Prince Edward Island), where it established a permanent colony in 1720, and Île Royale (now Cape Breton). Mainland Nova Scotia became British territory, but many Acadians living there since the 1630's quietly declined to swear an oath of loyalty to England. In 1755, England decided to put an end to this passive resistance by deporting the Acadians. Some 7,000 Acadians from NS were forced to migrate to various places in the United States (notably Louisiana) and Eastern Canada. This is known among all Acadians as as "Le Grand Dérangement" or "The Great Upheaval".
The conflicts in North America prior to the American Revolution were simply extensions of what was happening elsewhere. From a U.S. perspective, the French and Indian War is the North American version of the Seven Years War (1756-1763). This is not to say that the French and the Indians didn't gang up on the Brits before that time. What set it apart was how it affected the Iroquois Nation. Certain tribes cast their lot with the French while others turned to the British. The best way to determine what is an Indian war and what is a Colonial war is to simply use the American Revolution as a turning point. Those before the Revolution are considered Colonial Wars because we were Colonies of Great Britain or France. Those after the Revolution are Indian Wars. They are an internal matter of the U.S., not an extension of some European conflict.
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BEAUBASSIN - Site Rediscovered
Thursday, June 22, 2000 - The Halifax Herald Limited - http://www.herald.ns.cahttp://www.herald.ns.ca -
Acadian site near Amherst needs protection - groups
By Tom McCoag / Amherst Bureau
Fort Lawrence - A pasture near the provincial border here looks like any other farmer's field, but a recently discovered aerial photo has local groups urging the federal government to preserve the site. The hand-coloured, infrared military photo taken in 1958 shows the foundations of 40 buildings that once were Beaubassin, an Acadian village the French destroyed 250 years ago during the opening salvos of a war that ultimately saw England wrest control of North America from France.
Established in 1671, Beaubassin was on the Nova Scotia side of the Missaguash River. It was the second Acadian village to be established after Port Royal and, with 22 families, was one of the largest such settlements. In the early 1700s the river became a disputed boundary separating French and English territory. The Acadian village was caught in the middle of the dispute because Beaubassin was on the English side of the border. The French burned the settlement in 1750 when English military forces arrived to establish Fort Lawrence. They wanted to keep the buildings out of English hands and to force its Acadian inhabitants to move to the French side of the river.
The English built Fort Lawrence near the site of the burned village. It was from there, on June 4, 1755, that the English launched their successful conquest of French North America when Lt. Col. Robert Monckton led 300 English regulars and 1,950 New England troops on nearby Fort Beauséjour. The fight lasted 12 days before the French surrendered the fort on June 16, 1755. The Acadian expulsion began less than two months later when captives from Fort Beauséjour were imprisoned in Fort Lawrence.
The Fort Lawrence Heritage Association's efforts to have the 52-hectare (135-acre), privately owned Beaubassin site preserved began about a year ago when Gerald Trenholme gave the group the aerial photo. Group members showed the picture to Mr. Casey, a history buff, who immediately recognized its historical significance. "This field, because it has been pastureland since the village was destroyed in 1750, is relatively undisturbed. That means there should be a lot of important artifacts there that only a proper archeological dig can uncover. That's why the federal government needs to protect the site," the MP said.
"Beaubassin is important to the history of North America because what happened (there) started a chain of events that ended up changing the geopolitical face of the continent," Bernard LeBlanc, curator of the Acadian Museum, said in an interview.
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This is the Monckton who gave his name to the city in next-door Westmorland County, New Brunswick, now known as MONCTON. Until 1785, New Brunswick was part of Nova Scotia (it was all known as "Acadie" [Acadia] under the French between 1600 and 1750). Cumberland County, NS extended all the way to the border of Maine (itself still part of Massachusetts until 1820). In 1765 the English created Sunbury County out of Cumberland County, NS, and created the border between the two at what is now the NS-NB borderline. From 1765 to 1785 Sunbury County, NS, took in what is now all of southern and central New Brunswick to the Maine border, including that part of Washington County, ME, to Machias. The Maine portion was relinquished by England to the new USA.
NB consolidated most provincial records at the capital city, Fredericton, in the late 1960's. Former counties and their county seats (where records were kept) are: Albert (Hopewell Cape), Carleton (Woodstock), Charlotte (St. Andrews), Gloucester (Bathurst), Kent (Richibucto), Kings (Hampton), Madawaska (Edmundston), Northumberland (now Miramichi City, was Newcastle), Queens (Gagetown), Restigouche (Dalhousie), Saint John (Saint John), Sunbury (Burton), Victoria (Perth), Westmorland (Dorchester), and York (Fredericton).
New Brunswick Provincial Archives - http://www.gov.nb.ca/supply/archives/ENGLISHhttp://www.gov.nb.ca/supply/archives/ENGLISH - go to the NB county you are researching, and you will have the records the archives have (and can lend) on this county, including birth, marriages, marriage bonds, deaths, probate records, wills, etc. Contact your local library and ask them if they can order the microfilms from the NB archives. This site also has LINKS to:
National Archives of Canada
Canadian Archival Resources on the Internet
The Genealogy Home Page
Canadian Heritage Gallery
The National Archives of Ireland
Public Record Office of Northern Ireland
Public Record Office (UK)
BC Archives (BCARS Home Page)
Acadie-Net
Archives Nationales du Québec
Centre d'études acadiennes
Westmorland County, New Brunswick, Canada - on the border with Province of Nova Scotia, the only land link between NS and the rest of North America. French settlements and forts from 1650 to early 1700's became English in period 1748-1758. Many records of French and English settlers including Yorkshire farmers who bought and settled on land around Dorchester and Sackville in 1770's [and also next door in Oxford and Amherst, NS].
In MONCTON the Université de Moncton has the largest collection of Acadian French research and family history in Eastern Canada IN FRENCH at - http://www.umoncton.ca/etudeacadiennes/centre/http://www.umoncton.ca/etudeacadiennes/centre/ - Université de Moncton in New Brunswick, Canada - OR IN ENGLISH at - http://www.rescol.ca/collections/acadian/english/eroots/eroots.htmhttp://www.rescol.ca/collections/acadian/english/eroots/eroots.htm -
AND IN NOVA SCOTIA:
Cumberland County NS - http://www.rootsweb.com/~nscumber/http://www.rootsweb.com/~nscumber/ - on the border with Province of New Brunswick, only land link from NS to rest of North America. The Tantramar Heritage Trust hosted "Yorkshire 2000", a gathering of the descendants of Yorkshire settlers who emigrated from northern England, going to Nova Scotia during the period 1772-1775. Go to - http://www.tap.nb.ca/tht/york2000.htmlhttp://www.tap.nb.ca/tht/york2000.html - or access it through Cyndi's List for Nova Scotia. Also, have a look at the "The Chignecto Isthmus And Its First Settlers" by Howard Trueman at - http://www.intranet.ca/~mmackay/chignecto.htmlhttp://www.intranet.ca/~mmackay/chignecto.html -
French settlements and forts from 1650 to early 1700's became English in period 1748-1758. Many records of French and English settlers including Yorkshire farmers who bought and settled on land around Oxford and Amherst in 1770's [and also next door in Dorchester and Sackville, soon to be part of the new province New Brunswick], and United Empire Loyalists fleeing American Revolution and settling places like Parrsboro in 1784-1790.
NS Libraries - http://www.library.ns.ca/regionals/http://www.library.ns.ca/regionals/ - (for your enquiries, try the ones marked *, or 1 (first choice), 2, 3, etc.:
_ Annapolis Valley Regional Library
_ Cape Breton Regional Library
2 Colchester-East Hants Regional Library
1 Cumberland Regional Library
_ Eastern Counties Regional Library
3 Halifax Regional Library
_ Pictou-Antigonish Regional Library
_ South Shore Regional Library
_ Western Counties Regional Library