By the mid-1700s, there were about
1400 people there. Based on Charles Morris' Judge Morris' Remarks
Concerning the Removal of the Acadians (N.S.H.S 1881), there were about
800 on the left bank (today's Falmouth-Hantsport area), about 100 on the
right bank & Kennetcook River, and about 500 on the St. Croix River
and today's Windsor area. [Clark, 217]
Another report (a memoir from 1748) noted that the area had 2700 Acadians (while Grand Pre and Canard had 2400).
But the area lost its population rather quickly.
Pisiquit was the Acadian settlement closest to Halifax ... the newly forming
English settlement. When the English needed someone to blame for
Indian attacks, or when they needed Acadians for road labor, the first
place they went to was Pisiguit. When English pressure began intensifying
in the 1750s, the Pisiguit Acadians packed up and left, heading mainly
towars the isthmus.
Fort Edward was built in 1750 on the east side of the mouth of the Pisiguid River. The first commandant was Capt. Gorham. He had a skirmish by the St. Croix River that year and was wounded.
Capt. Matthew Floyer was collecting quit rents in the area in 1754-1755. He wrote about the area and made a map (coming soon).
A document titled "Remarks relative to tho return of the Forces in Nova Scotia," dated March 30, 1755, has the following account of the area. "Pisiquid or Fort Edward is a fort situated upon an eminence on tho southeast side of Mines Bason, between the rivers Pisiquid and St. Croix, to which we have access by laud by way of Fort Sackville, and is distant therefrom about 40 miles; we have also a communication therewith by the Bay of Fundy. There is a necessity of keeping a strong garrison hero, to send out detachments to scour the country for Indians and to keep the disaffected French inhabitants under subjection." (Anslow, p. 5)
| After the deportation, Fort Edward was used as a site to hold Acadians. |
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Another map |
Pisiquid had two parishes: La Sainte Famille & L'Assomption. At first, Pisiquid had only one parish (Notre Dame de l'Assomption),
founded on Aug. 8, 1698. But the people living on the other side
of the river wanted their own church; crossing the river wasn't the easiest
thing to do. So the bishop at Quebec issued an edict to create the
second parish of Ste. Famille on June 28, 1722. They were ministered to by a single priest, who preached at each church
on alternate Sundays. In 1749, the l'Assomption parish protested to the bishop of Quebec that they had no priest.
NOTE: The Dictionnaire notes that
L’Assomption was at Pisiquid west, and Ste. Famille was at Pisiquid east,
but the Ste. Famille cemetery was found on the west side of the river???
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POST DEPORTATION
In 1759, Amos Fuller and John Hicks of Rhode Island agreed to settle 50 families at Pisiguid in 1759 and 50 more in 1760. In June 1760, almost 50 families arrived in West Falmouth. The government was paying for them to move and giving them arms, ammuniction, and one bushel of corn per person per month for a year. In July, they had a drawing for 28 lots to see who got the boards, timber, and buildings the Acadians left behind. For example, James Wilson and Joseph Northup got barn #8 and house #13.
In July 1762, 130 Acadian men were brought from Ft. Edward to Halifix. This left (according to a count on August 9, 1752) 313 Acadians being held at Ft. Edward ... 21 men, 90 women, and 202 children.. A list of Acadian prisoners at Ft. Edward was published in Cahiers de la Société Historique Acadienne 3, no. 4, V. 24, p. 158-164 and no. 5, V. 25, p. 188-192 (1969).
By 1763, the communities of Horton, Falmouth, Cornwallis,, and Newport had a population of 1936 (in 367 families). There were more Acadian prisoners on the east side of the Pisiquid than there were settlers in West Falmouth (356). The Acadian prisoners were hired (4 shillings/day) by the new immigrants to help fix the dikes in the new settlements.
Acadians did move back into the area, though some of those would move to St. Mary's in Annapolis County. Windsor was formed in 1764. Anslow mentions the remains of Acadian dykes near "the Island Acadian Burying Ground."
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