Lawrencetown, Halifax County, Nova Scotia

Lawrencetown (1986 population: 2,680) is a Canadian rural community in Halifax, Nova Scotia on Route 207. The settlement was established during the eve of Father Le Loutre's War and at the beginning of the French and Indian War.

Father Le Loutre's War began when Edward Cornwallis arrived to establish Halifax with 13 transports on June 21, 1749. By unilaterally establishing Halifax the British were violating earlier treaties with the Mi'kmaq (1726), which were signed after Father Rale's War. The British quickly began to build other settlements. To guard against Mi'kmaq, Acadian and French attacks on the new Protestant settlements, British fortifications were erected in Halifax (1749), Bedford (Fort Sackville) (1749), Dartmouth (1750), Lunenburg (1753) and Lawrencetown (1754).

In 1754, Nova Scotia's Lieutenant Governor Charles Lawrence, offered land grants to twenty families, who referred to their settlement as Lawrence's Town, which became Lawrencetown. The Acadians and natives resisted the British occupation of Nova Scotia and Acadia by raiding the various communities. In late April 1754, at the outbreak of the French and Indian War, Beausoleil and a large band of Mi'kmaq and Acadians left Chignecto for Lawrencetown. They arrived in mid-May and in the night open fired on the village. Beausoliel killed and scalped four British settlers and two soldiers. By August, as the raids continued, the residents and soldiers were withdrawn to Halifax. By June 1757, the settlers had to be withdrawn completely again from the settlement of Lawrencetown because the number of Indian raids eventually prevented settlers from leaving their houses. (Throughout the war, the Mi'kmaq and Acadian militias were also successful in containing the British settlements of Dartmouth, Lunenburg as well as Fort Edward and Fort Sackville.)

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