Maitland, Nova Scotia

Maitland, East Hants, Nova Scotia (originally known as Jean Peter's Village) is a village in the East Hants, Nova Scotia municipal district, and home to the historic Lawrence House Museum, part of the Nova Scotia Museum. The community was part of the Douglas Township until it was named Maitland after Governor General of Nova Scotia Peregrine Maitland (1828–34), when building the Shubenacadie Canal was first attempted (1826–1831). The Canal was supposed to start at Maitland, Nova Scotia and run through the province to Maitland Street, Dartmouth, the canal being "bookended" by two "Maitland" landmarks.

Maitland was first settled by the Acadians. After the Acadian exodus from the region (1750), the village was eventually settled by Ulster Scots whose descendants became shipbuilders.

Maitland was settled by Jean Pitre (i.e., Peters), son of Jean Denis Pitre, prior to the Acadian Exodus. Oral tradition states that the Oak Island Graveyard was an Acadian burial ground, which was consecrated by Abbe Jean-Louis Le Loutre. Oral tradition also states that a path which connects the “French Field” in Selma to the cemetery in Maitland is the old Acadian roadway.

Several of Jean Denis Pitre’s children married the children of Noel Doiron and Robert Henry from the neighbouring communities of Vil Noel (Noel, Nova Scotia) and Vil Robere respectively. In 1750 the Acadians at Maitland joined the Acadian Exodus during Father Le Loutre's War and moved to Riviere Nord-Est, Ile St. Jean (present day Hillsborough River (Prince Edward Island)). The former of inhabitants of Maitland died in 1758 during the Expulsion of the Acadians in the sinking of the Duke William.

After the exodus of the Acadians from Maitland (1750), the land was owned but never settled by Malachy Salter. Decades after the village was vacanted by the Acadians, the village was settled by Ulster Scots people such as the Putnams (c. 1771).

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