Nelson-Miramichi, New Brunswick

Nelson-Miramichi is a Canadian suburban neighbourhood in the city of Miramichi, New Brunswick.

Prior to municipal amalgamation on January 1, 1995, Nelson-Miramichi was an incorporated village in Northumberland County and one of the oldest European settlements in the Miramichi Valley.

Earl J. English’s history of the community titled Nelson and Its Neighbours: 300 Years on the Miramichi, published in 1987, lists it as "one of the oldest settlements on the Miramichi. It goes back to the time of William Davidson (lumberman)." English wrote that "According to J. L. O’Brien, the Parish of Nelson was first known as Dower’s Settlement, Southwest."

The community of Nelson took its name after Admiral Lord Nelson of the Royal Navy who died at the Battle of Trafalgar. English notes that there is a "legend that the spars for Lord Nelson’s flagship Victory came from the Miramichi. There were some men from Nelson who sailed with Lord Nelson: Joseph Russell who was midshipman at the Battle of the Nile on the HMS Vanguard (1787)."

English quotes historian William Francis Ganong as saying that an early Recollect Mission originally thought to have been establish at Burnt Church was actually at Nelson around 1686.

The history of Nelson is closely tied to that of Beaubears Island directly across from the heart of Nelson. The island was used as an encampment by Boieshebert whose followers set up while fleeing the English after the expulsion of the Acadians. They camped there while heading for Quebec.

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