• Source: Fort Lawrence (Nova Scotia)

Fort Lawrence was a British fort built during Father Le Loutre's War and located on the Isthmus of Chignecto (in the modern-day community of Fort Lawrence).




Father Le Loutre's War



Despite the British Conquest of Acadia in 1710, Nova Scotia remained primarily occupied by Catholic Acadians and Mi'kmaq. Father Le Loutre's War began after Edward Cornwallis arrived to establish Halifax with 13 transports on June 21, 1749. 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).

Within 18 months of establishing Halifax, the British also took firm control of peninsula Nova Scotia by building fortifications in all the major Acadian communities: present-day Windsor (Fort Edward); Grand-Pré (Fort Vieux Logis) and Chignecto (Fort Lawrence). A British fort (Fort Anne) already existed at the other major Acadian centre of Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia. Cobequid remained without a fort.
In the spring of 1750, a British Army expeditionary force under Major Charles Lawrence arrived at Beaubassin. The village was ordered burnt by the French priest Jean-Louis Le Loutre to ensure that the British could not profit from its seizure. The British forces soon found they were outnumbered by Acadians and Mi'kmaq. Lawrence's troops retreated but returned in September 1750 in greater numbers and engaged in the Battle at Chignecto.
After Le Loutre's militia retreated, Lawrence began to build Fort Lawrence, a palisade fort on a ridge immediately east of the Missaguash River, the disputed border between Acadia and Nova Scotia since the Treaty of Utrecht was signed, and within sight of Fort Beausejour. The structure was completed under the command of Captain John Handfield. 16 September 1750, the natives killed two soldiers and 11 rangers went missing. Two days later, natives took the ship Fair Lady with 5 crew on board. On October 4, Howe was killed. Oct. 11 Mangers schooner taken and burned. November 17, natives take five prisoners in front of the fort. Nov. 23, natives fired on cattle. Nov. 30, natives attacked a wood party, wounding three.
On August 15, 1752, Lt. Col. Robert Monckton took command of Fort Lawrence.
In 1753, Captain George Scott took command of the fort and in May, warriors scalped two British soldiers. Scott made contact with the spy Thomas Pichon. Scott relinquished command of Fort Lawrence in the autumn of 1754 and Captain John Hussey took over command. Preparations were then being made for an attack on Beauséjour, and he was appointed to command one of the two battalions of Massachusetts troops. He played a considerable part in the brief siege.
Fort Edward, Fort Lawrence, and Fort Anne were all supplied by and dependent on the arrival of Captains Cobb, Rogers or Taggart, in one of the government sloops. These vessels took the annual or semi-annual relief to their destination. They carried the officers and their families to and fro as required.




French and Indian War






= Battle of Beausejour

=
The Battle of Fort Beausejour ended Father Le Loutre's War and began the French and Indian War in the region. On June 4, 1755 the British conquest for all of France's North American territory began when a force of British regulars and New England militia attacked Fort Beauséjour from Fort Lawrence under command of Lt. Col. Robert Monckton. The British-led force took control of Fort Beauséjour by June 16, 1755, after which they changed the name to Fort Cumberland.




= Expulsion of the Acadians

=

In the ensuing months, British forces attempted to get Acadians living in the region to sign an oath of allegiance to the British Crown, however the Acadians refused, preferring to stay neutral. In August 1755, the British Expulsion of the Acadians began with the Bay of Fundy Campaign (1755). The order was given by Governor of Nova Scotia, Charles Lawrence, the same military officer who had presided over construction of Fort Lawrence in 1750. Along with Fort Beausejour, Fort Lawrence was also used to imprison male Acadians. The most famous Acadian held here was Joseph Broussard (Beausoleil). On October 1, 1755, the Acadian prisoners at Fort Lawrence escaped. Joseph Broussard was one of the escapees.
Acadian homes were burnt by British forces to prevent their return. As the British army was now using the more substantial facility at Fort Cumberland, British forces decided to demolish the abandoned works at Fort Lawrence to prevent the facility being used as shelter by Acadians who may have escaped to nearby forests. Fort Lawrence was razed by fire on October 12, 1756 only 6 years after its construction.




Commanding officers


Charles Lawrence (British Army officer)
Major Southcott Hungerford Luttrell (45th)
Thomas Collier (military officer), Lascelles (47th) regiment (d.1752)
Robert Monckton (47th Regiment)
George Scott (army officer) (1753-1754) (40th Regiment)
John Hussey (47th Regiment)




Fort Lawrence National Historic Site


The site containing the archaeological remains of Fort Lawrence was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1923.
Today the site of Fort Lawrence is a barren field behind a visitor information centre. Plans are in place for a full reconstruction of the fort, however funding from various levels of government has yet to be allocated. Various archaeological explorations from Fort Lawrence have netted numerous artifacts, some of which can be viewed at a display at Fort Beauséjour National Historic Site.




See also


Military history of Nova Scotia




References


Texts

Young, Richard. "Blockhouses in Canada, 1749-1841: a Comparative Report and Catalogue." Occasional Papers in Archaeology and History, Canadian Historic Site, 1980.
Grenier, John (2008). The Far Reaches of Empire: War in Nova Scotia, 1710-1760. University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 978-0-8061-3876-3.
Griffiths, N.E.S. (2005). From Migrant to Acadian: A North American Border People, 1604-1755. McGill-Queen's University Press. ISBN 978-0-7735-2699-0.
Murdoch, Beamish (1866). A History of Nova-Scotia, Or Acadie. Vol. II. Halifax: J. Barnes.
Gladys Trenholm. A History of Fort Lawrence : Times, Tides and Towns, FC 2349 F66 T74 1985
Wicken, William C. (2002). Mi'kmaq Treaties on Trial: History, Land and Donald Marshall Junior. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-0-8020-7665-6.
Old forts of Acadia, 1874
Endnotes

Fort Lawrence Heritage Association, Fort Lawrence 1750-1756 brochure, undated (2000 ?).




External links


Photographs of the Fort Lawrence plaque Historic Sites and Monuments Board
Photographs of the Fort Lawrence interpretative panel Parks Canada
• Source: Fort Lawrence, Nova Scotia

Fort Lawrence is a Canadian rural community located on the Isthmus of Chignecto in Cumberland County, Nova Scotia, which is named after Fort Lawrence.
Situated 1 km east of the Missaguash River which forms the inter-provincial boundary with New Brunswick, Fort Lawrence is situated on a low ridge facing Aulac to the west and Amherst to the east. Aside from the more prominent Aulac Ridge, the Fort Lawrence Ridge is surrounded by the flat plain of the Tantramar Marshes with a commanding view of the Cumberland Basin, an arm of the Bay of Fundy.colonel benjamin chapman built a large wood frame home for his family while he was in command of the Fort Lawrence and Chapman house remained with descendants until late 1970s when ancestral home was sold.




History


Referred by the Mi'kmaq as 'Kwesomalegek,' meaning "a hardwood point", the area of the Tantramar Marshes containing Fort Lawrence was settled in 1672 by Acadians who named it 'Beaubassin.' The area was also known as Missiquash or Missaguash, a Mi'kmaq name meaning "marsh river."




= Father Le Loutre's War

=

Following the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht which gave Britain control of Acadia, the boundaries between this territory and that of New France were unclear but a quasi boundary at Beaubassin was established. During Father Le Loutre's War Major Charles Lawrence constructed a log stockade installation that he named Fort Lawrence on the ridge in 1750 as part of a campaign by the British Army to reduce to obedience the Acadian settlers and Mi'kmaq in the district. In response, the French military constructed the more elaborate Fort Beauséjour on the Aulac Ridge, 1.5 km to the west.




= French and Indian War

=
The Battle of Beausejour later took place between June 4-June 16, 1755 which saw the British forces from Fort Lawrence gain control of Fort Beauséjour as the opening salvo in the Seven Years' War that would result in continental dominance for Britain.
Fort Lawrence soon fell into disrepair and nothing remained of the facility after several decades. The community and ridge it sits upon now bears the name he gave the fort.




= Transportation

=
In 1872 the Intercolonial Railway of Canada was constructed south of the community, on the route between Truro and Moncton. The Chignecto Marine Transport Railway Company, Limited began construction of the Chignecto Ship Railway in the 1880s across the Isthmus of Chignecto with its western terminus in the Cumberland Basin immediately west of Fort Lawrence; the project ran into technical and financial problems and was abandoned in 1891 before it was fully opened.
The original road through Fort Lawrence was called LaPlanche Street. In the 1960s, Highway 104, the Trans-Canada Highway, was constructed across the ridge immediately north of the site of the fort. It connected with Highway 2 in New Brunswick at the bridge over the Missaguash River. The Nova Scotia provincial government constructed a visitor information centre with a traffic circle which was famous in the summer months when a bag piper would serenade tourists. Subsequent highway upgrades saw a new 4-lane alignment built several dozen metres to the north.




= Today

=
Today's community of Fort Lawrence consists of a handful of small mixed farms and residential homes, largely functioning as a suburb of Amherst. The original alignment of the 1960s-era Trans-Canada Highway has been redesignated Laplanche Street and is a local road connecting to the west end of Amherst. Several closed hotels and restaurants were once located along this once-busy strip but have since been demolished. A few businesses remain open mainly dedicated to agriculture & forestry equipment, metalworking, and automotive / motorcycle shops.




References

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• Fort Lawrence (Nova Scotia)
• Fort Lawrence, Nova Scotia
• Charles Lawrence (British Army officer)
• Fort Edward (Nova Scotia)
• Military history of Nova Scotia
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