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).
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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 when Edward Cornwallis arrived to establish Halifax with 13 transports on June 21, 1749.[1] By unilaterally establishing Halifax the British were violating earlier treaties with the Mi'kmaq (1726), which were signed after Dummer's War.[2] The British quickly began to build other settlments. To guard against Mi'kmaq, Acadian and French attacks on the new protestant settlements, British fortifications were erected in Halifax (1749), Dartmouth (1750), Bedford (Fort Sackville) (1751), 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 Pre (Fort Vieux Logis) and Chignecto (Fort Lawrence). (A British fort already existed at the other major Acadian centre of Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia. Cobequid remained without a fort.)
In 1750, a British Army expeditionary force under Major Charles Lawrence arrived at Beaubassin. The village was ordered burnt by a 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, the British began construction of a palisade fort on a ridge immediately east of the Missaguash River, along the disputed border between Acadia and Nova Scotia since the Treaty of Utrecht was signed. Lawrence began to build Fort Lawrence and the facility was completed within weeks.
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.
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.[3]
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.
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.
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