Lunenburg, Nova Scotia

Lunenburg
Town

Aerial photo of Lunenburg

Seal
Lunenburg

Location of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia

Coordinates: 44°23′N 64°19′W / 44.383°N 64.317°W / 44.383; -64.317Coordinates: 44°23′N 64°19′W / 44.383°N 64.317°W / 44.383; -64.317
Country  Canada
Province  Nova Scotia
County Lunenburg County
Founded 1753
Incorporated October 29, 1888
Government
 • Body Lunenburg Town Council
 • Mayor Rachel Bailey
 • MLA Suzanne Lohnes-Croft (L)
 • MP Gerald Keddy (C)
Area
 • Land 4.01 km2 (1.55 sq mi)
Population (2011)
 • Total 2,313
Time zone AST (UTC−4)
 • Summer (DST) ADT (UTC−3)
Postal code B0J
Area code(s) 902
Website

Town of Lunenburg

Official name Old Town Lunenburg
Type Cultural
Criteria iv, v
Designated 1995 (19th session)
Reference no. 741
State Party  Canada
Region Europe and North America
Official name Old Town Lunenburg Historic District National Historic Site of Canada
Designated 1991
Type Heritage Conservation District
Designated 2000

Lunenburg is a Canadian port town in Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia. Situated on the province's South Shore, Lunenburg is located on the Fairhaven Peninsula at the western side of Mahone Bay. The town is approximately 90 kilometres southwest of the county boundary with the Halifax Regional Municipality.

The town was established by the three founding fathers, Patrick Sutherland, Dettlieb Christopher Jessen and John Creighton during Father Le Loutre's War, four years after Halifax. The town was one of the first British attempts to settle Protestants in Nova Scotia intended to displace Mi'kmaq and Acadian Catholics. British settlement posed a lasting, grave and certain threat to Mi'kmaw hegenomy over their traditional territory. Considering that British conditions for peace required surrender of Mi'kmaw sovereignty to the Crown, the Wabanaki Confederacy raided Lunenburg nine times in the early years of the settlement in an attempt to reclaim their loss.

The historic town was designated a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site in 1995. This designation ensures protection for much of Lunenburg's unique architecture and civic design, being the best example of planned British colonial settlement in Canada. The historic core of the town is also a National Historic Site of Canada.[1]

History

Historical population
YearPop.±%
17621,400—    
18712,000+42.9%
19412,856+42.8%
19512,816−1.4%
19613,056+8.5%
19813,014−1.4%
19862,972−1.4%
19912,781−6.4%
19962,599−6.5%
20012,568−1.2%
20062,317−9.8%
20112,313−0.2%
[2][3][4][5]

Foreign Protestants

For over a hundred years, Lunenburg was a Mi’kmaq / Acadian village named Mirligueche. Originally a Mi'kmaw encampment and clam harvesting site, Acadians under the command of Isaac de Razilly established kinship and trade relations with the local Mi'kmaq and settled among them in the first half of the seventeenth century.[6][7] A 1688 census indicates there were 21 at Mirliguèche (ten Europeans and 11 Mi‟kmaq), in one house and two wigwams, with half an acre under cultivation. In 1745 there were reported to be only eight settlers in the village.[8] Four years later, Cornwallis reported that there were a number of families that lived in comfortable wooden houses.[9]

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 Governor Edward Cornwallis arrived to establish Halifax with 13 transports on June 21, 1749.[10] By unilaterally establishing Halifax the British were violating earlier treaties with the Mi'kmaq (1726), which were signed after Father Rale's War.[11] Upon the outbreak of Father Le Loutre's War, on October 5, 1749, Governor Edward Cornwallis sent Commander White with troops in the 20-gun sloop Sphinx to Mirligueche and had the village destroyed.[12] By 1753 there still was only one family in the area – a Mi'kmaq man named "Old [Paul] Labrador" and his métis family.[13]

After establishing Halifax, 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). The Natives and Acadians raided the Lunenburg peninsula nine times in the first six years of its establishment.[14]

Dissatisfied with the English colonists sent to Halifax in 1749, Cornwallis appealed to the Committee of Privy Council for Trade and Foreign Plantations (Board of Trade) in London to recruit more Germans and Swiss. Over 2,700 Foreign Protestants signed up for the passage and emigrated to Nova Scotia. Most came from the Upper Rhine area of present-day Germany, from the French and German-speaking Swiss cantons and from the French-speaking principality of Montbéliard.[15] They stayed in Halifax under British protection while working on the fortifications to pay off the cost of their passage.

In 1753, three years into Father Le Loutre's War, John Creighton led the group of Foreign Protestants stationed in Halifax to resettle Mirliguèche naming the new British colony Lunenburg.[16] The town was named in honour of the King of Great Britain and Ireland, George August of Hanover who was also the duke of Braunschweig-Lüneburg.[17] Like Halifax, the British established Lunenburg unilaterally, that is, without negotiating with the Mi'kmaq whose sovereign territory it had always been. In the spring, Governor Hopson received warnings from Fort Edward that as many as 300 natives nearby were prepared to oppose the settlement of Lunenburg and intended to attack upon the arrival of settlers. On June 7, 1753, supervised by Lawrence, escorted by several ships of the British Navy and accompanied by 160 Regular soldiers, 1,453 Foreign Protestants from Halifax landed at Rous' Brook.

The Hoffman Insurrection

During Father Le Loutre's War, in mid December 1753, within six months of their arrival at Lunenburg, the new settlers rebelled against their living conditions. The rebellion became known as "The Hoffman Insurrection". The Rebellion was led by John Hoffman, one of the Captains who had established the settlers in the town.[18]

Hoffman led a mob which eventually locked up in one of the blockhouses a number of Commander Patrick Sutherland’s troops and the Justice of the Peace. Commander Patrick Sutherland at Lunenburg asked for reinforcements from Halifax and Colonel Robert Monckton was sent with troops. Monckton arrested Hoffman and brought him to Halifax where he was fined and imprisoned on Georges Island (Nova Scotia) for two years.[19]

Because of the living conditions and encouragement from Le Loutre, a number of the French and German-speaking Foreign Protestants left the village to join the Acadian communities.[20]

French and Indian War

During the French and Indian War (1754–1763), the town was protected by several small blockhouses that were garrisoned by British regulars as well as by provincial troops from Massachusetts. These forts were erected to protect the town from raids by French warships and from attacks by Acadians and Indians. During the Expulsion of the Acadians, specifically the Bay of Fundy Campaign (1755), a contingent of Foreign Protestants under British protection rounded up Acadian cattle at Grand Pre and drove the herd back to Lunenburg where the livestock was divided among the new settlers.[20][21] In the fall of 1755, 50 original inhabitants (likely "Old [Paul] Labrador" and his metis family) that were still on the Lunenburg Peninsula were deported, first to Georges Island (Nova Scotia) and then onto North Carolina.[22]

Raid on Lunenburg (1756)

Raid on Lunenburg (1756) by Donald A. Mackay

The Wabanaki Confederacy raided the Lunenburg Peninsula nine times during the war. For example, Maliseet and Mi'kmaq attacked in the Raid on Lunenburg (1756), in which twenty settlers were killed. Despite the protection of increased number of blockhouses built on the peninsula, eight more Indian/ Acadian raids happened against those on the Lunenburg Peninsula over the next three years.[23] A total of 32 people from Lunenburg were killed in the raids with more being taken prisoner.[24] The British reported that most of these raids were by the Mi'kmaq and Acadians at Cape Sable (present-day Shelburne and Yarmouth Counties).[25]

In the April 1757, a band of Acadian and Mi'kmaq partisans raided a warehouse near-by Fort Edward, killing thirteen British soldiers and, after taking what provisions they could carry, setting fire to the building. A few days later, the same partisans also raided Fort Cumberland.[26] Because of the strength of the Acadian militia and Mi'kmaq militia, British officer John Knox wrote that “In the year 1757 we were said to be Masters of the province of Nova Scotia, or Acadia, which, however, was only an imaginary possession … “ He continues to state that the situation in the province was so precarious for the British that the “troops and inhabitants” at Fort Edward, Fort Sackville and Lunenburg “could not be reputed in any other light than as prisoners."[27][28]

Lunenburg Campaign (1758)

Following the raid of 1756, there were eight more raids on the Lunenburg Peninsula over the next three years. In 1757, there was a raid on Lunenburg in which six people from the Brissang family were killed.[29] The following year, March 1758, there was a raid on the Lunenburg Peninsula at the Northwest Range (present-day Blockhouse, Nova Scotia) when five people were killed from the Ochs and Roder families.[30] By the end of May 1758, many of those on the Lunenburg Peninsula abandoned their farms and retreated to the protection of the fortifications around the town of Lunenburg, losing the season for sowing their grain.[31] For those that did not leave their farms for the town, the number of raids intensified.

During the summer of 1758, there were four raids on the Lunenburg Peninsula. On July 13, 1758, one person on the LaHave River at Dayspring was killed and another seriously wounded by a member of the Labrador family.[32] The next raid happened at Mahone Bay, Nova Scotia on August 24, 1758, when eight Mi'kmaq attacked the family homes of Lay and Brant. While they killed three people in the raid, the Mi'kmaq were unsuccessful in taking their scalps, which was the common practice for payment from the French.[33] Two days, later, two soldiers were killed in a raid on the blockhouse at LaHave, Nova Scotia.[34] Almost two weeks later, on September 11, a child was killed in a raid on the Northwest Range.[35]

After the Siege of Louisbourg (1758), Gorham's Rangers were stationed at Lunenburg for the winter.[36] (Ranger Joseph Gorham owned 300 acres of land at Lunenburg: land still named Gorham Point at the end of present-day Second Peninsula, two islands nearby,a peninsula leading from the community of Mahone Bay as well as the Seven Islands, near Sacrifice Island in Mahone Bay.[37] ) Despite the presence of the Rangers, another raid happened on March 27, 1759, in which three members of the Oxner family were killed.[29] The last raid happened on April 20, 1759. The Mi’kmaq killed four settlers at Lunenburg who were members of the Trippeau and Crighton families.[38]

American Revolution

Raid on Lunenburg (1782) by A. J. Wright

During the American Revolution, American Privateers engaged in the Raid of Lunenburg (1775) and the Raid on Lunenburg (1782) and on both occasions devastated the town. During the raid of 1775, the 84th Regiment of Foot (Royal Highland Emigrants), which was defending Nova Scotia, attacked the U.S. privateer ship off of Lunenburg, as other privateers from the ship were looting the town. The privateers were captured and taken to Halifax.

War of 1812

During the War of 1812, Nova Scotia’s contribution to the war effort was its citizens purchasing and building privateer ships to attack American vessels.[39] Four citizens of the community of Lunenburg purchased a privateer schooner and named it Lunenburg on August 8, 1814.[40] The new owners were Capt. Oxner, Henry Wollenkaupt, Philip Rudolf and Henry Mosher. The schooner was ninety-three tons, and had five guns and a crew of forty-five men.

The Lunenburg captured the American vessel Lucy on September 15, 1814, and the American ship Ranger on November 15, both prizes were brought back to Lunenburg. In addition, it captured others. One of the largest American privateer schooners the Lunenburg caught was Minerva, of Wiscasset, Maine. Another was the sloop Experiment, caught off of Point Judith, Rhode Island on January 21, 1815. After that, the Lunenburg captured three American sloops and one schooner before February 15, 1815.[40]

After a long naval battle in Mahone Bay, the Lunenburg militia was sent to take prisoners from the American Privateer Young Teazer.

Growth of fishing

Lunenburg was begun as an agricultural settlement, taking advantage of one of the few pockets of good soil along Nova Scotia's South Shore. However in the 19th century the town evolved as a major centre for the offshore banks fishery, building and manning fishing schooners to exploit the Grand Banks of Newfoundland and the fishing banks off Nova Scotia. The town helped sponsor the construction of the Nova Scotia Central Railway in 1889, which became the Halifax and Southwestern Railway and helped further develop fishing exports and allied industries such as the Lunenburg Foundry.

While wooden shipbuilding lapsed in other parts of Nova Scotia with the arrival of steamships, Lunenburg yards specialized in fishing schooners which remained competitive until the 1920s. The most famous was Bluenose built in 1921, a schooner which brought in record catches and won the International Fishermen's Trophy.

Memorial to fisherman along Bluenose Drive. Unveiled on August 25, 1996.

World Wars I and II

Lunenburg's World War I memorial

Lunenburg's small shipyards and foundry played an important role in the repair of many smaller warships, such as minesweepers and corvettes, during World War I and World War II. The Royal Norwegian Navy used Lunenburg as a base in World War II, building a large base next to the town known as "Camp Norway".

Postwar

Relying heavily on Newfoundland migrant labour,[41] Lunenburg made the transition from fishing schooners to trawlers and continued as a major fishing centre after WW II. Success in building wooden trawlers preserved many skills and technology from the sailing era which led the town to become a leader in building large sailing ship replicas, beginning with the film ship Bounty in 1960 and continuing with Bluenose II in 1963 and HMS Rose in 1970.[42]

Economy

Tourism is Lunenburg's most important industry and many thousands visit the town each year. A number of restaurants, inns, hotels and shops exist to service the tourist trade.[43] Numerous artists operate their own galleries. The town is home to the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic, part of the Nova Scotia Museum. The schooner replica Bluenose II is operated by the museum and based out of Lunenburg. The town is also home to the privately run Halifax and Southwestern Railway Museum and the Lunenburg Heritage Society's Knaut-Rhuland House Museum.

Colorful storefronts and signs lure tourists for visits
Tourists enjoy a carriage ride through the historic district of Lunenburg. The landscape is dominated by rolling drumlins--a consistent feature of the region.

The town has a history of being an important seaport and shipbuilding centre with three active shipyards (Scotia Trawler Equipment Limited, Snyder's Shipyard and ABCO Industries Lunenburg Shipyard). There are now numerous small businesses, high-tech industries including Composites Atlantic and HB Studios, and trade plants including High Liner Foods, which was at one point the largest fish plant in Canada. This plant now handles manufacturing and most fishing is done offshore.

Dialect

Lunenburg, together with its surrounding areas, has its own distinct dialect, known as Lunenburg English, which is influenced both by New England English and by German.

Film

The 2010 Japanese movie Hanamizuki was partly set and filmed in Lunenburg[44] and the science fiction television show Haven was partly filmed there though it is set in the United States.[45] The fairhaven town is featured prominently in a 2010 series of Cisco Systems network product ads featuring Ellen Page. The 2012 film The Disappeared was shot in Lunenburg during September 2011.[46]

See: Filming in Lunenburg

Gallery

Panoramic view

See also

References

Texts
Endnotes
  1. ↑ Old Town Lunenburg Historic District National Historic Site of Canada. . Canadian Register of Historic Places. Retrieved 13 April 2013.
  2. ↑ 1762 Census
  3. ↑ , Census 1941–1951
  4. ↑ , Census 1961
  5. ↑ I:\ecstats\Agency\BRIAN\census2
  6. ↑ Landry, Peter. The Lion & The Lily. Trafford Publishing. Vol. 1, pp. 44.; Grifftihs, Naomi.
  7. ↑ The Context of Acadian History 1686–1784. McGill-Queens University Press, Montreal. 1992. Pages 17, 69, 72, 80.
  8. ↑ New York Colonial Manuscripts, IX, p. 10
  9. ↑ Bell, p. 403
  10. ↑ Grenier, John. The Far Reaches of Empire. War in Nova Scotia, 1710–1760. Norman: U of Oklahoma P, 2008; Thomas Beamish Akins. History of Halifax, Brookhouse Press. 1895. (2002 edition). p 7
  11. ↑ Wicken, p. 181; Griffith, p. 390; Also see http://www.northeastarch.com/vieux_logis.html
  12. ↑ Grenier, John. The Far Reaches of Empire: War in Nova Scotia, 1710–1760. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman. 2008. Pp. 152; Expeditions of Honour: Journal of John Salusbury in Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1749–53. Edited by Ronald Ropkey. University of Delaware Press. 1982.p.68
  13. ↑ Bell, p. 403, 430. Note that Bell indicates he does not know the reason for the decrease in population, that is, he did not know about Cornwallis' orders to raid the village late in 1749. Some of Labrador's family migrated to Ile Royal in 1754 (p. 483). See also: Atkins.
  14. ↑ Bell, Foreign Protestants
  15. ↑ Patterson, 1994, p. 136
  16. ↑ Lunenburg's Foreign Protestant settlers came during the same wave of immigration that produced the Pennsylvania Dutch.
  17. ↑ Grenier. 2008. p. 166
  18. ↑ Barry Cahill. "he 'Hoffman Rebellion' (1753) and Hoffman's Trial (1754): Constructive High Treason and Seditious Conspiracy in Nova Scotia under the Stratocracy" 72. In Canadian State Trials, Volume I: Law, Politics, and Security Measures, 1608–1837. University of Toronto Press.1996.
  19. ↑ Bell, "Foreign Protestants"
  20. 1 2 Charles Morris. 1762. British Library, Manuscripts, Kings 205: Report of the State of the American Colonies. pp. 329–330.
  21. ↑ Bell, p. 496-97
  22. ↑ Ronnie Gilles-LeBlanc, p. 6
  23. ↑ Bell, Winthrop Pickard. The "Foreign Protestants" and the Settlement of Nova Scotia:The History of a piece of arrested British Colonial Policy in the Eighteenth Century. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1961 pp. 504–513
  24. ↑ Bell. Foreign Protestants. p. 515
  25. ↑ The "Foreign Protestants" and the Settlement of Nova Scotia by Dr Winthrop Pickard Bell. p. 513
  26. ↑ John Faragher. Great and Noble Scheme. Norton. 2005. p. 398.
  27. ↑ Knox. Vol. 2, p. 443 Bell, p. 514
  28. ↑ https://archive.org/stream/cihm_36456#page/n461/mode/2up/search/reputed
  29. 1 2 Archibald McMechan, Red Snow of Grand Pre. 1931. p. 192
  30. ↑ Bell, p. 509
  31. ↑ Bell. Foreign Protestants. p. 510
  32. ↑ Bell, p. 510
  33. ↑ Bell, Foreign Protestants, p. 511
  34. ↑ Bell, p. 511
  35. ↑ Bell, p. 512
  36. ↑ Rogers Rangers, p. 35
  37. ↑ George Bates. John Gorham 1709-1751. Collections of the Nova Scotia Historical Society, p. 87
  38. ↑ Bell, p. 513
  39. ↑ John Boileau. Half-hearted Enemies: Nova Scotia, New England and the War of 1812. Halifax: Formac Publishing. 2005. p.53
  40. 1 2 C.H.J.Snider, Under the Red Jack: privateers of the Maritime Provinces of Canada in the War of 1812 (London: Martin Hopkinson & Co. Ltd, 1928), 225–258 (see http://www.1812privateers.org/Ca/canada.htm#LG)
  41. ↑ Neary, Peter (1982). "Canadian Immigration Policy and the Newfoundlanders, 1912-1939". Acadiensis. pp. 78–83.
  42. ↑ Gilkerson, William, "Replicas: History of a Phenomenon", Wooden Boat, No. 172 May June 2003, p.67-68.
  43. ↑ The Canadian Encyclopedia
  44. ↑ "5 Months in Total After the Start of Filming in Canada...". The Japan Times Online (in Japanese). cafegroove Corporation. 2010-04-27. Retrieved 2011-02-15.
  45. ↑ Adam Jacobs. "Movie, miniseries being filmed around Town of Lunenburg". SouthshoreNow.ca. 20 April 2010. Retrieved 10 April 2011.
  46. ↑ "Behind-the-scenes look at local movie shoot: The Disappeared" (PDF). The Lunenburg County Progress. Retrieved March 19, 2012.

External links

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Biographies
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