Englishtown, Nova Scotia

Fort Dauphin, 1755

Englishtown is one of the oldest settlements in North America, having been established as a French fishing port in 1597. In 1629, Charles Daniel constructed the first French fortification in Ile Royale with the Scottish prisoners he obtained from the raid on Baleine, Nova Scotia.[2] Fort Sainte Anne was the site of the first Jesuit mission in North America.[3]

Nicolas Denys was here between 1650 - 1669 and then Cape Breton remained unsettled until the re- establishment of Fort Dauphin (Englishtown) and Saint Peters 1713-1758. Along with St. Peter's, Nova Scotia, Saint Anne/ Port Dauphin was the only settlement on Ile Royale prior to Louisbourg.

Fort Dauphin was established, in part, by Jean-Baptiste Hertel de Rouville[4] (26 October 1668 – 30 June 1722) who was a colonial military officer of New France. During Queen Anne's War he led the French Raid on Deerfield[5] and military operations against the English in Newfoundland. He played a role in the early settlement of both Englishtown (1719-1722) and St. Peter's (1713-1718), Île-Royale (present-day Cape Breton Island), after that war. He died at Fort Dauphin.[6]

As commodore of the fleet, Edward Tyng led 13 armed vessels and about 90 transports in the successful siege of Louisbourg (1745). He then participated in the Capture of the Vigilant and the destruction of Port Dauphin (Englishtown) in June 1745.

Though magistrate Capt. Jonathan Jones is widely regarded as the first permanent settler in Victoria County, local legend had some six or seven families settling at present-day Englishtown a few years prior to his arrival. An elderly Englishtown resident, well acquainted with the early history of the area, in the late 1880s told historian G.G. Patterson that the earliest settlers had arrived there between 1770 and 1780. Though Patterson believed these families had indeed settled there, he regarded the timeline as impossible, believing they could not have come before 1782 and that they most likely did not arrive until at least five years later. Patterson’s research indicated that these six or seven families reached St. Anne’s (as Englishtown was then known) in fishing vessels at different times and via different routes. They were chiefly English (surviving records identify two families as Guinn and Roberts), but records show one family from Ireland and a bachelor from Virginia who, a few years later, went insane and hung himself. Eight years later a German family named Willhausen arrived, and records show no further settlers arriving until an influx of Scots some 40 years later. Little attention was given to farming and the small community survived on the fishery. Little is known about these earliest settlers due to the fact that their immediate descendants subsequently emigrated to other areas in search of better conditions.[1]

The town's first school was kept by a man named Alex Munro, though he did not remain in the area for long. A Rev. MacLeod later built a schoolhouse near his dwelling on Munro’s Point . Many children from outside the district attended this school, many of whom saw the need and later took it upon themselves to become teachers in Victoria County’s many small settlements. A relative named John Munro was the town’s earliest merchant, opening a large timber business as well as engaging in shipbuilding.[1]