Englishtown, Nova Scotia

Englishtown (Scottish Gaelic: Baile nan Gall; formerly known as Grand Cibou, Saint Anne, Port Dauphin) is a small coastal community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located partially on St. Ann's Harbour as well as St. Ann's Bay in Victoria County on Cape Breton Island. It is predominantly a fishing community.

Englishtown in Nova Scotia
Not to be confused with present-day St. Anns, Nova Scotia, which was also the former name of Englishtown.

History

At the time the first Loyalist settlers arrived, the area was known as Mohagadecek by the Miꞌkmaq, though the meaning of the name does not seem to have been recorded. In the 1820s Englishtown received its present name, translated from the name Scottish settlers in the area had given it: "Bhal no Ghaul" or "the Town of the English". This was a reference to the fact that the English language had become the town's common tongue (Gaelic being the mother tongue of some settlers), and not a reference to all the settlers originating from England.[1]

French Colony (1629-1758)
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.

Early settlers

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]

"Giant" McAskill
McAskill (left), standing beside a man of 6 ft 5 in

The town's most well known resident was a man named Angus McAskill, a celebrity of some renown in the 1800s. McAskill was born in the highlands of Scotland and came to Englishtown as a child with his family. Though his exact height cannot be confirmed, his brother gave his height as 7 ft 9 in and his weight as approximately 400 pounds. In 1850, the captain of a fishing schooner from Yarmouth observed McAskill in Englishtown and tried to convince him to come to the United States to give exhibitions of his unusual size and strength. MacAskill consented and became one of the "wonders" of Barnum's American Museum. He did this for approximately four years, amassing enough money to live quite comfortably upon returning home to Englishtown. During his time in the United States, however, McAskill suffered a serious injury which would indirectly lead to his death many years later. One of his boots was preserved at the Nova Scotia Provincial Museum, displayed alongside the thigh bone of a mammoth.[1]

Landmarks
An Englishtown take-out, converted from a double-decker bus

The Englishtown Ferry is a cable ferry that carries Route 312 across St. Anns Harbour and is a short cut to access the Cabot Trail when driving from the south.

The Giant MacAskill Museum located in the community has exhibits for Angus MacAskill, who is buried near the cable ferry in what is known as "The Auld Cemetery".

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References

Texts

  • Haefeli, Evan; Sweeney, Kevin (2003). Captors and Captives: The 1704 French and Indian Raid on Deerfield. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press. ISBN 978-1-55849-503-6. OCLC 493973598.

Endnotes

  1. Patterson, G.G. (1885). History of Victoria County. College of Cape Breton Press. ISBN 0-920336-02-7.
  2. Nicholls, Andrew. A Fleeting Empire: Early Stuart Britain and the Merchant Adventures to Canada. McGill-Queen's University Press. 2010.
  3. "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-05-01. Retrieved 2010-08-06.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  4. http://www.blupete.com/Hist/BiosNS/1700-63/Hertel.htm
  5. Haefeli and Sweeney, p. 99
  6. http://www.blupete.com/Hist/BiosNS/1700-63/Hertel.htm
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