Hants County is an historical county and

census division Census divisions, in Canada and the United States, are areas delineated for the purposes of statistical analysis and presentation; they have no government in and of themselves. The census divisions of Canada are second-level census geographic uni ...

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia ( ; ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. Nova Scotia is Latin for "New Scotland". Most of the population are native Eng ...

, Canada. Local government is provided by the

West Hants Regional Municipality West Hants, officially named the West Hants Regional Municipality, is a regional municipality in Hants County, Nova Scotia, Canada. It occupies the western half of Hants County, running from the Minas Basin to the boundary with Halifax Cou ...

, and the

Municipality of the District of East Hants East Hants, officially named the Municipality of the District of East Hants, is a district municipality in Hants County, Nova Scotia, Canada. Statistics Canada classifies the district municipality as a municipal district. With its administrative ...

History

Formation

The county of Hants was established June 17, 1781, on territory taken from

Kings County Kings County or King's County may refer to: Places Canada *Kings County, New Brunswick *Kings County, Nova Scotia *Kings County, Prince Edward Island ** King's County (electoral district), abolished in 1892 Ireland * County Offaly, formerly calle ...

and consisted of the townships of Windsor, Falmouth and Newport. The name Hants is an old abbreviation for the English county of

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

, from the Old English name ''Hantescire''. In 1861, Hants County was divided for court sessional purposes into two districts named East Hants and West Hants. In 1879, the two districts were incorporated as district municipalities. In 2020, the

Town of Windsor The Town of Windsor is a former local government area of Queensland, Australia, located in northern Brisbane. History On 11 February 1887, a portion of the Ithaca Division was proclaimed a municipality to be known as the Shire of Windsor. O ...

amalgamated with the District of West Hants to become the West Hants Regional Municipality.

18th century - origins

Miꞌkmaq

The

Miꞌkmaq The Mi'kmaq (also ''Mi'gmaq'', ''Lnu'', ''Miꞌkmaw'' or ''Miꞌgmaw''; ; ) are a First Nations people of the Northeastern Woodlands, indigenous to the areas of Canada's Atlantic Provinces and the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec as well as the n ...

are the

indigenous peoples Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

who lived on these lands for centuries. In the course of their historical relationship with the

Acadians The Acadians (french: Acadiens , ) are an ethnic group descended from the French who settled in the New France colony of Acadia during the 17th and 18th centuries. Most Acadians live in the region of Acadia, as it is the region where the de ...

, many Miꞌkmaq became Catholic and therefore played an active role in the Acadian resistance to the Protestant British annexation of Hants County. They were clearly supporters of Abbe LeLoutre's work in protecting Acadian and Miꞌkmaq and ultimately Catholic interests in the region. Within Hants County, they fought in the

Battle at St. Croix A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...

on the St. Croix River. There is a long history of missionary work in Hants County, such as the work of Silas Tertius Rand's work on Glooscap First Nation near Hantsport. There are still Miꞌkmaq communities in Hants County such as

Indian Brook 14 Indian Brook 14 is a Mi'kmaq reserve located in Hants County, Nova Scotia. In the 2016 Census, the reserve has 1,089 residents. It is administratively part of the Sipekneꞌkatik First Nation. History Father Louis-Pierre Thury sought to ...

(the home of the famous activist

Anna Mae Aquash Annie Mae Aquash (Mi'kmaq name ''Naguset Eask'') (March 27, 1945 – mid-December 1975 ) was a First Nations activist and Mi'kmaq tribal member from Nova Scotia, Canada. Aquash moved to Boston in the 1960s and joined other First Nations and Indi ...

) and Shubenacadie 13. Shubenacadie is the oldest community in Hants County. There is a significant monument in the middle of the reserve to Major

Jean-Baptiste Cope Jean Baptiste Cope (Kopit in Mi’kmaq meaning ‘beaver’) was also known as Major Cope, a title he was probably given from the French military, the highest rank given to Mi’kmaq. Cope was the sakamaw (chief) of the Mi'kmaq people of Shubenaca ...

, the signatory to the peace

Treaty of 1752 The Treaty of 1752 was a treaty signed between the Mi'kmaq people of Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia and the governor of Nova Scotia on 22 November 1752 during Father Le Loutre's War. The treaty was created by Edward Cornwallis and later signed by Jean- ...

with the British, which was recently upheld by the

Supreme Court of Canada The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; french: Cour suprême du Canada, CSC) is the Supreme court, highest court in the Court system of Canada, judicial system of Canada. It comprises List of Justices of the Supreme Court of Canada, nine justices, wh ...

(1985).

Acadians

The first Acadians to settle in present-day Hants County (known as

Pisiguit Pisiguit is the pre-expulsion-period Acadian region located along the banks of the Pisiquit River from its confluence with the Minas Basin of Acadia, which is now Nova Scotia, including the St. Croix River drainage area. Settlement in the regio ...

) established farms at (present day Falmouth) in the early 1680s, as the 1686 census shows a number of families on well established farms utilizing dyked pastures. More

Acadia Acadia (french: link=no, Acadie) was a colony of New France in northeastern North America which included parts of what are now the Maritime provinces, the Gaspé Peninsula and Maine to the Kennebec River. During much of the 17th and earl ...

n villages soon followed spreading along the shores of the Piziquid and St. Croix rivers. One of these was at present day Windsor. With an expanding population the region by 1722 was split into two parishes (see Pisiquit). The l'Assomption parish church was situated on a hill overlooking the confluence of the Pisiquit and Saint Croix rivers where in 1750 it was pulled down by the Acadians under orders from the British to make way for Fort Edward. By the early 1700s Acadians migrated all along the shore of Hants County to the Shubenacadie River. One of the most prominent Acadians from this area was Noël Doiron who is the namesake of the community of Noel. With the founding of both Halifax (1749) and Fort Edward, there was an

Acadian Exodus The Acadian Exodus (also known as the Acadian migration) happened during Father Le Loutre's War (1749–1755) and involved almost half of the total Acadian population of Nova Scotia deciding to relocate to French controlled territories. The th ...

that involved an emigration of most of the Acadians from the Municipality of East Hants (1750) and from West Hants (Pisiguit) as well. They left British Nova Scotia for French occupied

Prince Edward Island Prince Edward Island (PEI; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is the smallest province in terms of land area and population, but the most densely populated. The island has several nicknames: "Garden of the Gulf", ...

. During the 1755

Expulsion of the Acadians The Expulsion of the Acadians, also known as the Great Upheaval, the Great Expulsion, the Great Deportation, and the Deportation of the Acadians (french: Le Grand Dérangement or ), was the forced removal, by the British, of the Acadian peo ...

the majority of those Acadians remaining were deported to various locations along the eastern seaboard of the

Thirteen Colonies The Thirteen Colonies, also known as the Thirteen British Colonies, the Thirteen American Colonies, or later as the United Colonies, were a group of British colonies on the Atlantic coast of North America. Founded in the 17th and 18th centu ...

, most notably

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

and

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean t ...

. The Expulsion of the Acadians from Hants County began at exactly the same time as it happened at Grand-Pré, with the Acadian men being imprisoned within the walls of Fort Edward. Fort Edward was one of four British forts in Acadia to imprison Acadians throughout the nine years of the expulsion.

New England Planters

After the Acadians were removed from the area of present-day Hants County,

New England Planters The New England Planters were settlers from the New England colonies who responded to invitations by the lieutenant governor (and subsequently governor) of Nova Scotia, Charles Lawrence, to settle lands left vacant by the Bay of Fundy Campaign ( ...

began to arrive and settle the vacated lands (1760). They formed the townships of Windsor, Falmouth and Newport. Many arrived from

Rhode Island Rhode Island (, like ''road'') is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It is the List of U.S. states by area, smallest U.S. state by area and the List of states and territories of the United States ...

. One of the Planters of note during this period was Henry Alline who led the New Light revival of the

Great Awakening Great Awakening refers to a number of periods of religious revival in American Christian history. Historians and theologians identify three, or sometimes four, waves of increased religious enthusiasm between the early 18th century and the lat ...

in the region. Alline's movement had a significant impact on the stance the New Englander Planters took with respect to the troubles building in the colonies to the west, between their British masters, and brethren who remained in New England, that led to the Revolutionary War. Alline's Newlight congregations were the progenitors of the Baptist movement in Canada.

Ulster Irish

The next wave of immigration to Hants County was the

Ulster Scots people The Ulster Scots ( Ulster-Scots: ''Ulstèr-Scotch''; ga, Albanaigh Ultach), also called Ulster Scots people (''Ulstèr-Scotch fowk'') or (in North America) Scotch-Irish (''Scotch-Airisch''), are an ethnic group in Ireland, who speak an Ul ...

who settled all along the Cobequid shore such as the O'Briens in Noel (1771) and the Putnams in Maitland.

American Loyalists

During the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revoluti ...

, Fort Edward played a pivotal role defending Halifax from a possible land attack and serving as the headquarters in

Atlantic Canada Atlantic Canada, also called the Atlantic provinces (french: provinces de l'Atlantique), is the region of Eastern Canada comprising the provinces located on the Atlantic coast, excluding Quebec. The four provinces are New Brunswick, Newfoundla ...

for

84th Regiment of Foot (Royal Highland Emigrants) The 84th Regiment of Foot (Royal Highland Emigrants) was a British regiment in the American Revolutionary War that was raised to defend present day Ontario, Quebec and Atlantic Canada from the constant land and sea attacks by American Revolutiona ...

. After the American Revolution, the Rawdon Township and Douglas Township were created for

American Loyalists Loyalists were colonists in the Thirteen Colonies who remained loyal to the British Crown during the American Revolutionary War, often referred to as Tories, Royalists or King's Men at the time. They were opposed by the Patriots, who supporte ...

(1884). The Douglas Township ( Kennetcook and area) was settled by the 84th Regiment of Foot. The Rawdon Township was settled by loyalists from

South Carolina )''Animis opibusque parati'' ( for, , Latin, Prepared in mind and resources, links=no) , anthem = " Carolina";" South Carolina On My Mind" , Former = Province of South Carolina , seat = Columbia , LargestCity = Charleston , LargestMetro = ...

whose lives had been saved in the

Siege of Ninety-Six The siege of Ninety Six was a siege in western South Carolina late in the American Revolutionary War. From May 22 to June 18, 1781, Continental Army Major General Nathanael Greene led 1,000 troops in a siege against the 550 Loyalists in the fo ...

by Lord Rawdon and the 84th Regiment of Foot.

19th century - shipbuilding and confederation

Plaster War

Windsor developed its

gypsum Gypsum is a soft sulfate mineral composed of calcium sulfate dihydrate, with the chemical formula . It is widely mined and is used as a fertilizer and as the main constituent in many forms of plaster, blackboard or sidewalk chalk, and drywa ...

deposits, usually selling it to American markets at

Passamaquoddy Bay Passamaquoddy Bay (french: Baie de Passamaquoddy) is an inlet of the Bay of Fundy, between the U.S. state of Maine and the Canadian province of New Brunswick, at the mouth of the St. Croix River. Most of the bay lies within Canada, with its w ...

. Often this trade was illegal. In 1820 an effort to stop this smuggling trade resulted in the "Plaster War", in which local smugglers resoundingly defeated the efforts of

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

officials to bring the trade under their control.

Shipbuilding

Productive timber lands and tidal building sites made Hants County an important shipbuilding centre in the 19th century. Loyalist merchant

Abraham Cunard Abraham Cunard (1756 – January 10, 1824) was a United Empire Loyalist carpenter, timber merchant, and ship owner from Halifax, Nova Scotia, best known as the father of shipping magnate Samuel Cunard. Biography Abraham Cunard was a descendan ...

was an early shipbuilder in the county. Cunard's efforts were surpassed by much larger yards by the mid 19th century, including the William Dawson Lawrence shipyard in Maitland which built the '' William D. Lawrence'', the largest wooden ship ever built in Canada, and

Ezra Churchill Ezra Churchill (May 18, 1806 – May 8, 1874): Nineteenth-century industrialist, investing in shipbuilding, land, timber for domestic and foreign markets, gypsum quarries, insurance companies, hotels, etc. As a politician he held positions i ...

's in Hantsport.

The Great Hants Campaign (1869)

The Honourable

Joseph Howe Joseph Howe (December 13, 1804 – June 1, 1873) was a Nova Scotian journalist, politician, public servant, and poet. Howe is often ranked as one of Nova Scotia's most admired politicians and his considerable skills as a journalist and writer ha ...

was the first member of parliament for Hants County (1867).Joseph Howe: The Briton Becomes Canadian, 1848-1873 By J. Murray Beck He campaigned in the county with an agenda to punish those politicians who have forced Nova Scotia to participate in the formation, and become a part of Canada without a mandate or referendum from the people. Over the next two years in office, deciding not to mobilize to join America or become a colony independent of Britain, Howe determined that Nova Scotia's best option was to remain in Canada and to fight for "better terms. While most Nova Scotians remained supportive of the Anti-Confederation Campaign during this time period, Howe ran in Hants County bi-election of 1869 to get a mandate from the people to see if they wanted him to continue to support Nova Scotia's entry into Canada. What ensued was one of the most expensive political campaigns in Nova Scotia's history. The whole country watched to see if Howe would be returned to Ottawa to lead Nova Scotia into Confederation on the best terms possible. Howe toured the whole county and eventually won, which eventually led to all of Nova Scotia accepting Canada.

20th century

Hants County produced two Olympians, both of whom came from along the Noel shore (see

Athletics at the 1928 Summer Olympics – Men's marathon The men's marathon event at the 1928 Summer Olympics took place in Amsterdam, Netherlands on Sunday, August 5, 1928. The race started at 15:14 local time. A total number of 57 athletes completed the race, with Willem van der Steen from the Net ...

). Along with the great literary figure in Nova Scotia's history, Thomas Chandler Haliburton, Hants produced

Alden Nowlan Alden Albert Nowlan (; January 25, 1933 – June 27, 1983) was a Canadian poet, novelist, and playwright. History Alden Nowlan was born into rural poverty in Stanley, Nova Scotia, adjacent to Mosherville, and close to the small town of Windsor ...

George Elliott Clarke George Elliott Clarke, (born February 12, 1960) is a Canadian poet, playwright and literary critic who served as the Poet Laureate of Toronto from 2012 to 2015 and as the 2016–2017 Canadian Parliamentary Poet Laureate. His work is known larg ...

and others. The celebrated folk artist Sidney Kelsie who later made his career in Edmonton, Alberta was born in Hants County in 1928. Folk singer

Stan Rogers Stanley Allison Rogers (November 29, 1949 – June 2, 1983) was a Canadian folk musician and songwriter. Rogers was noted for his rich, baritone voice and his traditional-sounding songs which were frequently inspired by Canadian history and ...

made the community of Rawdon famous by writing the song "The Rawdon Hills".

Natural resources: wood, fish, gypsum, barite, oil and gold

The wood in the county was both used to build the many wooden ships, but it was also used as an export resource on the wooden ships. For this purpose, the

Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It ama ...

was also built through the County (1901), connecting Windsor and Truro. The county is noted for very large deposits of

, some of which was at one time shipped from Walton. The world's largest open pit gypsum mine is located in Milford, East Hants and currently produces approximately 8,000 tons of gypsum daily. George Elliot Clarke's poem, "West Hants County", tells of the difficult condition of black workers in the gypsum mines.

Barite Baryte, barite or barytes ( or ) is a mineral consisting of barium sulfate ( Ba S O4). Baryte is generally white or colorless, and is the main source of the element barium. The ''baryte group'' consists of baryte, celestine (strontium sulfate), ...

was also an extremely important ore to Hants County. The largest barite mine in the world was in Walton and that; combined with the gypsum and lumbering, made Walton the second busiest port in Nova Scotia in the 1950s. The mine produced in total 4.5 million tonnes of barite, between 1941 and 1978. Silver, lead, zinc and copper were also found in the same mine and over 360,000 tonnes were mined. It is estimated that there are still about 1 million tonnes of barite left in the deposit. Gold was mined at

Renfrew Renfrew (; sco, Renfrew; gd, Rinn Friù) is a town west of Glasgow in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. It is the historic county town of Renfrewshire. Called the "Cradle of the Royal Stewarts" for its early link with Scotland's form ...

, near Nine Mile River, The village was the home of one of the largest gold mines in the province. There were other gold mines in the community of Rawdon Gold Mines. There is currently oil exploration in and around Kennetcook.

Communities

;Towns * Hantsport * Windsor ;Reserves *

;Municipalities *

Demographics

As a

in the

2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...

conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; french: Statistique Canada), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and cultu ...

, Hants County had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021. ;Population trend ;Mother tongue language (2011) ;Ethnic groups (2006)2006 Statistics Canada Census Ethnocultural Portrait of Canada: Hants County, Nova Scotia
/ref>

Access routes

Highways and numbered routes that run through the county, including external routes that start or finish at the county limits:Atlantic Canada Back Road Atlas Pages 67-68, 80-81 *Highways ** ** *Trunk routes ** ** ** *Collector routes: ** ** ** ** ** *External routes: **None

Notable residents

* Henry Alline *

Buck 65 Richard Terfry (born March 4, 1972), better known by his stage name Buck 65, is a Canadian alternative hip hop artist. Underpinned by an extensive background in abstract hip hop, his more recent music has extensively incorporated blues, count ...

* Noël Doiron * Thomas Chandler Haliburton * William Hall *

Julia Archibald Holmes Julia Annie Archibald Holmes (February 15, 1838 – January 19, 1887) was an American suffragist, abolitionist, mountaineer and journalist. Biography Holmes was born in 1838 in Noel, Nova Scotia, Canada, and moved to Massachusetts with her ...

* William Dawson Lawrence *

Julia McCarthy Julia McCarthy (1964-2021) was a Canadian poet.

Anne McLellan A. Anne McLellan (born August 31, 1950) is a Canadian politician and academic who served as the ninth deputy prime minister of Canada from 2003 to 2006. She was a cabinet minister in the Liberal governments of Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin ...

* Jacques-Pierre Peminuit Paul

References

External links

Photographs of historic monuments in Hants County
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