Chambly is an off-island suburb of

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

in southwestern

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirte ...

, Canada. It is located in the

Montérégie Montérégie () is an administrative region in the southwest part of Quebec. It includes the cities of Boucherville, Brossard, Châteauguay, Longueuil, Saint-Hyacinthe, Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Salaberry-de-Valleyfield and Vaudreuil-Dorion. Th ...

region, inland from the South Shore of the

Saint Lawrence River The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connecting ...

. It was formed from the merger in 1965 of Fort-Chambly (formerly Chambly-Canton prior to 1952) and the old city of Chambly (formerly Chambly-Basin prior to 1952, and earlier sometimes called Bassin-de-Chambly).

Geography

It sits on the

Richelieu River The Richelieu River () is a river of Quebec, Canada, and a major right-bank tributary of the St. Lawrence River. It rises at Lake Champlain, from which it flows northward through Quebec and empties into the St. Lawrence. It was formerly kn ...

in the Regional County Municipality of La-Vallée-du-Richelieu, at .

History

Panneau signalant le parc Jacques-De Chambly, Chambly

Descendants of European immigrants have lived in Chambly since the 17th century, but Chambly was not incorporated as a city until 1965.

Samuel de Champlain Samuel de Champlain (; Fichier OrigineFor a detailed analysis of his baptismal record, see RitchThe baptism act does not contain information about the age of Samuel, neither his birth date nor his place of birth. – 25 December 1635) was a Fr ...

passed through the area that came to be the site of the town of Chambly, QC, in 1609., when he wrote the following in his journal:

Fort Chambly Fort Chambly is a historic fort in La Vallée-du-Richelieu Regional County Municipality, Quebec. It is designated as a National Historic Site of Canada. Fort Chambly was formerly known as Fort St. Louis. It was part of a series of five fortificat ...

was captured by American forces on October 20, 1775 during the American Invasion of Canada of 1775–76, it was held until the spring of 1776 when it was evacuated and burned, as the Americans retreated southward to

Fort Ticonderoga Fort Ticonderoga (), formerly Fort Carillon, is a large 18th-century star fort built by the French at a narrows near the south end of Lake Champlain, in northern New York, in the United States. It was constructed by Canadian-born French milit ...

. Subsequently, prisoners-of-war from the

Continental Army The Continental Army was the army of the United Colonies (the Thirteen Colonies) in the Revolutionary-era United States. It was formed by the Second Continental Congress after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War, and was establis ...

, including Colonel

William Stacy William Stacy (February 15, 1734 – August 1802) was an officer of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, and a pioneer to the Ohio Country. Published histories describe Colonel William Stacy's involvement in a variet ...

, were held at Fort Chambly until the end of the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

. During the occupation the

1st Canadian Regiment The 1st Canadian Regiment (1775–1781), was an Extra Continental regiment of the American Patriots' Continental Army. The 1st was raised by James Livingston to support Patriot efforts in the American Revolutionary War during the invasion ...

, an Extra Continental regiment, was raised by James Livingston to support Colonial efforts in the

during the invasion of Quebec. Livingston recruited men from Chambly,

as early as September 1775, but a formal regimental designation was made by

Richard Montgomery Richard Montgomery (2 December 1738 – 31 December 1775) was an Irish soldier who first served in the British Army. He later became a major general in the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, and he is most famous for l ...

on November 20, 1775, with recognition by the

Second Continental Congress The Second Continental Congress was a late-18th-century meeting of delegates from the Thirteen Colonies that united in support of the American Revolutionary War. The Congress was creating a new country it first named "United Colonies" and in 1 ...

following on January 8, 1776. The regiment, which never approached its authorized size of 1,000 men, saw action primarily in the Canadian theater and New York, and was disbanded on January 1, 1781. The College of Chambly was chartered on March 21, 1835 in Lower Canada.

Fort Chambly

Chambly is home to the massive

, built with local stone between 1709 and 1711 in the style of Vauban's classic French fortifications. It was built at the mouth of a large basin, on the site of successive wooden forts dating back to 1665.

was the largest in a series of fortifications on the shores of what was known as the Iroquois River (later known as the Chambly River, finally becoming the

in the nineteenth century). Originally called Fort Saint-Louis, it soon came to be known by the name of its first commanding officer,

Jacques de Chambly Jacques de Chambly (died 1687) was from a French military background and became a seigneur in the New World and a governor of Acadia. Chambly arrived in New France in 1665 when he was a captain in the Carignan-Salières Regiment. He immediately ...

, to whom the surrounding seigniory was granted in 1672. It was intended to protect

New France New France (french: Nouvelle-France) was the area colonized by France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Great Britain and Spa ...

in general (and

in specific) from attack from hostile natives and the English. Today, the fort is run by

Parks Canada Parks Canada (PC; french: Parcs Canada),Parks Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Parks Canada Agency (). is the agency of the Government of Canada which manages the country's 48 National Parks, th ...

and is designated a

National Historic Site of Canada National Historic Sites of Canada (french: Lieux historiques nationaux du Canada) are places that have been designated by the federal Minister of the Environment on the advice of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMBC), as being ...

, and houses a museum and interpretive centre, and hosts historical re-enactments of military drills (as well as a number of contemporary cultural events). A small local population clustered around the fort, and the entire area eventually became known as Chambly as well. Among the buildings around the Fort was St. Stephen's Anglican Church, which was built to serve the soldiers in garrison as well as the local Loyalist and English settler population.

Chambly Canal

Chambly is also known for the Chambly Canal, a National Historic Site run by

. It was built in 1843 to bypass several kilometers of successive

rapids between the towns of Chambly, QC, and

Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu () is a city in eastern Montérégie in the Canadian province of Quebec, about southeast of Montreal. It is situated on the west bank of the Richelieu River at the northernmost navigable point of Lake Champlain. As of D ...

. Part of a series of waterways connecting the

and

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, Chambly Canal was built to facilitate commercial traffic between

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. Trade dwindled after

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

, and as of the 1970s, traffic has been replaced by recreational vessels. Today the canal is enjoyed by tourists and more than 7,000 pleasure boats in the summer, and ice skaters in the winter. St-Joseph of Chambly Church, at 164 rue Martel, was built between 1880 and 1881. The parish was founded in 1665.

Demographics

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 ...

, Chambly 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 (2021)2021 Statistics Canada Community Profile: Chambly, Quebec
/ref>

Economy

Transportation

The exo Chambly-Richelieu-Carignan region provides commuter and local bus services.

Education

In English, the

South Shore Protestant Regional School Board The South Shore Protestant Regional School Board (SSPRSB) was a Protestant Christian school district in Greater Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It served the South Shore region and it was headquartered in St. Lambert. The district operated elementary a ...

and later the Richelieu Valley School Board previously served the municipality. Currently Chambly is served by the

Riverside School Board The Riverside School Board (RSB, french: Commission scolaire Riverside) is an English-language school board in the province of Quebec and provides educational services and programs to all students who have a certificate of eligibility for English ...

and specifically by William Latter Elementary School. Anglophone secondary students in Chambly are zoned for

Heritage Regional High School Heritage Regional High School is a public secondary school located in Longueuil. Before being known as Heritage, the school was known as MacDonald-Cartier Memorial High School. HRTV Heritage Regional High School is the owner of its own television ...

Longueuil Longueuil () is a city in the province of Quebec, Canada. It is the seat of the Montérégie administrative region and the central city of the urban agglomeration of Longueuil. It sits on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River directly ac ...

's Saint-Hubert borough. In French, the Commission scolaire des Patriotes serves Chambly, with the following schools located in the municipality: * École De Bourgogne (Elementary) * École De Salaberry (Elementary) * École Jacques-De Chambly (Elementary) * École Sainte-Marie (Elementary) * École Madeleine-Brousseau (Elementary) * École secondaire de Chambly (Secondary 1, 2 and 3)

Media

Chambly is currently served by a local weekly newspaper called the "Journal de Chambly", first published in 1966. A small daily news sheet called Chambly Matin also maintains a journalistic presence on the internet reporting on local issues.

Notable people

* Emma Albani – Opera singer * Mathieu Joseph - ice hockey player *

Georges Larivière Georges Larivière (born 1942) is a Canadian retired ice hockey coach, professor, writer, and sports administrator. He was the director of the Faculty of Physical Education at the Université de Montréal, researched the development of ice h ...

, professor, writer, ice hockey coach * Ricardo Larrivée – Television personality * Robert Lebel – Former mayor of Chambly, Hockey Hall of Fame inductee *

Étienne Lucier Étienne Lucier, né Lussier, (June 9, 1786 – March 8, 1853) was a French-Canadian fur trader active primarily in the Pacific Northwest. He was hired by John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company and sent to the region to help establish Fort Astoria ...

– Fur trader *

Étienne Provost Étienne Provost (1785 – 3 July 1850) was a Canadian fur trader whose trapping and trading activities in the American southwest preceded Mexican independence. He was also known as Proveau and Provot (and the pronunciation was "Pra-vo"). Leadi ...

– Fur trader * Jacqueline Simoneau – Olympian

References

External links

Town of Chambly website

{{Authority control Cities and towns in Quebec Incorporated places in La Vallée-du-Richelieu Regional County Municipality