Digby County is a

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposes Chambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

in the

Canadian province Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British Nort ...

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 En ...

History

It was named after the Township of Digby; this was named in honour of Rear Admiral Robert Digby, who dispatched HMS ''Atalanta'' to convey Loyalists from

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...

in the spring of 1783 to Conway, which became known as Digby, as part of their evacuation and resettlement following the American Revolutionary War. The Crown resettled thousands of Loyalists in Nova Scotia and other areas of Canada. Digby County was established in 1837. Previously, from August 17, 1759, when Nova Scotia was first divided into counties, this area had been part of

Annapolis County Annapolis County is a county in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia located in the western part of the province located on the Bay of Fundy. The county seat is Annapolis Royal. History Established August 17, 1759, by Order in Council, Annapol ...

. In 1861, Digby County was divided into two sessional districts:

Digby Digby may refer to: Places Australia * Digby, Victoria, a town Canada * Digby (electoral district), a former federal electoral district in Nova Scotia (1867–1914) * Digby (provincial electoral district), a provincial electoral district i ...

and

Clare Clare may refer to: Places Antarctica * Clare Range, a mountain range in Victoria Land Australia * Clare, South Australia, a town in the Clare Valley * Clare Valley, South Australia Canada * Clare (electoral district), an electoral district * Cl ...

. These were eventually incorporated as district municipalities in 1879. In addition to these two district municipalities, the county contains the Town of Digby and part of the Bear River Indian (First Nations) reserve. Also, there is Digby Neck leading into the

Bay of Fundy The Bay of Fundy (french: Baie de Fundy) is a bay between the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, with a small portion touching the U.S. state of Maine. It is an arm of the Gulf of Maine. Its extremely high tidal range is th ...

to Long Island and Brier Island.

Demographics

As a

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 ...

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, Digby 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: Digby County, Nova Scotia
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Communities

;Towns *

;Villages *

Freeport Freeport, a variant of free port, may refer to: Places United States *Freeport, California *Freeport, Florida *Freeport, Illinois *Freeport, Indiana *Freeport, Iowa *Freeport, Kansas *Freeport, Maine, a New England town **Freeport (CDP), Maine, the ...

* Tiverton * Westport * Weymouth ;Reserves * Bear River 6 ;District municipalities *

Municipality of the District of Clare Clare, officially named the Municipality of the District of Clare, is a district municipality in western Nova Scotia, Canada. Statistics Canada classifies the district municipality as a municipal district. Geography The Municipality of the Dist ...

* Municipality of the District of Digby

Access routes

Highways and numbered routes that run through the county, including external routes that start or finish at the county boundary:Atlantic Canada Back Road Atlas Pages 76-77, 84-85 *Highways ** *Trunk routes ** *Collector routes: ** ** ** *External routes: **None

Museums

The county's history is preserved at the Admiral Digby Museum as well as several community museums.

Notable people

Coline Campbell Coline M. Campbell (born 26 September 1940) is a former member of the House of Commons of Canada in the 30th (1974–1979), 32nd (1980–1984) and 34th (1988–1993) Canadian Parliaments. Campbell was the first woman from Nova Scotia elected ...

* Joseph Willie Comeau *

Phil Comeau Phil Comeau (born 1956), CM is a Canadian film and television director, born in Saulnierville, Nova Scotia. He lives in Moncton, New Brunswick and Montreal, Quebec. Biography Phil Comeau is a film and television director and scriptwriter, bas ...

* Alfred Gilpin Jones * Herbert Ladd Jones * William M. Jones * Sam Langford * John Elkanah Morton * George Nowlan *

Henri M. Robicheau Henri M. Robicheau (September 12, 1838 – May 4, 1923''A Directory of the Members of the Legislative Assembly of Nova Scotia, 1758-1958'', Public Archives of Nova Scotia (1958)) was a farmer and political figure in Nova Scotia, Canada. He re ...

* Adam Smith * Pop Smith * Robert Thibault *

Martin Welch Martin Leander Welch (1864–1935) was a fishing schooner captain out of Gloucester, Massachusetts. He was captain of the Esperanto in 1920 when it defeated the Canadian schooner Delawana in the first International Fishing Schooner Championship Ra ...

* Maud Lewis

References

{{Authority control 1837 establishments in Nova Scotia