Raid on Lunenburg, Nova Scotia (1756)

The Raid on Lunenburg occurred during the French and Indian War when a French-allied Maliseet militia attacked a British settlement at Lunenburg, Nova Scotia on May 8, 1756. The Maliseet raided two islands on the northern outskirts of the fortified Township of Lunenburg, Rous Island and Payzant Island (present day Covey Island). The Maliseet killed twenty settlers and took five prisoner.

Historical Context

Conflict in Nova Scotia raged even before the French and Indian War was declared. The British established Halifax (1749), Dartmouth (1750) and Lunenburg (1753), in part, to settle protestants in Nova Scotia, which up until that point was predominantly settled by Catholic Acadian, Mi’kmaq and Maliseet. Lunenburg was settled by Foreign Protestants. The Foreign Protestants came from present day France, Germany and Switzerland. To thwart the development of these protestant settlements, Maliseet, Mi’kmaq and Acadians conducted numerous raids on these settlements. In the initial two years of the founding of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, for example, the village was raided on four occasions.

When the French and Indian War began (1754) the conflict in Acadia intensified. With the British victory at the Battle of Beausejour (1755), the Expulsion of the Acadians from the Maritimes began and the genocide against the Mi’kmaq and Maliseet continued. Fort Cumberland was raided over two days, between April 26-27, 1756, and nine British soldiers were killed and scalped. The Raid of Lunenburg happened almost two weeks later.

Raid on Lunenburg

Governor of New France, Pierre François de Rigaud, Marquis de Vaudreuil-Cavagnal ordered Charles Deschamps de Boishébert et de Raffetot to send a Maliseet militia to raid Lunenburg. On May 8, 1756, a Maliseet militia killed and scalped twenty settlers and burned their homes. There was little resistance. The five remaining residents were taken prisoner. These five remaining residents were Marie Payzant and four of her young children. Her husband Louis Payzant was one of the settlers who were killed and scalped.

Colonel Sutherland, who was stationed at Lunenburg, immediately dispatched a group of 30 officers and soldiers to repel the raid. Upon their return, on May 11, Deputy provost marshal Dettlieb Christopher Jessen reported the number killed and that the Maliseet militia and the prisoners were gone.

Afterward

In response to the Raid on Lunenburg and the earlier raids on Fort Cumberland, on May 14, Governor Charles Lawrence made a proclamation which increased the bounty placed on the scalps of every man, woman and child who was Mi’kmaq or Maliseet. Upon learning that the victims were French (albeit protestant French), on August 6, 1756, Governor of New France considered the possibility of recruiting other French settlers at Lunenburg to burn the town and join the French occupied territories of Ile St. Jean (Prince Edward Island) or Ile Royale (Cape Breton). The plan never materialized.

The Maliseet marched the prisoners, Marie Payzant (who was in the first month of pregnancy) and her four young children, to Quebec City. Along the way they stopped at the French garrison at St. Anne, where Boishebert, who had order the Raid on Lunenburg, was stationed. This site was also the location of the Maliseet encampment Aukpaque (near present day Fredericton, NB). The Maliseet kept Marie’s children for ransom and forced her to go to Quebec City without them. She gave birth while in prison on December 26, 1776. The following summer, a ransom was paid and the rest of her children joined her in Quebec City. Marie Payzant and her children spent four years in captivity (1756-1760). They were released after the Battle of Quebec and settled present day Falmouth, Nova Scotia (1761). Later in life, two of the surviving children recorded their accounts of the Raid on Lunenburg and their life in captivity.

References

Secondary Sources

• Winthrop Pickard Bell. (1961). The "Foreign Protestants" and the Settlement of Nova Scotia
• Mather Byles DesBrisay (1895). History of the county of Lunenburg
• Linda G. Layton. (2003) A passion for survival: The true story of Marie Anne and Louis Payzant in Eighteenth-century Nova Scotia. Nimbus Publishing.
• Linda G. Wood (1993). “The Lunenbury Indian Raids of 1776 and 1778: A New documentary source.” Nova Scotia Historical Review. Vol. 13. No. 1 pp.
• Linda G. Wood (1996). “Murder among the Planters: A profile of Malachi Caigin of Falmouth, Nova Scotia.” Nova Scotia Historical Review, Vol. 16. No. 1. Pp.

Primary Sources

• Son John Payzant’s account of the Raid of Lunenburg and his subsequent captivity can be found in Brian C. Cuthbertson, ed. The Journal of the Reverend John Payzant (1749-1834), (Hantsport, N.S. Lancelot Press, 1981);
• Son Lewis Payzant’s account can be found in Silas Tertius Rand, “Early Provincial Settlers,” The Provincial (Halifax, NS. August 1852) Vol. 1, No.8;
• An account by Dr. Elias Payzant, a grandchild of Marie Payzant, can be found in the Payzant family papers, NSARM, MG1, Vol. 747, No. 42

Endnotes