Our Early History

This text builds on research about the protestant settlers in Kingsburg conducted by Michelle MacRae provided to the KCA through Community Leadership Project led by St. Mary’s University.

First Nation People - The Mi’kmaq

1. There is clear evidence that the place we call Nova Scotia, including the villages of Upper Kingsburg and Kingsburg, have been inhabited for more than 3000 years by the original people of this land. The Mi’kmaq called themselves L’nu’k, meaning the people. The term Mi’kmaq comes from their word Mi’kmak, meaning “my kin-friends”.  

2. They lived and thrived along the forty-two river systems in the province using birchbark canoes that were 3 to 8 metres long. From early spring to October families lived principally through fishing. The birchbark canoe, easy to portage and able to carry over 1360 kilo (3000 lbs.) was an essential tool for the Mi’kmaq and became the workhorse for trade and travel. In the winter season they became game hunters using sleds known as toboggans to carry heavy loads and snowshoes created for different snow conditions. 

3. The Mi’kmaq had a complex democratic governance system and maintained economic, social and security arrangements with entities outside of their region. The traditional political and geographic boundaries of the Mi’kmaq included what today is known as the Gaspé region of  Quebec, eastern New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and the southern part of Newfoundland. The territory was divided into seven districts still recognised today. Kingsburg is in the district of “Kesputwitk”.

First Contact and the Arrival of the Acadians

4. Mr. Roger Lewis, Mi’kmaq Cultural Heritage Curator of the Nova Scotia Museum, estimates first contact between Mi’kmaq and Europeans to have occurred around 1500. He supports this by citing oral history and the pictographs at Kejimkujik illustrating the boats in use at the time by the Basque region of present-day Spain, as well as by Portugal and France.

5. The first documented instance of European arrival in the area occurred in 1604, when an expedition from France spent a number of days anchored at the mouth of what is now known as the LaHave River. The journals of Samuel de Champlain, a member of the expedition, have become an indispensable source for the history of this early exploratory phase of European intervention into the lands that would become Canada. Champlain’s map clearly shows the LaHave River and summer camps of the Mi’kmaq. It also shows a European presence, most likely itinerant French or Basque fishermen, who are known to have been visiting the area, at least since the early 1500s. A reproduction of Champlain’s map is on display at the Fort Point Museum in LaHave.

French Establishment of Capital of Acadie

6. By the spring of 1605, this French expedition had moved into the area of what is now known as the Bay of Fundy. Here they founded a settlement, Port Royal, on the shores of what was later named the Annapolis Basin. This was the firstly long-term European community to be established in North America north of Florida. It was also the first in the large territory claimed by the French in eastern North America, which they named Acadie, and which included the future province of Nova Scotia. Their stay at Port Royal marked the beginning of the close friendship between the French and the Mi’kmaq, which was to have significant consequences for future relations in the areas of economics, religion, and warfare.       

7. For a brief period of time, Port Royal lost its position as the capital of Acadie. In September 1632, a newly appointed French governor, Isaac de Razilly, determined that his headquarters and the centre of his administration should be moved to the spot identified by Champlain in 1604 – a projection of land at the mouth of the LaHave River, the site of the present Fort Point, known as Sainte Marie de Grace.

8. The major historian of the Acadian presence in Nova Scotia, N.E.S. Griffiths, writes that the settlement was “a thriving trading post, the centre of a small farming community in the area, and above all, a major port of call for a large fishing fleet.” By May 1636 the 300 men who were part of the original settlement were joined by the first immigrant French families. According to Griffiths, this “began a slow shift” for the French presence in Acadia, “from being a primarily a matter of explorers and traders, of men, to a colony of permanent settlers including women and children.” However, in the fall of 1636 a new governor closed the colony and moved its entire population back to Port Royal. 

9. During the time of de Razilly’s LaHave settlement, a lumbering operation was established at Mirligueche Bay (present-day Lunenburg). This operation, at least originally, was an extension of the settlement at LaHave. Travellers between the two are reported to have made use of a Mi’kmaq portage route which today is called Indian Path Road. 

Acadian Roots Remain

10. Today, a number of place names along the south shore retain their early Acadian roots. LaHave (from the French La Hève), Port Mouton and Petite Rivière are reminders of this era of French exploration and settlement. The area in Kingsburg known as Hell Point takes its name from Point Enragé, which continues to be marked on navigation charts.  

Recruitment of Protestant Settlers by the British 

11. The first settlers arriving via the “Speedwell” settled in Upper Kingsburg. The settlement along the shore following in 1753. These events occurred during a time of significant global political and cultural change.

The founding of Halifax in 1749 and the expulsion of more than 10,000 Acadians in 1755-1763 marked the beginning of British economic and political dominance in the province. British victory over the French was sealed in the conquest of Fort Beausejour in June 1755, the capture of Louisbourg in July 1758, the defeat of Quebec in September 1759, and the conquest of Montreal in June 1760. The Treaty of Paris signed in 1763 granted British possession of North America, except the islands of St Pierre and Miquelon off the coast of Newfoundland.

12. British settlement of Nova Scotia had begun with the founding of Halifax in 1749. Concerns soon set in about the reliability of the strong French-Acadian Catholic presence. As noted, this was dealt with in 1755 by the near wholesale expulsion of this population. Earlier attempts had been made to alleviate this perceived problem by increasing the protestant representation in the province. Beginning in 1750, the British government advertised to recruit protestant agriculturalists from German, French and Swiss frontier area (Hanover, the Palitinate, Würtemburg, eastern Switzerland, and Montbéliard), to settle in the province. By 1752, some 2500 German and Swiss immigrants had arrived in the port of Halifax, where they were housed temporarily to work as repayment for their transatlantic passage.

13. These people had to be settled somewhere, and by 1753, British authorities had identified Merliguesche Bay, some 270 km southwest of Halifax, where an easily defensible peninsula projected into a capacious harbour. In addition,  plenty of arable land was available  in the area. Indeed, as noted above, this had been the site of a French lumbering operation at the time of de Razilly’s settlement at LaHave. A total of 1453 of these so-called “Foreign Protestants” arrived there in two shiploads in June 1753, accompanied by 160 soldiers. Each settler was allotted a town lot measuring sixty by forty feet plus 300 acres of farming acreage in the country. Bearing names such as Ernst, Zinck, Corckum (Corkum), Moser (Mosher) and Wentzell, which are still abundant in the area today, they soon began erecting buildings and planting fields. The name they chose for their emerging community was Lunenburg (after Lüneberg, a German duchy ruled by King George II).

Burying the Hatchet

14. Sovereignty over the mainland portion of what is Nova Scotia was ceded to the British by the French in 1713. However, serious British settlement in the area did not begin until 1749 with the founding of Halifax. This was soon followed by a number of other settlement sites, most notably Lunenburg in 1753. This increased activity by the British led to conflict with the Mi’kmaq. Mi’kmaq-British warfare came to an end in 1760-61, when the hatchet was buried with the signing of treaties in Halifax that established a lasting peace.   

15. At various times in the 1700s, British and the Mi’kmaq negotiated peace treaties. They are collectively known today as the “Peace and Friendship Treaties.” Their aim, from the British point of view, was to encourage the Mi’kmaq away from their alliance with the French and to establish some general laws regarding their inter-relationship, including the cessation of hostilities. The treaties completed in Nova Scotia, set out reciprocal promises but involved no surrender or cession of land. It is in the spirit of these treaties that we recognise that Kingsburg is on the “unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq people.”

16. From the point of view of today’s Mi’kmaq and all people of Nova Scotia, the most significant treaty is one that was signed on 22 November 1752, in Halifax between Governor Peregrine Thomas Hopson and Chief Jean Baptiste Cope. Article two of the treaty states “that all transactions during the late war shall on both sides be buried in oblivion with the Hatchet”. 

Early Days of Lunenburg

18. Compared with other possible sites along the coast, Lunenburg county possessed a fair amount of arable land. The Crown supplied provisions to the community until 1756, which allowed the settlers to clear the forested land for pasturage, and crops, and to establish trade. 

19. Working the land was what the new arrivals were most familiar with and this was where they chose to exert most of their energies. While British authorities appeared surprised that the new settlers showed little interest in taking to the water to exploit the bountiful resources to be found there the settlers eventually did take to the sea early on for one important purpose. This was the only method of getting their farm produce and products such as boards and timber from the local forests to Halifax, where they became the principal supplier of such goods. 

20. B.A. Balcom, an historian of the Lunenburg fishery, believes that a small inshore fishery operated in these early years. This would have consisted of a couple of men working in a small boat, with the catch being used primarily for local consumption.  But it was not until the second decade of the nineteenth century that Lunenburg participation in the offshore fishery, which required larger vessels and crews, began in earnest. By the 1850s Lunenburg vessels were thoroughly involved in the Newfoundland and Labrador fisheries. Still, sometimes the fish were simply not there. According to Balcom: “Many Lunenburgers … were able to reduce the harmful effects of these fluctuations by the successful combination of fishing and farming. Contemporaries lauded the diligence with which local people attended both occupations …. In large measure this success was made possible by the use of female labour in cultivating Lunenburg county farms.” 

21. By the 1870s, writes Balcom, fishing had assumed such importance for the local economy that, while timber and agriculture were still important, they “functioned to a large degree as supplements to fishing.”  While the fish flakes and trap sheds have disappeared from the shoreline, the trajectory for the local economy and the major field of employment for the descendants of the original “foreign protestants" had thus been set at least into the middle of the next century.   Fish flakes used to dry fish were a common sight along the shores in Kingsburg up to the 1950’s.  

Founding of Kingsburg

22. After a brief stopover in Lunenburg, in 1753, some members of the newly arrived ‘foreign protestants’ made their way to, and were awarded plots of land in, a spot located some 19.31 km. (12 miles) from Lunenburg. Then known as Deep Cove, it was by 1760 renamed Kingsburg (very briefly Königsburg), after the British King, George II. In addition, in July 1787 King George III made additional land grants of 135 acres, “the whole of say lots situate lying and being in Kingsburg and Township of Lunenburg”. View the original document here Original Land Grant. 

23. The first of these ‘foreign protestants’ to arrive was one Jacob Moser (later Mosher) from Switzerland, who settled in what is today Upper Kingsburg. In accordance with the proclamations made in their European homelands, these settlers received provisions as well as “fifty acres of land each, free from all rent and taxes for ten years and an additional ten acres for each member of the family.” Jacob Moser is the ancestor of many present-day Moshers. Twenty-three names appear on land grants from 1753-1754, and one additional name is present on the 1755 victual list as residing in Kingsburg.  These names continue to be common in and around Kingsburg.

24. Unfortunately, we do not have the same kind of detailed information on the early days of Kingsburg that we have for Lunenburg. To what degree the same emphases and trends applied in Kingsburg cannot be determined. (We hope that someday the necessary research will be carried out.) It does seem though that the early emphasis on agriculture applied in the smaller community. This would explain the earlier settlement of Upper Kingsburg, with its greater quantity of arable land, than what became the village of Kingsburg proper, which was located on the water. Evidence of this emphasis can be seen in the barns that continue to dot the landscape of Kingsburg. Nearly 40% of the original settlers of Lunenburg reported agriculture as their occupation prior to arrival. Along with these agriculturalists, there were saddlers, butchers, brewers, joiners, tanners, and coopers.  

25. The one reference to Kingsburg in Mather Byles DesBrisay’s History of the County of Lunenburg, published in 1895, speaks well of the community. “They have always been a frugal, saving people which has often enabled them to loan money freely. Kingsburg was called at one time ‘a bank for Lunenburg.’ There was “no place in the county,” comments deBrisay, “where the sterling virtues of the first settlers are more fully displayed than at Kingsburg.” 

Enduring Presence of Descendants in Our Community

26. The historic immigration from central Europe to Lunenburg County is unique in Nova Scotia. Descendants of the original protestant settlers still live throughout our community and their names appear as place names in and around Kingsburg. (e.g., Mosher Road, Hirtle beach). Families like the Moshers have been part of Kingsburg for eleven generations. The graves of Jacob Mosher and his family can be seen in the Upper Kingsburg cemetery restored by Mr. Denis Falvey, himself a descendent of Hans Jacob Moser. 

27. Life on the edge of the North Atlantic was hard for these earlier settlers who came from fertile land locked regions. Family oral history from Lamont and Carole Anne Mosher says that the settlers received significant support from the local First Nation people who shared their knowledge of plants and animals as well as demonstrating how to make useful household items such as baskets and brooms. Without this help it is unlikely the community would have survived those first winters.

In memory of Hans Jacob Mosher and his descendants here buried. he and his sons, Samuel and Jacob carved the first settlement of Upper Kingsburg out of the forest having landed on the Speedwell in 1751.

Although there are only four headstones, here there are likely 19 graves their location, determined by radar imaging and marked by small stones at the foot of each grave.

The lineage father to son is Hans Jacob Mosher 1711 - 2 March 1779. Jacob Mosher unknown to 1811. John Mosher, 3 June 1777 to 1826. Jacob Mosher, June 1820 - 25 April 1907.

They and any of their relatives may be buried here. The graves of John and Priscilla Winters are also here as they had no plot of their own. 

Click here to listen to a conversation with Dr. Denis Falvey who created the plaque below

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