Missisquoi County is a historical county in

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 thirtee ...

. It was formed between 1825 and 1831 and included historical Bedford County,

Lower Canada The Province of Lower Canada (french: province du Bas-Canada) was a British colony on the lower Saint Lawrence River and the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence (1791–1841). It covered the southern portion of the current Province of Quebec an ...

.Map including Bedford County
Districts and Sub-districts: Census of 1825, Lower Canada (Quebec). Library and Archives Canada, accessed January 2020. In the early 1980s Quebec abolished its counties. Much of Missisquoi County became the

Brome-Missisquoi Regional County Municipality Brome-Missisquoi is a regional county municipality in the Estrie region of Quebec, Canada. It lies in the Eastern Townships area. The seat is Cowansville. In 2021, it was transferred to the Estrie region from Montérégie. In Parliament it is cov ...

except the southwestern part was transferred to

Le Haut-Richelieu Regional County Municipality Le Haut-Richelieu Regional County Municipality ''(Upper Richelieu)'' is a regional county municipality in the Montérégie region in southwestern Quebec, Canada. Its seat is in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu. It is named for the Richelieu River which ...

. The name of the county is derived from an

Algonquin Algonquin or Algonquian—and the variation Algonki(a)n—may refer to: Languages and peoples *Algonquian languages, a large subfamily of Native American languages in a wide swath of eastern North America from Canada to Virginia **Algonquin la ...

Abenaki The Abenaki (Abenaki: ''Wαpánahki'') are an Indigenous peoples of the Northeastern Woodlands of Canada and the United States. They are an Algonquian-speaking people and part of the Wabanaki Confederacy. The Eastern Abenaki language was predom ...

word meaning "lots of waterfowl". Missisquoi County, part of the

Eastern Townships The Eastern Townships (french: Cantons de l'Est) is an historical administrative region in southeastern Quebec, Canada. It lies between the St. Lawrence Lowlands and the American border, and extends from Granby in the southwest, to Drummondv ...

(one of roughly 12 regions in Québec), is located on the western fringes of the Appalachian foothills, giving it a rolling landscape on its eastern part. The western part of the county is situated on the Richelieu River plains. Missisquoi County is bound entirely on the south for 51 km by the Canada–US border (45° N) from 72°40.5' W to the middle of 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 kno ...

(73°20.8' W), to the east by

Brome County Brome County, is a historical county of Quebec. It takes its name from the name of a manor in the parish of Barham in Kent, England that was named after the broom plant. It was named by English surveyors. The earliest settlers to this region we ...

for 23 km along the meridian defined by 72°40.5' W, to the northeast by Brome County and the northwest by Rouville County, and to the west by Iberville County and the Richelieu River ( Saint-Jean County is on the other side of the river). The northernmost point of the county is at 45°21' N and 73° W and is also the junction of the borders of Missisquoi County, Rouville County and Iberville County. The westernmost point of the county is on the Richelieu River at the Canada–US border at 45° N and 73°20' W. The county is divided into four townships, and there are two discontinuous zones along its western fringes without any township designation divided under the pre-1760 French parochial framework. The townships are the

Township of Farnham A township is a kind of human settlement or administrative subdivision, with its meaning varying in different countries. Although the term is occasionally associated with an urban area, that tends to be an exception to the rule. In Australia, Ca ...

in the north, Township of Dunham in the east and Township of Stanbridge to the west, and Township of Saint Armand along the Canada–US border. The county seat is the Town of

Bedford Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Bedford built-up area (including Biddenham and Kempston) was 106,940, making it the second-largest settlement in Bedfordshire, behind Luton, whilst ...

located at 45°7' N and 72°59' W in the southwestern part of the Township of Stanbridge. Other major towns in the county are

Farnham Farnham ( /ˈfɑːnəm/) is a market town and civil parish in Surrey, England, around southwest of London. It is in the Borough of Waverley, close to the county border with Hampshire. The town is on the north branch of the River Wey, a trib ...

in the township of the same name and

Cowansville Cowansville is a town in south-central Quebec, Canada, located on Lac Davignon north of the U.S. border. It is the seat of Brome-Missisquoi, a regional county municipality. The population as of the Canada 2021 Census was 15,234. In recent yea ...

in the northeastern corner of Dunham Township.

References

{{coord, 45, 10, N, 73, 00, W, region:CA, display=title Former counties of Quebec