Rexton is a formerly incorporated village in Kent County,

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) 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. It is the only province with both English and ...

, Canada. On 1 January 2023, Rexton annexed parts of five local service districts to form the new village of Five Rivers. The community's name remains in use by the province's 911 system.

History

Situated on the

Richibucto River The Richibucto River is a river in eastern New Brunswick, Canada which empties into the Northumberland Strait north of Richibucto. It is 80 kilometres long.Mi'kmaq The Mi'kmaq (also ''Mi'gmaq'', ''Lnu'', ''Miꞌkmaw'' or ''Miꞌgmaw''; ; ) are a First Nations people of the Northeastern Woodlands, indigenous to the areas of Canada's Atlantic Provinces and the Gaspé Peninsula of Quebec as well as the northe ...

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...

, many of whose descendants still reside in the nearby

Elsipogtog First Nation The Elsipogtog First Nation , formerly called the Big Cove Band, is a Miꞌkmaq First Nations band government in New Brunswick, Canada. The First Nation's territory comprises Richibucto Reserve #15, lying southwest of Rexton, New Brunswick on ...

, formerly referred to as the Big Cove Band.

Acadian The Acadians (french: Acadiens , ) are an ethnic group descended from the French who settled in the New France colony of Acadia during the 17th and 18th centuries. Most Acadians live in the region of Acadia, as it is the region where the de ...

settlers colonized the general area in the 18th century, in places such as Bouctouche, Miramichi and Richibucto Village. The first English-speaking settler was Thomas Powel who arrived in 1790. There was considerable colonization by English shipbuilders, Scottish merchants and Irish immigrants followed, including many Irish Protestants who arrived to work in the Jardine Shipbuilding Yards around the year 1819. They eventually cleared enough land to receive land grants following the 1820s survey by a Mr. Layton conducted around the Molus River area of nearby

Weldford Parish, New Brunswick Weldford is a civil parish in Kent County, New Brunswick, Canada. For governance purposes it is divided between Richibucto 15 Indian reserve and the local service district of the parish of Weldford, which is a member of the Kent Regional Serv ...

and the size of Elsipogtog First Nation was reduced to the current boundaries. Two ships brought the majority of the settlers here from Scotland, one being the ''Dickies'', captained by Simon Graham, and the other was the ''Isabella'', sailed by Captain Thomas Carruthers.

Fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques inclu ...

lumbering Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks or skeleton cars. Logging is the beginning of a supply chain ...

and

shipbuilding Shipbuilding is the construction of ships and other floating vessels. It normally takes place in a specialized facility known as a shipyard. Shipbuilders, also called shipwrights, follow a specialized occupation that traces its roots to befor ...

flourished throughout the 19th century. The first bridge over the Richibucto River was completed there in 1850, improving commerce and communications in the region. The settlement was known from about 1825 as Kingston, but in 1901, the name was changed to Rexton. This was probably to avoid confusion with other Kingstons, particularly Kingston,

Kings County, New Brunswick Kings County (2016 population 68,941) is located in southern New Brunswick, Canada. Its historical shire town is Hampton. Both the Saint John and Kennebecasis rivers pass through the county. Approximately half of the Kings County population ...

, which still carries the name.

Notable people

Rexton (Kingston at the time) was the birthplace of

Bonar Law Andrew Bonar Law ( ; 16 September 1858 – 30 October 1923) was a British Conservative politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from October 1922 to May 1923. Law was born in the British colony of New Brunswick (now a ...

Prime Minister of the United Kingdom The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet and selects its ministers. As modern pr ...

in 1922–1923. Until the election of

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...

in 2019, who was born in

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 ...

, Law was the only British Prime Minister to be born outside the

British Isles The British Isles are a group of islands in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-western coast of continental Europe, consisting of the islands of Great Britain, Ireland, the Isle of Man, the Inner and Outer Hebrides, the Northern Isles, ...

. His name is honoured at a recently upgraded community attraction, Bonar Law Common, and also at

Bonar Law Memorial High School Bonar Law Memorial School (BLMS) provides service to grade 9–12 students in Five Rivers, New Brunswick. BLMS serves approximately 400 students from Five Rivers and the surrounding communities. The cultural make-up of the school is varied and inc ...

in Rexton. His father Rev. James Law was the Minister for St. Andrew's Church in Rexton for many years.

William John Bowser William John Bowser (Rexton, New Brunswick December 3, 1867 – October 25, 1933 Vancouver) was a politician in British Columbia, Canada. He served as the 17th premier of British Columbia from 1915 to 1916. The son of William Bowser and Marga ...

Premier of British Columbia Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of governm ...

(1915–1916), was born in Rexton. Former

Premier of New Brunswick The premier of New Brunswick ( French (masculine): ''premier ministre du Nouveau-Brunswick'', or feminine: ''première ministre du Nouveau-Brunswick'') is the first minister and head of government for the Canadian province of New Brunswick. The ...

Shawn Graham Shawn Michael Graham (born February 22, 1968) is a Canadian politician, who served as the 31st premier of New Brunswick from 2006 to 2010. He was elected leader of the New Brunswick Liberal Party in 2002 and became premier after his party captur ...

, was raised in Rexton.

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population 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 cultur ...

, Rexton 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 Rexton ChurchREV

Religious make-up (2001) Income (2006) Mother tongue language (2011)Statistics Canada:

2011 File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrate ...

census

References

* Barry Kinread Glencross, ''Rexton: The First 175 Years'' (privately published, 2001)

External links

Village of Rexton
{{Authority control Communities in Kent County, New Brunswick Former villages in New Brunswick

History

Notable people

Demographics

See also

References

External links