Missisquoi County () is a historical county in

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

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

Lower Canada The Province of Lower Canada () was a British colonization of the Americas, British colony on the lower Saint Lawrence River and the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence established in 1791 and abolished in 1841. It covered the southern portion o ...

.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 except the southwestern part was transferred to Le Haut-Richelieu Regional County Municipality. The name of the county is derived from an Algonquin

Abenaki language Abenaki (Eastern: ', Western: ), also known as Wôbanakiak, is an endangered Eastern Algonquian language of Quebec and the northern states of New England. The language has Eastern and Western forms which differ in vocabulary and phonology an ...

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

Eastern Townships The Eastern Townships (, ) is a historical administrative region in southeastern Quebec, Canada. It lies between the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence Lowlands, St. Lawrence Lowlands and the American border, and extends from Granby, Quebec, Granby in ...

(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 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 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 was 106,940. Bedford is the county town of Bedfordshire and seat of the Borough of Bedford local government district. Bedford was founded at a ford (crossin ...

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 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 tributary of the ...

in the township of the same name and Cowansville in the northeastern corner of Dunham Township.

References

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