Mount Denson is an unincorporated community in the Canadian province of

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...

, located in

West Hants Regional Municipality West Hants, officially named the West Hants Regional Municipality, is a List of district municipalities in Nova Scotia#Regional municipality, regional municipality in Hants County, Nova Scotia, Hants County, Nova Scotia, Canada. It occupies t ...

. The community is named after Mount Denson, the eighteenth-century estate of

Henry Denny Denson Henry Denny Denson (ca 1715 – 3 June 1780) was an Irish-born soldier and political figure in Nova Scotia. He was a member of the Nova Scotia House of Assembly from 1761 to 1765 for Falmouth Township, from 16 October 1769 to 1770 for Newp ...

. The area first became known to Europeans in the sixteenth century as the river now known as the Avon appears on maps from this period. By 1686

Jean-Baptiste-Louis Franquelin Jean-Baptiste-Louis Franquelin (; 1650-c.1712) was a French trader who was appointed in the early 1670s as the first Cartography, cartographer in ''Nouvelle France'' (Canada) by the colony's governor. He was appointed in 1688 as a royal Hydrography ...

's map of

Acadia Acadia (; ) was a colony of New France in northeastern North America which included parts of what are now the The Maritimes, Maritime provinces, the Gaspé Peninsula and Maine to the Kennebec River. The population of Acadia included the various ...

/Nova Scotia defines the area, showing the local tributaries flowing into the Avon River. One of these tributaries, the Cacaquit or modern day Halfway River, which now forms the northern boundary of the community, is indicated on the map. By 1680 Acadian farmers had migrated out of the

Port Royal Port Royal () was a town located at the end of the Palisadoes, at the mouth of Kingston Harbour, in southeastern Jamaica. Founded in 1494 by the Spanish, it was once the largest and most prosperous city in the Caribbean, functioning as the cen ...

area and began settling the eastern end of the Annapolis Valley including the lands about Mount Denson, then known as Pisiquit. Census records indicate Etienne Rivet was one of the first settlers to establish a farm. He and his progeny farmed the nearby marshlands south of Mitchener's Point as well as those in the Cacaquit River valley. His son, Etienne, operated a mill on the Cacaquit near where the river meets the uplands, just beyond the southern boundary of today's town of

Hantsport Hantsport is an unincorporated community in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, located in West Hants Regional Municipality. The community is situated at the western boundary between West Hants Regional Municipality and Kings County, along ...

. By the 1690s Mount Denson was incorporated into the Acadian parish of Paroisse de Sainte Famille (established in 1698).Surrette, Flannery. Mapping Catholic Acadia - Parishes, Churches, Chapels, and Missions. Saint Mary's University, 2005. When the

Expulsion of the Acadians The Expulsion of the Acadians was the forced removal of inhabitants of the North American region historically known as Acadia between 1755 and 1764 by Great Britain. It included the modern Canadian Maritime provinces of Nova Scotia, New Br ...

began in 1755 the area's male residents were detained at Fort Edward and later in the fall deported along with their families from the province. After the deportation of the Acadians, Nova Scotia's fine farmlands in the Bay of Fundy region remained empty and in an effort to repopulate the country the British government offered the recently vacated lands in grant to Protestants who wished to move to the colony. In 1760, Henry Denson acquired for himself 4000 acres in the new township of Falmouth and acting for the government began distributing the remaining tracts of land to

New England Planters The New England Planters were settlers from the New England colonies who responded to invitations by the lieutenant governor (and subsequently governor) of Nova Scotia, Charles Lawrence, to settle lands left vacant by the Bay of Fundy Campaign ...

. Many families living in Mount Denson today descend from these settlers.

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Further reading