Shelburne County is a

county A county () is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesL. Brookes (ed.) '' Chambers Dictionary''. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, 2005. in some nations. The term is derived from the Old French denoti ...

in the

Canadian province Canada has ten provinces and three territories that are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Constitution of Canada, Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North Amer ...

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 ...

History

Shelburne County was founded in 1784 shortly following the influx of

Loyalist Loyalism, in the United Kingdom, its overseas territories and its former colonies, refers to the allegiance to the British crown or the United Kingdom. In North America, the most common usage of the term refers to loyalty to the British Cr ...

settlers evacuated from the newly independent

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. It was originally named Port Roseway, until it became a very busy town and was considered to be the capital of Nova Scotia, in which the name was changed to Shelburne in an attempt to please

Lord Shelburne William Petty Fitzmaurice, 1st Marquess of Lansdowne (2 May 17377 May 1805), known as the Earl of Shelburne between 1761 and 1784, by which title he is generally known to history, was an Anglo-Irish Whig statesman who was the first home secr ...

, the

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. * British national identity, the characteristics of British people and culture ...

Prime Minister from 1782 to 1783. The boundaries of Shelburne County were established by Governor and Council on December 16, 1785. The first Loyalists arrived in May 1783. They were faced with a somewhat bleak environment in which to make their homes. The land is rocky with acidic soil. There is also much forest. The area had previously been settled by French-speaking

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

Acadians The Acadians (; , ) are an ethnic group descended from the French colonial empire, French who settled in the New France colony of Acadia during the 17th and 18th centuries. Today, most descendants of Acadians live in either the Northern Americ ...

, many of whom had been deported to British Colonies. The new arrivals included

Black Loyalists Black Loyalists were people of African descent who sided with Loyalist (American Revolution), Loyalists during the American Revolutionary War. In particular, the term referred to men enslaved by Patriot (American Revolution), Patriots who served ...

who were given substandard land, particularly around Birchtown. In 1796 about 600

Jamaica Jamaica is an island country in the Caribbean Sea and the West Indies. At , it is the third-largest island—after Cuba and Hispaniola—of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean. Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, west of Hispaniola (the is ...

Maroons Maroons are descendants of Africans in the Americas and islands of the Indian Ocean who escaped from slavery, through flight or manumission, and formed their own settlements. They often mixed with Indigenous peoples, eventually evolving into ...

were deported to this area of Nova Scotia as well. In 1824, at a time when the lines of a number of counties were being cut out and marked, the boundary between

Queens Queens is the largest by area of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Queens County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. Located near the western end of Long Island, it is bordered by the ...

and Shelburne Counties was surveyed. In 1836 Shelburne County was divided into two separate and distinct counties with Yarmouth County being formed out of what had been part of Shelburne County. In 1854, Shelburne County was divided into two districts for court sessional purposes - Shelburne and Barrington. In 1879, these districts were incorporated as district municipalities. A 2023 wildfire near Barrington Lake became the largest wildfire in the history of Nova Scotia.

Demographics

As a

census division Census divisions, in Canada and the United States, are areas delineated for the purposes of statistical analysis and presentation; they have no government in and of themselves. The census divisions of Canada are second-level census geographic uni ...

in the 2021 Census of Population conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; ), 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 culture. It is headquartered in ...

, Shelburne County 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 Mother tongue language (2011) Ethnic Groups (2006)2006 Statistics Canada Census Ethnocultural Portrait of Canada: Shelburne County, Nova Scotia
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Communities

;Towns * Clark's Harbour * Lockeport * Shelburne ;District municipalities * Municipality of the District of Barrington * Municipality of the District of Shelburne

Access routes

Highways and numbered routes that run through the county, including external routes that start or finish at the county boundary:Atlantic Canada Back Road Atlas Page 89 *Highways ** *Trunk Routes ** *Collector Routes: ** ** ** *External Routes: **None

Notable people

* James Bagnall * John Alexander Barry * John Brecken * Mal Davis * David George (Baptist) * Jody Holden * Asa McGray * Nehemiah McGray *

Donald McKay Donald McKay (September 4, 1810 – September 20, 1880) was a Nova Scotian-born American designer and shipbuilder, builder of sailing ships, famed for his record-setting extreme clippers. Early life McKay was born in Jordan Falls, Shelburne ...

* Thomas Robertson *

Wishart McLea Robertson Wishart McLea Robertson, (February 15, 1891 – August 16, 1967) was a politician in Nova Scotia, Canada. Robertson's paternal grandfather, Robert Robertson, was a member of Nova Scotia House of Assembly from 1854 until 1878. His father, T ...

* Nathaniel Whitworth White * Gideon White

References

External links

Photographs of historic monuments in Shelburne CountyDiscover Shelburne CountyShelburne County TodayWestern Counties Regional Library WebsiteThe Loyalist Link: The Forest and The Sea
{{Authority control 1784 establishments in Nova Scotia States and territories established in 1784 William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne Counties of Nova Scotia