Lunenburg Rebellion

Halifax, Nova Scotia was the first British colony settled at public expense, from 1749-1764. The goal of this project was to provide a preferred or loyal population to contend with Acadians for land and resources. Issues with the initial settlement of Halifax led to the British government, desperate in its search for a new source of settlers, to turn to settling Nova Scotia with "Foreign Protestants" made up of Swiss, French Huguenots, and Germans. The British Board of Trade hired John Dick, a young Scotsman and recruiting agent, to recruit Foreign Protestants and promised them land, a year's subsistence, and arms and tools. Transportation was not free, although some settlers were able to finance their passage by contracting their labour to the government. The move was part of the British government's campaign to establish Protestants in Nova Scotia against the power of Catholic Acadians. In June 1753, 1400 German and French Protestant settlers, supervised by British Officer Charles Lawrence and protected by the British Navy ships, a unit of Regular soldiers under Major Patrick Sutherland, and a unit of rangers under Joseph Gorham, established the village of Lunenberg. The settlement was founded by two British army officers John Creighton and Patrick Sutherland and German-immigrant local official Dettlieb Christopher Jessen. == Conflict with the British and Outcome of the Rebellion ==

As a desperate solution to the "foreigner" problem, it was decided to move the Foreign Protestants to Merligash (renamed Lunenburg), under the direction of Charles Lawrence. On 19 June 1753 they were given town lots and within two months it was reported by Lawrence that although the settlers had set up homes and gardens, the settlers were 'inconceivably turbulent, I might have said mutinous'. of a letter from London, that the settlers were not receiving all support authorized by the British Parliament. The rebellion is often referred to as "The Hoffman Insurrection," because it was led by John Hoffman, one of the army captains who had established the settlers in the town. Hoffman, a previous Justice of Peace at Halifax, He was fined and imprisoned on Georges Island (Nova Scotia) for two years, After the rebellion a number of the French and German-speaking Foreign Protestants left the village to join Le Loutre and the Acadians. The rebellion and fallout of the rebellion was considered by the British to be yet another mark against the Acadians, who continued to seek neutrality while farming lands the British intended to settle new colonists on. == See also ==