Shelburne County was founded in 1784 shortly following the influx of
Loyalist settlers evacuated from the newly independent
United States. 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, the
British 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 Acadians, many of whom had been
deported to British Colonies. The new arrivals included
Black Loyalists who were given substandard land, particularly around
Birchtown. In 1796 about 600
Jamaican
Maroons 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 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 ==