North Cumberland Historical Society
The Foreign Protestants of North Cumberland County
Are you a Langille, Tattrie, Gratto, Mattatall, Bigney, Joudrey, Jollimore, Patriquin, or Millard? Your ancestors took an most interesting road to North Cumberland County. It started in Switzerland.
The German Lutheran Duchy of Wurtemburg owned the Principality of Montbeliard. They needed farmers, and the Swiss had established a reputation for hard work and their ability to farm. They were invited to Wurtemburg, and many came. Wurtemburg was at that time the only Protestant country in Europe. Montbeliard, its principality, was in Alsace in France and only 14 kilometers from the Swiss border. It made sense for these French-speaking Protestant Swiss to settle there.
France was a Catholic country, and although the Edict of Nantes, allowing for religious freedom, had been revoked in 1685, Montbeliard had escaped a lot of the violent repercussions. The Protestants were uneasy, though, hearing about oppression that was happening around Europe. Continued persecution, forced baptisms and the burning of Protestant churches was making life unbearable.
England was trying to populate Nova Scotia. They needed workers to build towns and cities. The government had tried English immigrants, but they did not last. They needed farmers as they did not trust the Acadians who were already farming there. Cornwallis had heard of the Montbeliard Protestants, and an agent was sent to recruit them with promises of freedom of religion and land.
It was a dangerous time to be a Protestant, even in Montbeliard. According to histories from first settlers in Nova Scotia, they loaded their possessions on rafts and floated them down the Rhine from Montbeliard to the Netherlands, another Protestant country, slipping through Catholic France at night. In Rotterdam, they waited for their ships. For some it was a long wait – up to three years.
In May, 1752, over 1500 “Foreign Protestants” of whom about 430 were from Montbeliard, set sail on the Betty, and the Sally among other ships. The other 1100 settlers were of German ancestry. They had 14-week crossings and on the Sally, 40 of 158 died on the long crossing. On the Betty 7 people were lost.
After they completed their time of indenture, the government provided land for the workers and their families. In the spring of 1753, they accepted lots just outside the town of Lunenburg where the Montbeliard families settled as a group. For 18 years they worked their land, but it was difficult. They had the climate to contend with, their German neighbours to deal with, and raids from the Indigenous people were always a possibility.
Colonel Joseph Frederick Des Barres had received a number of land grants as payment for mapping much of Nova Scotia. He needed settlers. He was originally from Montbeliard and arrived in Lunenburg with promises of a more fertile land. He spoke their language, and his promises and his status with the British found some willing ears. In 1771, he enticed 18 families to his 20,000-acre estate which was the land on which Tatamagouche now lies.
Des Barres did not give these families ownership of the land, as he wished to keep them as tenant farmers. He allowed them to farm rent free for the first six years. But, once they had arrived on the North Shore, they realized that there was good land available throughout Cumberland County, and they started to spread.
Records of births and marriages in our area start from the early 1800’s. There was much intermarriage and the culture was passed on. In the censuses of 1861- 1921, these families still list their ethnic origin as Swiss, showing a strong identity with their past.