CHAPTER ONE:

@WQMWC/

Prior to the discovery of North America by European explorers, the native Mi’kmaq people lived and moved their camps freely from place to place throughout the Atlantic region.

Before anyone came to the area now called Bideford, other parts of THE ISLAND were being discovered and people were clearing land and making homes.

There is evidence that there was a French settlement at Low Point (some- times called GILLIS POINT) prior to 1763. It is recorded that French colonists had formed a settlement at Low Point in 1720.

On October 7, 1763 the war between Britain and France officially ended and by the Treaty of Paris, North America became a British possession. This island, which the French had called ILE ST. JEAN was renamed ST. JOHN’S ISLAND.

Many people in Britain submitted claims on the British Government for military or public services. One person, the Earl of Egmont, put in a request for the whole of the Island of St. John, estimated at two million acres. In March, 1764, The Lords of Trade, after receiving and rejecting a number of proposals from men holding out their hands for favours, rec— ommended that the Island be surveyed and divided into townships. Of those making demands, no one person was to be granted more than one of these townships.

Captain Samuel Holland, directed by the British Government, began the survey in October 1764. He divided the Island into 3 Counties which he named Kings, Queens and Prince with 67 townships of about 20,000 acres each. He named bays and rivers with Richmond Bay (now called MALPEQUE BAY) being named for the Duke of Richmond, Charles

_ i #A ,, 1