St. Esprit is a small community located in Richmond County on the south shore of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. It is situated between Louisbourg, to the east, and St. Peter's, to the west. The community is loosely centered on St. Esprit Lake and is sparsely populated. It was once a Mi'kmaq gathering place called Asukadich, which means "place of clams" or "clam gathering place."
During the final phase of French colonial interests in North America, St. Esprit was a fishing enclave of moderate import. As a viable community, it existed from about 1713 to 1758. It was under the administrative control of the French fortress at Louisbourg. [1]
The precise location of the original settlement is uncertain, although descriptions suggest that some homes were located on land just north of the waterway linking St. Esprit Lake with Narrow Pond to the west. This would have placed the main part of the settlement near the narrow inlet that presently links St. Esprit Lake with the Atlantic Ocean. However, it is likely that other homesteads were scattered around the lake shore. St. Esprit Lake is a barachois, that is, a salt-water lake separated from the ocean by a sandbar or a narrow strip of land.
In conjunction with the signing of the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, French settlers began to move south from Newfoundland, especially from the area of Plaisance, swelling population centers under the protection of Louisbourg. Among these new settlers was Pierre Bonnain Lachaume, who arrived in St. Esprit before 1716, and who acted as the King’s intendant and harbor master until his death in 1730. [2] The Perres and Guyon families were also prominent residents within the new settlement. The St. Esprit Catholic Church, also known as the Church of the Coast of the Evangelical, was founded about 1724. According to the book, Control and Order in French Colonial Louisbourg: "In 1734 there were 234 residents; three years later there were 546." [3]
The most important industry in St. Esprit was the cod fishery. This was conducted out of shallops, small coastal sailing vessels of shallow draft, capable of running the narrow inlet leading to the settlement. Louisbourg merchant, Miguel Daccarrette, maintained part of his fishing fleet at St. Esprit. [4] The Book La Peche de la Morue a l'Ile Royale, 1713-1758, contains the following mention of the fishery at St. Esprit. “Resident fishermen certainly also had to maintain their own storehouses. Erosion by the sea, especially during the storms of winter, constituted the main cause of damage to storehouses situated near the edge of the water.... Without annual repairs, other fish storehouses on Ile Royale would have suffered the same fate as those of Pierre Bonnain at St. Esprit.” [5]
As the French grip on Île Royale (Cape Breton) faltered during the 1740s and 1750s, life in St. Esprit became increasingly uncertain. In preparation for the 1745 siege of Louisbourg, in April of that year, naval vessels from New England shelled and partially destroyed St. Esprit. [6] It is probable that, during this period, additional raids occurred. While the settlement was rebuilt, the population never rebounded to levels seen during the 1730s. According to Endgame 1758: The Promise, the Glory, and the Despair of Louisbourg's Last Decade:
In 1752, St. Esprit was composed of some 14 families totaling about 75 persons. [8] According to Sieur de la Roque, who performed the 1752 census:
With the final fall of the French garrison at Louisbourg, in 1758, St. Esprit was doomed and the population rapidly disbursed. Some residents took to the forest, living with the native Mi’kmaq people, some returned to France, others were captured by the English and were imprisoned or deported. Following the destruction of the original settlement, the area never regained its status as a fishing center. The region was gradually resettled by Scottish emigres and other arrivals from the British Islands. In 1881, St. Esprit was described as a post settlement with a population of about 100. “It has a Presbyterian church, a grist mill, and a store.” [10]
St. Esprit has a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification Dfb ). Temperature gradients are moderated by the nearby Atlantic Ocean and therefore winter temperatures are milder along the Atlantic coast when compared to the inland areas of Nova Scotia.
Weather data from Louisbourg, NS (closest weather station) for 2020/2021 winter: December 2020- (Avg High:5.7/Avg Low: -0.9)--->Daily Avg: 2.4 January 2021- (Avg High:2.0/Avg Low: -4.2)--->Daily Avg: -1.1 February 2021- (Avg High:1.1/Avg Low: -6.4)--->Daily Avg: -2.65 [11] If all future winters for the climate period 2021-2050 average out to equal or exceed these above monthly averages, then St. Esprit would be classified as having an oceanic climate for the period of 2021-2050 (i.e. if using the -3 isotherm for the coldest month according to Köppen climate classification for oceanic climates). This of course would only occur if the mean temperature for the warmest month stays below 22 Celsius (when averaged out for the 2021-2050 period) or else it would instead be classified as humid subtropical (Cfa). Again note that there is no weather station for St. Esprit specifically that Environment Canada lists for historical weather data, so our best estimate uses weather data from Louisbourg.
St. Esprit (along with several other areas close to the Atlantic coast of NS) is predicted to transition to a Humid Subtropical Climate for 2071-2100. [12]
Cape Breton Island is an island on the Atlantic coast of North America and part of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada.
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Acadia was a colony of New France in northeastern North America which included parts of what are now the Maritime provinces, the Gaspé Peninsula and Maine to the Kennebec River. During much of the 17th and early 18th centuries, Norridgewock on the Kennebec River and Castine at the end of the Penobscot River were the southernmost settlements of Acadia. The French government specified land bordering the Atlantic coast, roughly between the 40th and 46th parallels. It was eventually divided into British colonies. The population of Acadia included the various indigenous First Nations that comprised the Wabanaki Confederacy, the Acadian people and other French settlers.
The Fortress of Louisbourg is a National Historic Site and the location of a one-quarter partial reconstruction of an 18th-century French fortress at Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Its two sieges, especially that of 1758, were turning points in the Anglo-French struggle for what today is Canada.
Louisbourg is an unincorporated community and former town in Cape Breton Regional Municipality, Nova Scotia.
Events from the year 1713 in Canada.
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St. Peter's is a small incorporated village located on Cape Breton Island in Richmond County, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Cape Sable Island, locally referred to as Cape Island, is a small Canadian island at the southernmost point of the Nova Scotia peninsula. It is sometimes confused with Sable Island. Historically, the Argyle, Nova Scotia region was known as Cape Sable and encompassed a much larger area than simply the island it does today. It extended from Cape Negro (Baccaro) through Chebogue.
Île-Royale was a French colony in North America that existed from 1713 to 1763. It consisted of two islands, Île Royale and Île Saint-Jean. It was ceded to the British Empire after the Seven Years' War, and is today part of Canada.
Nova Scotia is a province located in Eastern Canada fronting the Atlantic Ocean. One of the Maritime Provinces, Nova Scotia's geography is complex, despite its relatively small size in comparison to other Canadian provinces.
Abbé Jean-Louis Le Loutre was a Catholic priest and missionary for the Paris Foreign Missions Society. Le Loutre became the leader of the French forces and the Acadian and Mi'kmaq militias during King George's War and Father Le Loutre's War in the eighteenth-century struggle for power between the French, Acadians, and Miꞌkmaq against the British over Acadia.
Skmaqn–Port-la-Joye–Fort Amherst is a National Historic Site located in Rocky Point, Prince Edward Island.
The Raid on Canso was an attack by French forces from Louisbourg on the British outpost Fort William Augustus at Canso, Nova Scotia shortly after war declarations opened King George's War. The French raid was intended to boost morale, secure Louisbourg's supply lines with the surrounding Acadian settlements, and deprive Britain of a base from which to attack Louisbourg. There were 50 English families in the settlement. While the settlement was utterly destroyed, the objective failed, since the British launched an attack on Louisbourg in 1745, using Canso as a staging area.
Englishtown is an unincorporated area in the Municipality of the County of Victoria, Nova Scotia, Canada. It is the site of the Englishtown Ferry cable ferry that carries Nova Scotia Route 312 across St. Anns Harbour.
Port-Toulouse was an Acadian village situated in the French colony of Île-Royale, which is now Cape Breton Island. It was located on the present site of the Nova Scotian village of St. Peter's, on the strait that separates Bras d'Or Lake from the Atlantic Ocean.
The Gulf of St. Lawrence campaign occurred during the French and Indian War when British forces raided villages along present-day New Brunswick and the Gaspé Peninsula coast of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence. Sir Charles Hardy and Brigadier-General James Wolfe were in command of the naval and military forces respectively. After the siege of Louisbourg, Wolfe and Hardy led a force of 1,500 troops in nine vessels to the Gaspé Bay arriving there on September 5. From there they dispatched troops to Miramichi Bay, Grande-Rivière, Quebec and Pabos, and Mont-Louis, Quebec. Over the following weeks, Sir Charles Hardy took 4 sloops or schooners, destroyed about 200 fishing vessels and took about two hundred prisoners.
Fort Ste. Anne is a former French military fort located at present-day Englishtown, Nova Scotia, on the Island of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, Canada.
The Louisbourg Garrison was a French body of troops stationed at the fortress protecting the town of Louisbourg, Île-Royale on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. They were stationed there from 1717-1758, with the exception of a brief period (1745-1749) when the colony was under British control.
The Ile Saint-Jean campaign was a series of military operations in fall 1758, during the Seven Years' War, to deport the Acadians who either lived on Ile Saint-Jean or had taken refuge there from earlier deportation operations. Lieutenant-Colonel Andrew Rollo led a force of 500 British troops to take possession of Ile Saint-Jean.
Coordinates: 45°38′7.46″N60°32′36.32″W / 45.6354056°N 60.5434222°W