Nova Scotia - A New Scotland in the New World
In the 1620's Sir William Alexander was granted a royal charter for the possession of a territory on America's northeast coast, which he named Nova Scotia. To raise money for colonization the King created the order of the 'Knights Baronets of Nova Scotia', for the title and to receive 10,000 acres in the new land the affluent had to commit six men and 1,000 merks (like dollars or pounds) cash.

Sir William founded his first settlement on Baleine Bay; Cape Breton in 1629 but within a few weeks' of landing, soldiers from a passing French ship had destroyed its hopes. Some months later a second effort created Port Charles on the Bay of Fundy, this colony lasted until 1631 when the crown ceded Nova Scotia back to its original European claimants, the French. Although Baronies continued to be granted until 1637 the next arrivals from Scotland would not appear for another 150 years. Under the treaty of Utrecht in 1713 the Crown of Great Britain reclaimed the area for good, during French occupation Nova Scotia had been called Acadia however due to the change in Sovereignty its Scottish name was revived (for lack of a better one). Following the French Indian wars and the capture of Quebec, in 1763 the treaty of Paris gave the United Kingdoms exclusive access to the new world.

By the 1750's besides 1000 Yorkshire men in Cumberland County, there were about 1500 Germans along with some French and Swiss Protestants settled in the Lunenburg area south of Halifax, these had been lured by the Crown's promise of ten years rent free occupation. The majority of the population remained the nearly 10,000 Acadians. Peaceful and industrious, 8000 were never the less removed in 1755 for their refusal to swear allegiance to the Crown of Great Britain and it may be said, for being Catholic at a time when such things mattered. They suffered great abuse, their homes burnt; they were forced onto ships bound for the southern colonies. This action left 100,000 acres of cleared farmland vacant that in turn was offered to New Englanders for resettlement. By the mid 1760's there were 2000 New England transplants, many of them Scots Irish Ulstermen. Unfortunately along with legitimate settlement came the land speculators, successful individuals formed alliances and companies with roots on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. For a relatively modest sum along with the promise to populate, vast tracts of the province were given over to these relatively few individuals, in the end however most grants expired through the failure of their recipients to meet the lenient terms of their agreements. This arrangement ultimately retarded development in the region and caused hardship for many a new arrival; it also had much to do with the landless Highlanders becoming a target market for those in need of people.

The American Revolution began to the south of Pictou in 1776. Few of the New England settlers would take an oath of allegiance to the crown and in Cumberland County there was open armed rebellion. While it seemed at least two-thirds of the provinces inhabitants were intent on joining with the Americans, throughout the entire ordeal the Scottish population remained loyal to Britain. Nova Scotia saw only limited action during the war. In 1776 Fort Cumberland endured a twenty-day siege from 72 New Hampshire men, 12 Indians and 100 disaffected locals that ended bloodlessly with the arrival from Halifax of a detachment of the 84th Royal Highland Regiment and a company of Royal Marines. There were besides that, privateer raids along the coast especially around Annapolis, Liverpool and Lunenburg. The local New England settlers were considered to have been in collusion with the pirates helping them pick their targets and forcing some merchants into bankruptcy.

The Pictou Area
The first permanent settlers from Scotland landed in Pictou Harbor on September 15th, 1773. The brig 'Hector' carried a total of 190 persons mainly from Inverness-shire and the Northern Highlands who had suffered at home from increasing rents and a famine that had lasted for nearly two years. Starting over with nothing it took almost five years before a settler could count himself better off than when he had left, were it not for the help from native Micmac and a handful of local "Americans" it is unlikely that many would have survived long. 67 Lowland farmers and their families arrived in Pictou on the 'Lovely Nell' to join the people of the Hector in 1774. The two communities complemented each other, to Highland frugality and industriousness the Lowlanders added a desire for constant improvement and a superior knowledge of agriculture.

The next wave of immigrants to settle were disbanded soldiers from the 82nd Highland Emigrant Regiment and the 84th Royal Highland Regiment into which 3000 now mostly homeless North Carolina Scots had enlisted. Flora MacDonald, famous for her part in assisting Bonnie Prince Charlie after Culloden in 1746, was amongst the Carolina Scots to find themselves in Nova Scotia. Her husband Captain Allan MacDonald had enlisted in the 84th and was captured by the Americans. Released in a prisoner exchange he and Flora arrived at Fort Edward in 1778; being in poor health and complaining of the cold she sailed for the Isle of Skye 18 months later to be followed by Allan (in 1782) after his Regiment was disbanded. From the 82nd, 16 families of Camerons, MacDonalds, Frasers, Chisholms and Grants, settled on the "Soldiers Tract", 3,400 acres adjoining the settled area. Immigration from Scotland itself had halted for seven years until the conclusion of the American Revolution, after that time small groups of Highlanders and Lowlanders again began to arrive and by the end of the 1780's Pictou county's population had risen to 700.

The Town of Pictou
Some years after arriving Hector passenger John Patterson acquired 100 acres on the waterfront with the intention of creating the settlement's first town. Laying out the whole in small lots, he first built a store and his own house becoming the first resident in 1788. Following soon after other buildings were raised for rent or sale, James Dunn became Patterson's first tenant with the opening of his tavern. In 1792 an act of the Nova Scotia Legislature confirmed the official status of Pictou County and its namesake town. By 1805 there were 18 small log buildings including a blacksmith shop, a tavern, two or three grocery stores and a little later a fine wood frame church with a belfry. For a time Pictou held the distinction of being the provinces second most important town behind Halifax.

With the unexpected arrival of two ships from Scotland in September 1791 the population of the county almost doubled over a few days. The 'Dunkfeild' and the 'Dunkeld' bound from the Hebridees carried the first Roman Catholic influx to Nova Scotia. It was a bad time of year to arrive especially as these people were near destitution to begin with and the established community produced barely enough for themselves. Charitable donations from around the province provided a starvation subsistence for these people as they over wintered on a beach by the harbor. In the spring they drifted eastward to settle their families around Arisaig, Antigonish where a few earlier Catholic families had settled and some of them to Cape Breton. In later years they were joined by thousands of their co-religionists from the Highlands and by 1827 eastern Nova Scotia had 11 Roman Catholic parishes. From Pictou County west the province remained predominantly Protestant, Antigonish became Catholic while Cape Breton was split evenly between the two communities. As in the old country religion remained a defining factor for the new arrivals but their shared Highland culture and Gaelic language gave the whole population a Scottish presence the like of which is seen in no other place outside Scotland.

Antigonish
Antigonish adjoins Pictou County along its western border, the name is Micmac and means "where the branches are broken" a phenomenon relating to bears. Early on this region served as a hub for the Roman Catholic Highlanders who eventually predominated in Nova Scotia's northeast, as a whole amongst the poorest people to settle anywhere in North America. The earliest European settlement in the area was created in 1784 by disbanded Irish soldiers from the 'Nova Scotia Volunteers' who received a grant of 21,600 acres later known as the 'Soldiers Grant' at the mouth of the harbor. Lacking in the necessary agricultural skills to sustain their new town called Dorchester doomed the venture to failure. Later on another settlement called 'Antigonish Intervale' emerged to the south at the junction of the West and Wright rivers and bordering the harbor. Nathaniel Symonds opened its first shop and in 1804 organized a Presbyterian Congregation for thirteen families at his home, they were relocated a short time later to a new log church. With the 18th century restrictions on Catholic immigration dropped and since the arrival of the 'Dunkfield and the 'Dunkeld' the Roman Catholic Highland population began to swell, by 1810 Antigonish Intervale also boasted a new Roman Catholic log church. Father Alexander MacDonald of Arisaig a community some 15 kilometers away presided over the mission that became St. Ninians in 1812. In 1874 a blue limestone Cathedral of the same name opened, over its doors it bears the inscription 'Tigh Dhe', House of God.

With the clearances in the Scottish Highlands in full swing 9000 people, the overwhelming majority Gaels, arrived in Nova Scotia between 1815 and 1825 and so it continued for a number of years after. In time and with successive waves of immigration it was the northeastern portion of the province that became a true 'new Scotland'. Today the culture and Gaelic language are maintained throughout the area as though they were still in their mother country preserving much that would have been lost otherwise.