Foreign Protestants
Encyclopedia
The "Foreign Protestants" were a group of immigrants
Immigration
Immigration is the act of foreigners passing or coming into a country for the purpose of permanent residence...

 to Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...

 in the mid-18th century and the ethnonymical basis behind the name "New Brunswick
New Brunswick
New Brunswick is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the only province in the federation that is constitutionally bilingual . The provincial capital is Fredericton and Saint John is the most populous city. Greater Moncton is the largest Census Metropolitan Area...

", as well as support behind naming "Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island
Prince Edward Island is a Canadian province consisting of an island of the same name, as well as other islands. The maritime province is the smallest in the nation in both land area and population...

" for a representative of the Braunschweiger dynasty.

In 1749, the British colony
British colonization of the Americas
British colonization of the Americas began in 1607 in Jamestown, Virginia and reached its peak when colonies had been established throughout the Americas...

 of Nova Scotia was almost completely populated by 10,000 French-speaking
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 and Roman Catholic Acadians. This was felt to be a great problem by the British administrators of the area, especially Charles Cornwallis
Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis
Charles Cornwallis, 1st Marquess Cornwallis KG , styled Viscount Brome between 1753 and 1762 and known as The Earl Cornwallis between 1762 and 1792, was a British Army officer and colonial administrator...

, the 1st Marquess Cornwallis
Baron Cornwallis
Baron Cornwallis is a title that has been created twice, once in the Peerage of England and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. The holders of the first creation were later made Earl Cornwallis and Marquess Cornwallis, but these titles are now extinct...

. Attracting British immigrants was difficult as most preferred to go to the warmer southern colonies
Thirteen Colonies
The Thirteen Colonies were English and later British colonies established on the Atlantic coast of North America between 1607 and 1733. They declared their independence in the American Revolution and formed the United States of America...

. Thus, a plan was developed to aggressively recruit foreign Protestants
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...

. These came mostly from German duchies and principalities on the Upper Rhine
Upper Rhine
The Upper Rhine is the section of the Rhine in the Upper Rhine Plain between Basel, Switzerland and Bingen, Germany. The river is marked by Rhine-kilometers 170 to 529 ....

 in the present-day Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate
Rhineland-Palatinate is one of the 16 states of the Federal Republic of Germany. It has an area of and about four million inhabitants. The capital is Mainz. English speakers also commonly refer to the state by its German name, Rheinland-Pfalz ....

 bundesländer
States of Germany
Germany is made up of sixteen which are partly sovereign constituent states of the Federal Republic of Germany. Land literally translates as "country", and constitutionally speaking, they are constituent countries...

. The duchy of Württemberg
Württemberg
Württemberg , formerly known as Wirtemberg or Wurtemberg, is an area and a former state in southwestern Germany, including parts of the regions Swabia and Franconia....

 was the major source, but there were also "Foreign Protestants" from Montbéliard
Montbéliard
Montbéliard is a city in the Doubs department in the Franche-Comté region in eastern France. It is one of the two subprefectures of the department.-History:...

 in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, and parts of Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

 and the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

.

This recruiting drive was led by John Dick, who was quite successful. The British government agreed to provide free passage to the colony, as well as free land and one year's rations upon arrival. Over 2,000 of the "Foreign Protestants" arrived between 1750 and 1752, in 11 ships:
  • Aldernay/Nancy (1750)
  • Ann (1750)
  • Gale (1751)
  • Speedwell (1751)
  • Pearl (1751)
  • Murdoch (1751)
  • Speedwell (1752)
  • Betty (1752)
  • Sally (1752)
  • Pearl (1752)
  • Gale (1752)


The immigrants disembarked at Halifax
City of Halifax
Halifax is a city in Canada, which was the capital of the province of Nova Scotia and shire town of Halifax County. It was the largest city in Atlantic Canada until it was amalgamated into Halifax Regional Municipality in 1996...

, where they were put in temporary quarters. The Foreign Protestants stayed at Halifax to assist the British in building this new outpost. They had to wait for their promised lands. There were no other colonies at that time except for the French ones.

Most of the foreign Protestants settled along the South Shore
South Shore (Nova Scotia)
The South Shore is a region of Nova Scotia, Canada. Although it has no formal identity and is variously defined by geographic, county and other political boundaries, it is generally understood as the Atlantic coast running southwest from Halifax Harbour to the end of Shelburne County...

 between Liverpool
Liverpool, Nova Scotia
Liverpool is a Canadian community and former town located along the Atlantic Ocean of the Province of Nova Scotia's South Shore. It is situated within the Region of Queens Municipality which is the local governmental unit that comprises all of Queens County, Nova Scotia...

 and Halifax. The area is still inhabited by their descendants, and last names like Ritcey
Ritcey
The Ritcey name originated in Ritcey's Cove which later was renamed to Riverport, Nova Scotia. Settled in 1754 by Johann Phillip Henericie, this fairhaven is part of the original Foreign Protestants to settle Nova Scotia, Canada...

, Joudrey, Bruhm, Fralick, Hirtle, Ernst, Vogler, Creaser, Schmidt (anglicised to Smith), or the various ways to spell Rhodeniser are common. Many towns such as Lunenburg bear distinctly German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 names. While places adapted to the cultural and business requirements including Bridgewater
Bridgewater, Nova Scotia
Bridgewater is a town in Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia, Canada, at the navigable limit of the LaHave River. It is the largest town in the South Shore region. While the majority of the South Shore's economy is based upon the tourist trade, Bridgewater is more a commercial and industrial centre and...

 and Riverport
Riverport, Nova Scotia
Riverport is a charming community, surrounding the fairhaven of Ritcey's Cove, situated beautifully at the end of the LaHave River in Nova Scotia, Canada. Settled in 1754, the harbour, free from shoals, and in which marine craft are safe from every wind, is one of the finest in North America...

. Many of the names of islands, beaches, and points like Kingsburg
Kingsburg, Nova Scotia
Kingsburg is a town that is part of the Riverport District and at the end of the Kingsburg area. The community is approximately 130 kilometers from Halifax Regional Municipality, 30 kilometers from Bridgewater and 25 kilometers from Lunenburg and now a summer vacation area.The Kingsburg area also...

are also German.
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