Editing Shelburne County, Nova Scotia (section)

==History==
Shelburne County was founded in 1784 shortly following the influx of [[Loyalist (American Revolution)|Loyalist]] settlers evacuated from the newly independent [[United States]]. It was originally named Port Roseway, until it became a very busy town and was considered to be the capital of Nova Scotia, in which the name was changed to Shelburne in an attempt to please [[William Petty, 2nd Earl of Shelburne|Lord Shelburne]], the [[Kingdom of Great Britain|British]] Prime Minister from 1782 to 1783. The boundaries of Shelburne County were established by Governor and Council on December 16, 1785.

The first Loyalists arrived in May 1783. They were faced with a somewhat bleak environment in which to make their homes. The land is rocky with acidic soil. There is also much forest.

The area had previously been settled by French-speaking [[Roman Catholic|Catholic]] [[Acadians]], many of whom had been [[Expulsion of the Acadians|deported]] to British Colonies. The new arrivals included [[Black Loyalists]] who were given substandard land, particularly around [[Birchtown]]. In 1796 about 600 [[Jamaica]]n [[Maroon (people)|Maroons]] were deported to this area of Nova Scotia as well.

In 1824, at a time when the lines of a number of counties were being cut out and marked, the [[Border|boundary]] between [[Queens County, Nova Scotia|Queens]] and Shelburne Counties was surveyed.

In 1836 Shelburne County was divided into two separate and distinct counties with [[Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia|Yarmouth County]] being formed out of what had been part of Shelburne County.

In 1854, Shelburne County was divided into two districts for court sessional purposes - [[Shelburne, Nova Scotia (municipal district)|Shelburne]] and [[Municipality of the District of Barrington|Barrington]]. In 1879, these districts were incorporated as [[List of municipalities in Nova Scotia#District municipalities|district municipalities]].

A [[2023 Nova Scotia wildfires|2023 wildfire]] near Barrington Lake became the largest wildfire in the history of Nova Scotia.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Chisholm |first=Cassidy |date=3 June 2023 |title=Historic wildfire in Shelburne County remains out of control, says premier |work=CBC News |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/crews-attack-shelburne-wildfire-rain-1.6864785 |access-date=3 June 2023}}</ref>