How Scotland Started Nova Scotia

Added: 2026-05-31

[00:00:00]Hello, I'm Bruce Fumi. As I prepared to head off to Canada throughout June and July to tour my live show, Scotland made the world, it reminded me of a video I made the last time I was in Canada, all about the birth of Nova Scotia.

[00:00:16]Share it with every Canadian you know.

[00:00:19]Here's the video.

[00:00:22]Where is the birthplace of Nova Scotia?

[00:00:26]This isn't New Scotland, but Edinburgh Old Town, but this is where Nova Scotia was born. And this is the plaque that marks the event. Now, in this video, I'm going to take you to two sides of the Atlantic to tell you how and when the world heard the Nova Scotia. So, if you're interested in the people, places, and events in Scottish history, then click the subscribe button at the bottom right of the screen and ring the notification bell to be told when I upload new videos. In the meantime, let me tell you a story.

[00:01:03]William Alexander Sterling was born in an old family at Main Street Castle near Sterling. As a young man, he got the job of tutor to the Errol of Argale. And it was Argale who introduced William to the court of King James V 6th here in Edinburgh. He became the court poet no less and was one of the courtiers who moved south to London when James became king of England in6003.

[00:01:33]Positions, titles, and honors followed.

[00:01:37]But the one that interests us most was in 1621 when James created a royal charter granting William authority over a huge sway of territory across the Atlantic that today would include Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and parts of what we'd call the USA.

[00:01:57]The idea was that this huge territory would be subdivided into baronis and James would be able to raise a big bag of cash by selling them to anyone that wanted to go and colonize.

[00:02:12]In 1625, a ceremony of Sassin was held here in front of Edinburgh Castle. This ancient ceremony was where transfer of land was signified by the handover of a claw of land and some stones to show their change in ownership and the baronss took possession of their new territories in Nova Scotia. Now the idea was that the clots of land and stone should be from that new Scotland across the Atlantic.

[00:02:44]it. Sh.

[00:02:47]>> There are some who would say that this event means that part of the esplanade remains technically part of Canada's Nova Scotia today.

[00:02:59]I don't think it's quite as simple as that. And things weren't going to be simple for our adventurers either. You see, if they'd thought gaining their lands and new Scotland was going to be easy, they'd forgotten about the French.

[00:03:14]But to tell you about that, I should probably take you to the actual Nova Scotia.

[00:03:22]Just before I head off, I should say that I'll be coming to do my live standup show, Scotland Made the World in Sydney, Cape Breton, and Halifax, Nova Scotia, the first weekend in June. And then I'll be taking the show all across Canada with shows in every province till I hit Victoria on the 26th of July. Get tickets from venues or at www.brushfumei.co.uk.

[00:03:47]I'll see you there.

[00:03:50]Welcome to Nova Scotia. Now, before Europeans came, the lands that we call Nova Scotia were occupied by Mcmack people. But by the second half of the 16th century, there were European ships coming here and fishing the great shores off the Atlantic coast out there. Now, as night follows day, settlements followed fishing boats, and folks were tempted to have a wee peak up the St. Lawren's River. In6005, French colonists set up the first permanent European settlement. And it was in this place that's now a replica.

[00:04:31]And you only have to see why if you look out to see how beautiful this spot is.

[00:04:36]They called it Port Royal. The whole region had gained the name Acadia and this would be New France. From here, an explorer called Samuel de Champla, whose bust you'll see in a memorial over there, would go on to found Quebec a few years later. But the first French capital was here in Aadian Port Royal.

[00:05:05]Of course, this isn't Leisto France. It's Scotland history tour.

[00:05:15]Remember the guy William Alexander and Main Street? The handing over the earth and the stone at Edinburgh Castle and all that stuff? Well, French interlopers and lands he'd planned to colonize was no barrier to him. And McMack natives, you're having a laugh.

[00:05:34]I say no barrier to him. In truth, he was getting on a bit and far too busy to be crossing oceans to do a bit of colonizing himself. He was secretary of state for Scotland after all. So he sent his son William Alexander the Younger to claim this territory for Scotland under an English king who was actually Scottish, but he'd moved down to London for work.

[00:06:05]Commuting's a bugger when you're in the king business.

[00:06:09]Now we are heading across that estie.

[00:06:20]William Alexander the Younger sailed west and in 1629 founded Charles Fort here further upstream and across the estster from where the French had established Port Royal.

[00:06:35]There may be trouble ahead.

[00:06:42]his partner in the expedition, Lord Oak Tree, went to start a settlement at a place that we call Balain, further west and what we now call Cape Breton, but what the French called ill Royale. Now, Bain is about as close as you can get to Scotland and still be in this continent.

[00:07:02]In the 1st of July 1629, Oakal Tree and 70 Scots landed their arm to the teeth, captured a Portuguese ship on what was one of our base and built a fort. It was to be a military post to assert the claims of the colonists and the new King Charles I.

[00:07:24]Nova Scotia had begun.

[00:07:31]Nova Scotia was meant to be much bigger than it is today. In fact, in those days, it took in Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and part of Maine in the US.

[00:07:44]Now, I don't need to tell you that the French weren't about to take this sitting down.

[00:07:51]There were a number of conflicts and skirmishes between the Scots and the French over that short time when the Scots controlled the colony.

[00:08:01]Now, you probably want to put controlled and colony in quotation marks there.

[00:08:08]Some French privateeers under a chap called Charles Danielle approached the fort at Bain that Oak tree had built after seeing off the Portuguese.

[00:08:19]On his approach, he signaled that his intentions were peaceful and honorable until he got close to shore. And then he started pounding the fort with a barrage of cannon fire, followed by an assault by a landing French and native troops.

[00:08:41]The Scots were forced to take down their own fort and build one for the French at English Town.

[00:08:50]I don't understand either.

[00:08:53]Then they were shipped off as prisoners to France. Conflict went back and forth for about 3 years. Now the last action that concerns us in this bit is where the French appointed new governor of Aadia, Nova Scotia.

[00:09:12]Across the bay there, there's a place called St. John's in modern New Brunswick. And back then it was a French fort called San Marie. The Scots crossed the bay with a small force, attacked the fort, tore down the French coat of arms, stole all the furs, food and gear, took the French as prisoners, and headed back here.

[00:09:35]This turned out to be the last of these skirmishes between Scots and French because Charles I signed a treaty of Sanure Man and Lei with the French giving the Canadian territories back to them. Don't of course you know that didn't last long.

[00:09:59]But it was the end of the Scottish influence for a while. The French built a new port royal here on the site of what the Scots called Charles Fort. 20 years later in 1654, Aadia was conquered by English forces from Boston. In 1667, the Treaty of Brada handed it back to the French.

[00:10:24]Apparently, there were six colonial wars in Nova Scotia over a 75 year period.

[00:10:30]French and Indian Wars, King Williams war, Queen Anne's war, Father Rails war, Father Lut's war, Aadians Mcmax Malice.

[00:10:39]Everyone wanted to get in the action.

[00:10:42]The Dutch even stuck their neb in in 1674 and called it New Holland for a bit.

[00:10:50]One key part of the story is that during the French and Indian War, thousands of French Acadians saw their homes burned as they were thrown out and transported out of the area. Some moved to Louisiana where to this day we see Aadian in the shortened form of cinjun, famous the world for weird music and tasty chicken.

[00:11:18]But the eventual name of this region had been set when a cloud of earth and a stone was handed over in a formal ceremony outside Edinburgh Castle back in 1625.

[00:11:31]And behind me here in Halifax, Nova Scotia's biggest town, are stones taken from the castle back in Main Street to commemorate William Alexander of Sterling. Of course, shortly after the Acadian French people were heartlessly cleared out of this area, there was another heartless clearance in Highland, Scotland.

[00:11:56]Today, there's an irony in the fact that this park is fenced off to keep out the homeless.

[00:12:03]This place called Nova Scotia would once again take on a Scottish flavor with arrival of a very special boat in the 1770s filled with Scots looking for a home, but that's maybe a story for another video. It'll be published shortly after this one. Now, if you want to watch that, and I think you should, then click the link that's coming up on screen.

[00:12:32]Support the channel by clicking top right to become a Patreon member or buy me a coffee in the description below. In the meantime, I'm going to be la cheer and raster.