1605 - Founding of Port Royal

Port Royal was the first enduring European settlement in what would become Atlantic Canada. This laid the groundwork for subsequent waves of settlers – French, Acadian, British, New England Planters and Loyalists – who brought with them a range of Christian traditions. The French at Port Royal established a Roman Catholic presence in Acadia. Although Baptists would not appear in the region for another 150 years, this early settlement was the origin point of European colonization and European Christian practice in Nova Scotia. After the British conquest of Acadia (1710), the region eventually became open to Protestant settlement, including Congregationalists and Anglicans, and later Baptists. This religious layering, from Catholic beginnings to Protestant majority, created the conditions for religious diversity and the eventual reception of Baptist distinctives such as believers’ baptism and congregational church governance.

Dierville. Relation of the Voyage to Port Royal in Acadia or New France. Greenwood Press, 1968.

Photo Credit: “Port-Royal National Historic Site,” https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/port-royal.