Grand Bay-Westfield is a town in New Brunswick, Canada, on the west bank of the Saint John River immediately north of the boundary between Kings County and Saint John County.
Name The town's hyphenated name is the product of a series of amalgamations since 1966. The Parish, and later the village, of Westfield was named in honour of either Westfield, Massachusetts, or Westfield, New Jersey, by the Loyalists. The name may also simply be in reference to its location in the western corner of Kings County, New Brunswick. While the name Grand Bay (or as it appears on Monckton's 1758 map, Grand Baye) was used for the body of water by the Acadians and Loyalists, the name only became associated with the settlement at the edge of Westfield Parish around 1869.
History
Wolastoqey Period The town of Grand Bay-Westfield exists on traditional Wolastoqey land. The river that runs along the town is known as Wolastoq, along which the Wolastoqiyik, the people of the beautiful and bountiful river, have lived since time immemorial.
The history of Indigenous lands in New Brunswick, and so too Grand Bay-Westfield, is complicated by the fact that no land treaties were concluded between the Indigenous peoples and the Crown. As one of the Wabanaki people, the Wolastoqiyik were recognized in a series of Peace and Friendship Treaties with the British Crown which established an ongoing relationship of peace, friendship, and mutual respect between nations, but no land agreements were made whether before the province of New Brunswick was formed in 1784 or afterwards.
Though no Wolastoqey name for the area now incorporated as Grand Bay-Westfield is known, W. F. Ganong recorded the original name for the Grand Bay as Pekweetaypaykek. The Nerepis river - formerly Nelepitchk but now written as Nali'pits in Wolastoqey - which runs through the north of the town was also frequently used as part of a portage route traveling to the Musquash watershed. As Joseph Robineau de Villebon noted in a letter dated October 22, 1696,John Clarence Webster. (1934) Acadia At the End of the 17th Century. The New Brunswick Museum Publication, Saint John, NB. pp. 90-91. there was a fortified Wolastoqey settlement and fort at the confluence of the Nerepis and Wolastoq rivers just outside the town of Grand Bay-Westfield at Woodman's Point. This settlement was one of many stockaded outposts erected by the Wolastoqiyik; presumably for defense against the Iroquois.John Clarence Webster. (1934) Acadia At the End of the 17th Century. The New Brunswick Museum Publication, Saint John, NB. pp. 212-213. While the fortified settlement fell into disuse during the 18th century, many Wolastoqiyik continued to summer near the mouth of the Nerepis at Westfield Beach and Lingley into the 1920s. Westfield Beach was a particularly important summer encampment used to trap muskrat, gather fiddleheads, and collect wood and reeds for basketry and furniture making.
Acadian Period It is a common misconception that Samuel de Champlain and Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons visited and named the Grand Bay. There is no mention of this event in Champlain's journals and the story is likely apocryphal. However, following Champlain's discovery of the St. John River on June 24, 1604, French settlement of the area began in earnest."Discover the Saint John Region on the Bay of Fundy. Your Official Community-Curated Handbook on: History and Culture" (PDF). Discover Saint John. Envision Saint John. p. 5. Retrieved 2022-08-01. In 1672, Martin D'Arprendestiguy was created Sieur de Martignon. The Martignon seigneury extended from the mouth of the Wolastoq up the west bank across the Nerepis to Long Reach. It also extended inland some distance and included the area of present day Grand Bay-Westfield.
In 1749, a small French fort was built at Woodman's Point by Charles Deschamps de Boishébert; likely on the site of the former Wolastoqiyik stronghold. The site remained a French foothold for their operations against the British until around 1755 when British forces under Colonel Robert Monckton began the expulsion of Acadian French settlers throughout the region. W. F. Ganong observed that without doubt Acadian place names were numerous in New Brunswick prior to the expulsion, but the conditions under which the English replace the French in the province were not favourable to the transfer of place names. One exception to this in the Grand Bay-Westfield area is the name Ononette, which derives from the French Pointe au Ognonette - the Acadians' name for Brandy Point. By 1758, the Acadians were almost entirely expelled from the St. John River area, and permanent British settlement began."Discover the Saint John Region on the Bay of Fundy. Your Official Community-Curated Handbook on: History and Culture" (PDF). Discover Saint John. Envision Saint John. p. 6. Retrieved 2022-08-01.
Loyalist Period From 1765 to 1785 the territory north of the Bay of Fundy had been divided between only two counties, Sunbury, which included the settlements on the Wolastoq and the Passamaquoddy Bay, and Cumberland, which included the settlements at the head of the Bay of Fundy. When Loyalist transport ships arrived at Saint John in 1783, the area now referred to as Grand Bay-Westfield was part of Sunbury County, most of it within the Township of Conway. It was not until June 18, 1784, that Britain included Sunbury County and northern Cumberland County in the colony of New Brunswick. Separation from Nova Scotia only became complete in November with the public reading on the commission of newly arrived Governor Thomas Carleton. The Loyalists established the Parish of Westfield within Kings County in 1786.
Among the Loyalists who settled in present-day Grand Bay-Westfield were a small group of 31 Black Loyalists. The British promised land grants and provisions for three years to Loyalists who immigrated to Saint John, but most of the free Black Loyalists arriving in the area did not see this promise fulfilled."Discover the Saint John Region on the Bay of Fundy. Your Official Community-Curated Handbook on: History and Culture" (PDF). Discover Saint John. Envision Saint John. p. 8. Retrieved 2022-08-01. Most settled into what is now the north end of Saint John and many were forced into slavery, which was still prevalent in New Brunswick, or became indentured servants. Others found menial jobs in order to survive. In 1787, 31 petitioners received a total of 1550 acres in Grand Bay-Westfield and created a small community. The group was led by Richard Corankapone Wheeler. Notably, the areas granted were nearly unfarmable.
The Black Loyalist community struggled to survive and many returned to Saint John. By 1790, many of the freed slaves had become disillusioned with life in Westfield and abandoned the land or sold out to other settlers. Some of the land was reverted back to the government and was re-granted. One community member, Thomas Peters, went to England to persuade the British to provide free transport to Sierra Leone and land grants there for anyone interested. Richard Corankapone Wheeler was so desperate to leave Westfield that he and several companions spent fifteen days walking from Westfield to Halifax in December 1791 to catch one of the ships going to Sierra Leone. On January 15, 1792, he and approximately 1200 others left Halifax.
Other early black residents of the area came as slaves. Major John Coffin's wife, for instance, had two slaves while Coffin had four.
In the early Loyalist period, lumbering was the most important industry of the Grand Bay-Westfield area. Records indicate that the first road through Grand Bay was built in 1788. By 1840, three stagecoaches traveled through the area en route from Saint John to Fredericton. The first railway to operate through Grand Bay, the New Brunswick Railway, began operation in 1869. The improvement of transportation routes enabled new businesses to develop and expand. James Ready first brewed his product on one of the second tiers of land grants back from the Wolastoq. His beer was transported to Saint John by wagon and train.
Municipal Chronology and Boundary Changes
County government In 1851, the Provincial Legislature passed the Municipal Act to provide for the establishment of municipal governments in the counties. Municipal incorporation transferred to elected municipal or county councils most of the legislative and executive authority formerly vested in the Quarter Sessions – the form of local administration which had previously dominated Loyalist New Brunswick. The law was permissive and did not compel incorporation. Upon the petition of at least fifty taxpayers in a county, the sheriff would convene public meetings of households and ratepayers in the county's parishes. If two thirds of those present and voting at such meetings favoured incorporation, an application would then be entertained by the Provincial government. While many counties including Carleton, York, and Sunbury took advantage of the opportunity, Kings County was not incorporated until a general act requiring all counties to incorporate received majority assent in the legislature in 1877.
The Act of 1877 remained the basis for rural local government in New Brunswick until 1966. The basic unit for county electoral purposes was the parish with two councillors generally elected for each parish. County elections were held at various times of the year and councillors retained office for varying periods of time. The area now encompassed by the town of Grand Bay-Westfield was at this point part of the larger Westfield Parish.
Local Improvement Districts As urban and suburban populations began to expand on the outskirts of more established urban centres, many areas began demanding more specialized and localized service provision than could be delivered by county governments. The 1945 Local Improvement Districts Act facilitated incorporation for limited municipal purposes in many centres, including the communities of Westfield and Pamdenec. Pamdenec was established as a Local Improvement District on January 6, 1948.The Royal Gazette, 14 January 1948, pp. 13–14 The boundaries of the District were later altered in 1952,The Royal Gazette, 29 October 1952, p. 29 and additional services were added in 1965.The Royal Gazette, 24 March 1965, p. 123 Westfield was established as a Local Improvement District on 23 October 1952.The Royal Gazette, 12 November 1952, pp. 309–310 The services offered by the Westfield Local Improvement District were altered twice in 1957 and 1959.The Royal Gazette, 13 February 1957, p. 63; 6 March 1957, p. 90; 4 February 1959, p. 61
Equal Opportunity Program The first incorporated villages in the area now incorporated as Grand Bay-Westfield were created during the Equal Opportunity Program after the abolition of county government. The villages of Pamdenec and Westfield incorporated in 1966. In 1972, the village of Westfield absorbed the neighbourhoods of Lingley, Sagwa, and Nerepis. Pamdenec absorbed the neighbourhoods of Grand Bay, Epworth Park, and Ingleside to become the village of Grand Bay in 1973. In 1988, Grand Bay became a town.
Cormier Report and Municipal Consolidation