By the end of the 1750s, as the battle for North America between France and Britain was entering its final years, Nova Scotia was formally in the hands of the British Empire.

 As a result of the increased British military might in the region, fishermen from the New England colonies were spending more of their time in waters off Nova Scotia, where plentiful fish stocks made for massive catches and tidy profits.

 Some fishermen even went so far as to spend entire summer seasons in the area, particularly in the vicinity of Port Rossignol, the future community of Liverpool.

 The beauty of the waters, the climate, the freedom, unfettered access to land - not to mention the bountiful fishing - all combined to encourage a number of fishermen to pursue the possibility of establishing a permanent settlement between Cape Sable, at the southern end of the province, and the port of Lunenburg that had been settled to the north in 1753.

 By 1759, a group of men led by the foursome of John and Samuel Doggett, Elisha Freeman and Thomas Foster petitioned Nova Scotia's British governor, Charles Lawrence, for the creation of a township along the southern coast of the province.

 In response, Gov. Lawrence issued a warrant of survey for the region, in which he endorsed the creation of a settlement "containing in the whole, by estimation, one hundred thousand acres, more or less, according to a plan and survey of the same to be herewith registered; which township is to be called hereafter and known by the name of the Township of Liverpool, in the said Province."

 Almost immediately following the edict, a number of the original petition proponents removed their families from the American colonies and settled in and around Liverpool.

 Early advertisements circulating in newspapers in the Boston area designed to recruit settlers appealed to those New Englanders who had grown dissatisfied with their landholdings, or those whose soil had become too taxed to produce good crop yields.

 The prospects of the local fishery, as well as relative proximity to the Grand Banks off Newfoundland, also served as an added attraction. The prospects of the situation offered so much potential that within a few years roughly 7,000 New Englanders had transplanted themselves from the 13 colonies to a new home in Nova Scotia.

 To help ease the transition from life in New England to the rural Nova Scotian countryside, a number of immigrants invested in a rudimentary form of prefabricated housing.

 Far from the vinyl constructs of today, enterprising men such as Sylvanus Cobb brought along already assembled wooden housing frames. Once unloaded from the ship, the frames could be assembled into a fully functional, if simplistic, house in short order.

 Cobb, and others, also invested in ready-glazed windows, a cost-effective alternative to real glass pane windows, to allow a certain wealthy accent to their very humble abodes.

 But, despite some of the marvels 18th-century construction afforded, life in an undeveloped, remote region was far from easy, as it so often turned out in those days.

 Far removed from the provincial capital, supply lines to Queens County were long and dangerous, and the inconsistency inherent in the coastal ocean "highway" meant that a timely delivery of indispensable commodities was never a guarantee.

 To make matters worse, it was initially believed that the Liverpool Township would be an agriculturally based community that the first settlers would work the land and grow much of their own food as it was needed.

 However, it became fairly evident very early in Liverpool's history that agricultural development was to take a back seat in the area to the lumbering, fishing and, eventually, shipping industries. Thus, when warfare, storms or other unforeseen circumstances caused a disruption in the supply of grains, fruit and flour imported to the area, it caused much stress for the community.

 Beyond food factors, there was also the ever present fear that many neighbouring native communities may have remained loyal to France, and would gladly take advantage of an opportunity to disrupt British settlement efforts in the hope that their French allies may eventually win back control of Nova Scotia.

 In fact, there was so much concern over how potentially hostile natives near modern-day Port Medway might respond to the encroachment of British-sponsored settlers that the first public meeting held in Liverpool, in 1759, was called in order to devise a means of defending the small community in the event of an assault.

 But no such attack was ever forthcoming and, for its initial, formative years, Liverpool was allowed to grow at its own pace relatively unfettered.

 Within a year, by 1760, a government surveying agent named Charles Morris was dispatched from Halifax to assess the state of the Liverpool settlement.

 On arrival, Mr. Morris reported that he found a modest 50 families and six schooners at Liverpool. By the end of the following year, those numbers had increased, as some 90 families and a total of 504 people had settled in Liverpool.

 The expansion of 1761 was largely fuelled by a trip overseen by Capt. Doggett, who was requested by the government to hire a vessel for the purpose of bringing an additional 20 families and 60 head of cattle from New England to Liverpool to assist matters. The cattle were to be dispersed among the established settlers.

 Capt. Doggett's voyage was one of the early turning points in the development of Liverpool. Starting in 1762, colonization of the Liverpool area began in earnest. By 1764 the population of the community had grown to several hundred individuals, not including several smaller outlying villages, and the settlement would continue its slow growth for a decade until the American Revolution introduced a new element.

 Sources: Penney, Allen, "The Simeon Perkins House: An Agricultural Interpretation, 1767-1987"; More, James F., "The History of Queens County."

Written and researched by Patrick Hirtle.