Article

Guysborough

Published Online September 24, 2012

Last Edited March 4, 2015

Guysborough, NS, Community, population 403 (2011c), 428 (2006c). Guysborough, the shire town of Guysborough County, is located on the east shore of mainland Nova Scotia on Chedabucto Bay, 51 km from the Canso Causeway.

Guysborough, NS, Community, population 403 (2011c), 428 (2006c). Guysborough, the shire town of Guysborough County, is located on the east shore of mainland Nova Scotia on Chedabucto Bay, 51 km from the Canso Causeway. It was originally called Chedabouctou, from the Mi'kmaq Sedabooktook (harbour running far back), and is believed to be the "sweet water bay" entered by the Portuguese Joao FAGUNDES (1520). Nicolas DENYS'S fishing station (founded about 1659) at Guysborough employed 120 men by 1657. Clerbaud Bergier, a Huguenot merchant, expanded and built a fortified trading post (1682).

Fortunes fluctuated with feuds between competing Frenchmen, and wars with England, as when Sir William PHIPS captured Chedabucto (1690). Seven hundred Acadians were still living here when 9 English families settled (1768). After 1784 LOYALISTS, their former slaves and disbanded troops moved in, renaming Chedabucto after Sir Guy CARLETON. Almost destroyed in the great gale Oct 1811, Guysborough was rebuilt, prospering during the 1800s in lumber and shipbuilding. Today, the village administers the surrounding municipal district.