Date Published:
July 2005

L’Encyclopédie de l’histoire du Québec / The Quebec History Encyclopedia

Charles Lawrence

Lawrence, Charles (1709-1760), governor of Nova Scotia (1756-60), was born in Portsmouth , England, on December 14, 1709. He entered the British army in 1727 as an ensign in Montague's Foot. In 1741 he was transferred to the 45th Foot, and he accompanied his regiment to Nova Scotia in 1747 as a major. In 1749 he was appointed a member of the council of Nova Scotia ; in 1754 he became lieutenant-governor of the province, and in 1756 governor. It was during his régime, and mainly by his orders, that the deportation of the Acadians took place in 1755. In 1757 he was promoted brigadier-general, and he commanded a brigade at the siege of Louisbourg in 1759. He died at Halifax, Nova Scotia, on October 17. 1760. See J. S. Macdonald, Life and administration of Governor Charles Lawrence (Coll. Nova Scotia Hist. Soc., 1905), and J. F. Kenney, The genealogy of Charles Lawrence (Can. Hist. Assoc. Report, 1932).

Consult the biography of Lawrence at Blupete's site and at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography.

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Source: W. Stewart WALLACE, ed., The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. IV, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 400p., p. 46.