Tonge’s Island: An Early Capital of Acadia

A low rise surrounded by marshland may seem an unlikely place for a colonial capital. Yet in the seventeenth century, the land known as Île de la Vallière, later Tonge’s Island, became a centre of government in Acadia. Its story begins decades before the construction of nearby Fort Beauséjour.

In 1676, Michel Leneuf de la Vallière received a seigneurial grant in the Beaubassin region and established his residence on this elevated ground. Across the Missiguash River stood the developing Acadian settlement of Beaubassin. The surrounding marshes offered land that settlers could reclaim through dyking, creating farms within a landscape governed by the tides.

La Vallière’s settlement included a stockade and a mill. When he became governor of Acadia in 1678, it also became the capital, serving that role until 1684. This small settlement briefly held an administrative importance far greater than its size might suggest.

The word “island” describes its relationship to the surrounding marshes. Rather than a rocky island offshore, it is a slight rise of land within the Tantramar landscape. Its position on the Chignecto Isthmus placed it in a region that would later become fiercely contested by French and British forces.

The commemorative stone preserves the name of a settlement whose buildings no longer dominate the landscape. It draws attention to an earlier chapter of Acadian history, when this marshland supported homes, agriculture, and a seat of government. Before the nearby forts made Chignecto a military frontier, it was already a place where people were building communities.