Fort Jemseg
Fort Jemseg
Fort Jemseg is thought to have been first built as a trading post by Thomas Temple during the English occupation of Acadia in 1659. The first description we have of it dates from 1670, when it was handed over to the French lieutenant Pierre Joybert, Sieur of Soulanges and of Marson.
It consisted, at that time, of a rectangular fortification of 30 by 40 paces with four bastions and a wooden palisade 18 feet high. Inside the palisade was a large building of 20 by 10 paces with two chimneys made of stone and brick. Facing the building was a forge containing about one ton of local coal and close to it was a pit large enough to contain two tons of coal.
The fort was seriously damaged by the Dutch in 1674, but rebuild and enlarged later by Pierre Joybert with financial help from the French government. After the death of Joybert in 1678, Louis D'Amours had a large farm in Jemseg, one of the first in New Brunswick. In 1701, the spring flood caused severe damage to the fort and the buildings and the D'Amours family abandoned it and moved to Port Royal on the south side of the Bay of Fundy.
FieldNotes: Fort Jemseg Millennium Edition
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