The Canadian province of New Brunswick has 15 geographic counties defined by the Territorial Division Act.[1] While no longer local governments,[2] they continue to define a regional community.
With the reorganization of local government legislation contained in the Robichaud government's reforms, collectively called the New Brunswick Equal Opportunity program, county municipalities ceased to function in 1966 and their councils were dissolved.
Another form of regional local government did not replace the county. Instead, many small village municipalities were created, with the surrounding predominantly rural areas remaining unincorporated.
They serve as the basis for federal census divisions and provide convenient map subdivisions of the province for purposes other than local governance.[3] They figure prominently in residents' sense of place and continue as significant threads in the Province's cultural fabric (i.e., most citizens always know which county they are in), and they still appear on some maps.
The partitioning of Nova Scotia at the close of the American Revolutionary War was discreetly attributed by the British to the distance between the St. John river communities and the administrative centre at Halifax.[4] The arrival of American Loyalist refugees saw the population in the colony grow abruptly, with many directed to Sunbury county's Wolastoq/Saint John river.
Initially, when Nova Scotia's authorities established counties for the first time in 1759, the vast territory of former Acadia to the north of Kings County was erected as Cumberland, until in April 30, 1765, when the county was sectioned for the residents of the townships along the coastline and in the lower Saint John River valley.[5] The new county was called Sunbury.
It would not be until 24 May 1770 that a boundary would be established between the two counties. Sunbury’s western boundary was described as starting at the head of the St. Croix River, following the north line to the Saint John River and then to the southern Canadian border. This description actually overlapped a part of Maine’s territory, as you would have needed to go far west, towards the area near the source of the Chaudière River. On the east the boundary with Cumberland ran north by the magnet from a point 20 miles up from Mispec.[6] No further changes would be made until 1785, when the recently partitioned New Brunswick province's government established new county administrations.[7]
New Brunswick was created on June 18, 1784.[8] The province was divided into eight counties by decree of Governor Carleton: Charlotte, Kings, Northumberland, Queens, Saint John, Sunbury, Westmorland and York. In January 1786, the first session of the New Brunswick Legislative Assembly was held in Saint John, at which the MLA’s passed An Act for the better ascertaining and confirming the Boundaries of Several Counties within this Province, and for subdividing them into Towns or Parishes.[9] As the council worked on developing the original county lines, they desperately needed maps of the province, which, at the time, they seemingly lacked. As a result, they relied on two maps by Joseph Frederick Wallet DesBarres from 1780, the best candidates for a map of New Brunswick at the time.[10] As the new boundaries were established, the former counties of Cumberland and Sunbury were disregarded, with the exception of the starting point of the boundary between Westmorland and Northumberland counties, which shared a resemblance to the old boundaries, though this might have been a coincidence.[11]
The county lines were strategically drawn to align with the watersheds, a logical decision given that New Brunswick's settlements were developed along waterways.[12] Additionally, the counties were able to be divided into three groups: the Bay of Fundy, the Saint John River and the North Shore.[13]
Ganong (1901). A monograph of the evolution of the boundaries of the province of New Brunswick.