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Six French Place Names in Six New England States

French place names reveal much about the history of a city or town. They reflect the great historical events that took place at the time residents settled on a name. They may have named their town when a popular king took the throne, or during the French struggle for liberty, or right after the American Revolution, or during westward expansion.

You’re far more likely to find French place names the closer you get to the border of Canada. Still, the number of French place names in New England doesn’t truly reflect the region’s French heritage.

Vermont, of course, comes from the French for ‘green mountain’ (vert mont), and 23.9 percent of its population claims French ancestry. But only about a dozen of the state’s 255 municipalities have a French place name.

Vermont is only the third most Franco-American state in the Union. New Hampshire comes in second. Maine, with 25 percent of its population claiming French ancestry, ranks No. 1. The state has two dozen towns with French place names, and the state Legislature once claimed (probably wrongly) that ‘Maine’ came from the French province of the same name.

Here, then, are six New England municipalities with French place names, one in each state. If you know of another with a story worth repeating, please share in the comments section.

Orange, Conn.

Orange Congregational Church

Orange, Conn., initially belonged to the Algonquian Indians until 1637, when they sold it to the Rev. Peter Prudden. The price? Some coats and blankets, hatchets and hoes, a kettle, knives and a dozen small mirrors.

Prudden, educated at Cambridge University in England, came to Massachusetts as part of the Great Puritan Migration. He preached in Wethersfield, Conn., for a while. Then he joined a group of New Haven Colony settlers in Milford and was ordained pastor of the church in 1639.

When Prudden died in 1656, his survivors buried him in his garden, which became the Milford town cemetery. His widow, Joanna Boyse Prudden, married the first English mayor of New York City.

William of Orange

Thirty years after Prudden died, the last Roman Catholic king of England, James II, consolidated the New England colonies. He appointed the hated Edmund Andros as governor general of the Dominion of New England. Andros tried to seize Connecticut’s charter, but failed because a militia captain hid it in a large white oak tree, known forever after as the Charter Oak.

In 1689, much to the joy and relief of New England’s Puritans, William of Orange deposed James II. The staunchly Protestant William, who had inherited the French principality of Orange from his father, was James’ son-in-law and nephew. The colonists sent Andros back to England.

The popular new king gave the village of Orange its name. It belonged to Milford until 1822, when residents formed the Town of Orange. In 1921, rural Orange separated from urban West Haven.

Orange Center Historic District includes 42 historically significant structures, including the Orange Congregational Church. They form a ‘cohesive village of well-preserved buildings and their surroundings that convey a strong sense of the area’s historic appearance,’ according to the National Register of Historic Places nomination form.

Meetinghouse Lane, Orange Center Road, Schoolhouse Land, Tyler City Road.

Calais, Maine

Acadians first settled the region on both sides of the St. John River, so it’s natural that Calais, Maine, and St. Stephen, New Brunswick, should have a close friendship. Calais has three international crossings over the St. Croix River to St. Stephen.

Calais from St. Stephen

So friendly were the two towns that the British military gave St. Stephen gunpowder to defend itself against Americans during the War of 1812. St. Stephen instead gave the gunpowder to Calais for its July 4^th celebration.

The townspeople named Calais for the French city in 1809 to honor France’s help to the American colonies during the Revolutionary War.

Calais Avenue about 1905

Calais didn’t really get going as a town until the 1820s, when shipbuilding and lumber brought growth and prosperity. Between 1810 and 1850, the town’s population grew tenfold, to 4,749. By 1840, Calais was the second busiest port in Maine next to Bangor. Many successful Calais businesspeople built fine homes in the city during its heyday.

The Calais Residential Historic District comprises 15 acres of handsome 19^th century homes in a variety of architectural styles.

Calais Residential Historic District: Calais Avenue and Main Street From Calais Avenue To Swan Street

Orleans, Mass.

the Duke of Orleans

Orleans, on Cape Cod’s elbow, has had its share of military assaults. The British captured the town twice during the American Revolution, and the Orleans militia skirmished with a British warship trying to dock at Rock Harbor during the War of 1812. And German U-boats shelled Orleans during World War I.

The town split off from Eastham in 1797, when memories of the British occupation still stung.

Isaac Snow, a descendant of Mayflower Pilgrim Stephen Hopkins, supposedly suggested the French place name for the new town. The British had captured Snow during the American Revolution and confined him aboard a prison ship in England. Snow then escaped to France, where he more than likely learned about the popular Louis Philippe Joseph, Duke of Orleans. The duke, though one of the richest men in France, supported the French revolutionary cause.

CG 36500

Isaac Snow’s family opened its first store in Orleans in 1887. The Snow family still runs Snow’s, where you can probably find whatever you need.

The town also harbors a motorboat listed on the National Register of Historic Places, CG36500, used in the courageous rescue of 31 Pendleton crewmembers in 1952.

CG 36500 is berthed at Rock Harbor n Rock Harbor Rd., Orleans, Mass.; Snow’s, 22 Main St., Orleans, Mass.

Fremont, N.H.

Fremont, N.H., took its French place name from the illegitimate son of a French-Canadian schoolteacher. John C. Fremont also happened to be a military hero and the Republican Party’s first candidate for president of the United States.

Fremont, N.H., meeting house

Fremont’s mother was the daughter of a wealthy Virginia planter. At 17 she married a well-to-do army major in his 60s. The major hired a Canadian immigrant, Charles Fremon, to tutor his young wife. They fell in love and ran away to Savannah, Ga., where John Fremon was born out of wedlock. The major refused to divorce John’s mother, so she could not marry his father.

When Charles Fremon died, John Fremont and his mother lived in poverty and disgrace. He compensated with pride and ambition.

During his lifetime he fought in the Mexican War, rose to the rank of major general, explored the West, gained and lost a fortune, served in the U.S. Senate from California and ran for president in 1856. He also met and married Jessie Benton, daughter of the powerful U.S. senator from Missouri, Thomas Hart Benton.

John Fremont

Benton earned immense popularity for his support of western expansion. In 1840, the town of Coventry, N.H., decided to change its name to Benton in honor of the senator. Fourteen years later, a town called Poplin, N.H., decided to change its name to Fremont after the future presidential candidate and senator’s son-in-law

Today the town takes justifiable pride in its 1800 Meetinghouse – and for being home to the stunningly awful all-girl group, The Shaggs.

Fremont Meeting House 464 Main Street , Fremont, N.H.

Lafayette Village, R.I.

When the Marquis de Lafayette made his triumphal tour of the United States in 1824, enthusiastic Rhode Islanders renamed a village in North Kingstown after him. Previously, people had given it a less glamorous name: the North Kingstown Cotton Factory.

Lafayette in 1825

Lafayette, though, remained little more than a French place name for a cotton mill, a smattering of houses and an unusually wide road. The road had been ordered by the Rhode Island colony in 1703 so farmers could bring their goods to the port of Wickford. The road had to be as straight as possible and 160 feet wide to allow grazing for livestock.

Today, the National Register of Historic Places lists Lafayette Village as a monument to Robert Rodman, a paternalistic textile manufacturer in the tradition of southern Rhode Island.

Rodman, a relative of the Hazard manufacturing family in nearby Peace Dale, began making wool textiles in Lafayette in the 1840s. He incorporated as the Rodman Manufacturing Co. in 1883 and employed 500 workers by 1900. The Rodman family still owned the company into the late 1940s, when it ceased operation.

One of the Rodman mansions in Lafayette. Google maps photo.

The company sold St. Nicolas Doeskin to growing markets in the south and west. In 1876, “one supposes a celebratory mood as Rodman packed his entire family, children and grandchildren off to the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, where the doeskin, a luxury fabric with nap, won a medal,” according to Lafayette Village’s nomination for the National Register of Historic Places.

Shortly after the Centennial, Rodman bought the engineering marvel of the day, a Corliss steam engine, to power his textile machinery. In 1877 he built the vast brick mill that still stands.

Rodman also built a mansion for himself (now a patio furniture store) and three more for his children, a church, boarding houses and workers cottages.

The paternalistic Rodmans stayed within the community, made up of local Yankees who in the 1970s remembered it as ‘one big family’ and ‘all English.’ The Rodmans sponsored the Lafayette Cornet Band, magic shows, games and pottery classes to entertain the mill workers – and, no doubt, to distract them from any union organizers who might be prowling around.

For more photos of Lafayette in the 1970s, click here.

Lafayette Historic District, Properties bordering Ten Rod Road from Wickford Junction to the culvert east of 935 Ten Rod Road and side streets, North Kingstown, R.I.

Barre, Vt.

Barre, Vt., took its name from an Irishman of French Huguenot ancestry who gave the Sons of Liberty their name.

Isaac Barre

Isaac Barre, the son of Dublin’s high sheriff, served the British Army with distinction before representing Chipping Wycombe in Parliament. He had a long, colorful parliamentary career, during which he vigorously opposed the taxation of the American colonies. While addressing Parliament, he coined the phrase ‘Sons of Liberty.’

During his military career, Barre fought at the Battle of Quebec and gathered around the dying general James Wolfe. John Gouldsbury, the earliest settler of Barre, also fought at the Battle of Quebec under Wolfe.

Until 1788, roving bands of Indians were the only inhabitants of the area described as ‘primeval forests, granite hills and green valleys.’ The first settlers named it Wildersborough, but the residents didn’t like it and the name didn’t stick.

According to one story, the settlement’s selectmen decided the person who contributed the most to a meeting house could rename the town. For 64 pounds, Ezekiel Wheeler got to name the town Barre.

Socialist Labor Hall

According to another story, two men from Massachusetts put forward their preferred names at a Town Meeting. Both Captain Joseph Thompson of Holden and Jonathon Sherman of Barre wanted to name it after their former towns. They decided to fight it out in a barn, and Sherman won.

Barre grew into a center of granite cutting shortly after the War of 1812. The work attracted a diverse group of European immigrants, including Italian anarchists and members of the International Workers of the World. In 1916 and in 1929 Barre residents elected a Socialist Party candidate as mayor.

The old Socialist Labor Party Hall still stands, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2000.

Socialist Labor Party Hall, 46 Granite St., Barre City, Vt.

Images for French place names: Fremont Meeting House, By John Phelan – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24513389; Socialist Labor Hall By John Phelan – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=35779862; Calais By P199 – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18061218; Orange church By The original uploader was Staib at English Wikipedia – Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons., CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=34580770

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When 8,000 New England Planters Moved to Nova Scotia

In October of 1758, Britain’s royal governor for Nova Scotia, Charles Lawrence, made an exciting offer to the New England Planters: They could have land for free if they cultivated it.

The Charming Molly brought New England Planters to Nova Scotia.

“New England Planters,” an Elizabethan term for the American colonists, came to describe the group of farmers who couldn’t refuse Lawrence’s offer. Later, they somehow earned the nickname ‘bluenoses’ – perhaps because of the cold winter, perhaps because of a purplish-blue potato abundant in the region

The British had kicked out about 11,000 Acadians in 1755 after the French surrendered their forts at Beausejour and Gasparaeux. They wanted to settle the sparsely populated territory with people loyal to the Crown.

A Call to New England

On Oct. 12, 1758, Lawrence published a proclamation in the Boston Gazette. It said the enemy could no longer disturb and harass the province. Therefore, the time had come to ‘people and cultivate the lands’ vacated by the deportation of the Acadians.

Three months later, Lawrence issued a second proclamation. Every head of family was entitled to 100 acres of wild land and another 50 for each member of his household, up to 1,000 acres. The land would be free for 10 years, then a small rent would be charged. Grantees would have to improve one-third of their land every 10 years until they’d cultivated all of it.

Lawrence’s powerful offer of a huge amount of rich farmland came at a time when New England had virtually no free land. He had perfect timing.

Great Migration of 1760-1775

Halifax in 1750.

Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island had run out of land for the sons and daughters of colonial farmers. Farmers then made up 90 percent of the population. Large families were common then, and younger sons of farmers had to buy land from Indians. Or they had to get it from the government or squat to start their own farms.

In the early 1760s, 66,000 colonists migrated to New York’s Mohawk River Valley, New Hampshire and what would become Vermont and Maine. From 1760 to 1775, 100 new towns were established in New Hampshire, 94 in Maine and 54 in Vermont.

Lawrence’s invitation to revive Acadian farms made big news in Connecticut. There, the population had nearly doubled to 141,000 since 1747. So a large group from southeastern Connecticut and Rhode Island towns — including New London, Norwich, Lebanon, Lyme and Tolland — met in Norwich to form a grantee group. They named five agents to look over the land in Nova Scotia.

In April 1759 the men sailed to Halifax to ask questions of Nova Scotia’s Governor-in-Council. They also wanted to look over the lands. They were delighted with the outcome.

The Deal

The Council agreed to give weapons to the planters so they could defend themselves. It also agreed not to impress the settlers into the army or navy for 10 years. The government would also transport them for free, and give a monthly allotment of grain to the poorest 50 families.

The American agents agreed to supply 200 families for the new township of Horton and 150 for the new township of Cornwallis. Another 100 families from Rhode Island would settle the township of Falmouth.

News of their successful negotiation spread, and another group from eastern New Hampshire sailed to Halifax. They then made a deal to send 200 families to establish the town of Granville. Two more towns were granted that year, one from central Massachusetts.

The New England Planters Arrive

Nova Scotia Gov. Charles Lawrence

For the next year, the New England Planters prepared to leave, selling their land, assembling stock and equipment and waiting for their ship’s uncertain arrival. The Charming Molly arrived first, in April, and carried 31 men, two women and 12 children from Massachusetts to Annapolis. Some of the wives would arrive later.

In June, a flotilla of 22 ships carried planters from Connecticut to Horton and Cornwallis.

Four ships carried the Rhode Island planters, 73 families in all, to Falmouth and, later, Newport.

Acadian Cross and New England Planters monument. Hortonville, Nova Scotia

Massachusetts fisherman wanted land, too, and the governor’s council agreed to give them land on similar terms. They settled mainly in Liverpool, Yarmouth and Barrington townships.

The settlers continued to arrive, and they brought something else with them to Nova Scotia: the Town Meeting, in which they divided the land and the Acadian ruins by lot.

By the end of the year 1760, Annapolis County had a new Massachusetts, Kings County a new Connecticut, and the present Hants County a new Rhode Island. “The whole Valley was a new New England, with a population of nearly 2,000 people,” wrote R.S. Longley in a paper, The Coming of the New England Planters to the Annapolis Valley.

By 1768, 8,000 New England Planters lived in Nova Scotia.

This story was updated in 2023. Acadian Cross and Planter’s Monument by By Verne Equinox – Own work, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5858970

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Acadians Refuse To Take a Loyalty Oath to the British King and Pay the Price

For nearly 40 years in the early 18th century, Acadian farmers in Canada refused orders to take an unconditional oath of loyalty to the British Crown. Since there were far more Acadians than British military forces, the Acadians got away with it.

Expulsion of the Acadians

The British had taken Acadia in 1710 as part of their continuing struggle with the French to dominate North America. At the end of Queen Anne’s War, fought largely in Maine, Massachusetts and Nova Scotia, Britain won the southern part of Nova Scotia in the Treaty of Utrecht.

The British didn’t have much of a presence in the region, though. That allowed the French to encroach by building two forts in what is now New Brunswick: Beausejour, in Aulac, and Gaspareaux, near Port Elgin.

But in June 1755, France’s Fort Beausejour fell to the British and Gaspareaux surrendered without a fight. Shortly thereafter, acting Gov. Charles Lawrence ordered the Acadians to take the loyalty oath. This time, the British could back up their orders with force, because three regiments and New England Ranger units had arrived.

But the Acadians did not want to pledge allegiance to a Protestant monarch and forswear their loyalty to the pope.

Acadians Refuse Loyalty Oath

Father Jean-Louis Le Loutre

By 1755, decades of fighting with the French and Indians left the British fed up with Acadian intransigence. Dummer’s War followed Queen Anne’s War, and King George’s War followed in 1744. The Catholic Acadians scattered throughout the region were ostensibly neutral during these conflicts.

But some waged guerilla war against the British with their allies, the Wabanaki and the Micmac people, who were also Catholic.

Halifax

In 1749, the British tried to tighten military control over Nova Scotia. They built forts in the most important Acadian communities in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. They also provoked the Micmac people by founding the Protestant settlement of Halifax, a violation of their treaty with the Indians.

The founding of Halifax touched off Father Le Loutre’s War. Acadian and Micmac forces attacked Halifax in at least half of the 24 battles, raids and skirmishes of the conflict. The French also built their own forts, including Fort Beausejour on the border between Nova Scotia and Acadia.

Father Le Loutre was joined by an Acadian resistance fighter, Joseph Broussard, known as Beausoleil. In 1750, Le Loutre led many Acadians and Micmacs to new homes in unsettled regions controlled by the French: Chignecto, Prince Edward Isle and Cape Breton. The British called him Moses.

The Final British Push

Map of Fort Beausejour and cathedral

The British began their final push against the Acadians in Canada on June 4, 1755, when Lt. Col. Robert Monckton began to move toward Ft. Beausejour. He led 2,400 men: three British regiments and New England Ranger units led by Joseph Gorham of Yarmouth, Mass.

The 400 French, Acadian and Micmac men were no match for the combined British and New England forces that laid siege to the fort. A cathedral next to Fort Beausejour had just been finished a month before the British laid siege. Father Le Loutre ordered it burned so the British wouldn’t occupy it. He saved the cast-iron bell, still at the site of the fort, now a National Historic Site of Canada.

The fort surrendered on June 16. British troops moved on to force the other French forts in the region to capitulate.

Acadian Expulsion

Two weeks after the fall of Fort Beausejour, Lawrence ordered the forcible removal of the entire Acadian population from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and parts of what is now Maine. Estimates vary, but the British rounded up as many as 10,000 Acadians out of a population of 12,000. Then they boarded them onto ships and sent them to the 13 British colonies in North America and to France. Several thousand died of disease, starvation and drowning.

Charles Lawrence

The British seized their farms and livestock, pillaging and burning their homes to make sure they wouldn’t return.

Father Le Loutre escaped to Quebec and sailed to France, but the British captured him on the journey and imprisoned him for eight years. After his release, he tried to help Acadians deported to France. He died Sept. 30, 1772 in Nantes, France, leaving his worldly possessions to the expelled Acadians.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a poem about the expulsion of the Acadians, called Evangeline. Beausoleil led a group to settle in Louisiana. One of his descendants is a performing artist known as Beyonce.

This story was updated in 2025.

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