Charles Lawrence was named
lieutenant governor of Nova Scotia in late 1753 when Governor Peregrine Thomas Hopson left on November 1 due to health problems. Lawrence was officially sworn in on
October 21, 1754, holding this position until 1756, when Hopson resigned the post and Lawrence was made governor. He served as governor until his death in 1760.
To his new post, he brought considerable distrust of the
French. The French
Acadians of Nova Scotia had become British subjects by the
Treaty of Utrecht (1713), but exhibited no willingness to participate in the
British-French quarrels that were ongoing in the region at the time. Lawrence adopted a view that he found in the correspondence of previous governors: that though the Acadians should not be antagonized, they should be required to take an oath of allegiance. In July 1755, he attempted to force a visiting delegation from Minas (Grand Pré region) to take the oath. When the delegation refused to submit without consulting the population they represented, Lawrence imprisoned them. The council then decided the expulsion of individuals refusing the oath was appropriate, and that "it would be most proper to send them to be distributed amongst the Several Colonies on the Continent." Although there was no military plan in Britain mandating the expulsion, Lawrence was never rebuked for acting without orders.
As lieutenant governor, it was he who was responsible for writing the 1755 Acadian deportation order, securing the approval and co-operation of
William Shirley, the governor of
Massachusetts. Together with the refusal to take the loyalty oath, one of the major reasons for the deportation was that the Acadians continued to trade with the French. The deportation, known to Acadians as the
Grand dérangement (see
Great Upheaval), was a form of
ethnic cleansing; historians estimate that approximately half of all Acadians died as a direct result of it, primarily due to shipwrecks, disease, and exposure. Some survivors eventually reached sanctuary in south Louisiana where they formed the basis for what would become the
Cajuns.
As governor of Nova Scotia, Lawrence saw the settlement of the Acadian lands as his most important task. He fell into conflict with merchants like
Joshua Mauger, and was the object of formal complaints against him in the form of petitions to the Board of Trade. Lawrence issued proclamations in 1758 and 1759 seeking settlers for the Acadian lands, directed mainly at New Englanders. Since settlers were reluctant to break new forest land, he combined new and old land in each grant; merchants interested chiefly in taking advantage of the lands the expelled Acadians had settled, as well as those interested in using the lands as awards for military veterans, opposed this policy. But Lawrence wrote privately to
Lord Halifax that "drunken, dissolute, and abandoned" habits, especially the habit of idleness, made veterans bad settlers.
In 1757, Lawrence was further promoted to the title of
brigadier general and commanded the successful siege of the
French fortress at Louisbourg on Île Royale (
Cape Breton Island) in 1758.
It was during his tenure, but not with his approval, that
Nova Scotia had its first elected
legislative assembly which met in 1758. This elected body is the oldest representative body in Canada. He is said to have died of pneumonia in 1760, after over-indulging in a local
Halifax, Nova Scotia banquet; others report that he died "after catching a chill." He is buried under
St. Paul's Church (Halifax)
After Lawrence's death, the Board of Trade ordered an investigation into complaints against him. He was criticized for approving excessively large land grants and concealing of the true cost of his land policy, but was exonerated from the most serious charges. His role in the expulsion of the Acadians occasioned very little commentary at the time of his demise.
