Search 
Website Design and Content © by Eric Krause, 
Krause House Info-Research Solutions (© 1996)
  
  
 All Images © Parks Canada Except 
Where Noted Otherwise
Report/Rapport © Parks Canada / Parcs Canada
 --- 
Report Assembly/Rapport de l'assemblée © Krause
House
Info-Research Solutions
Researching the 
Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site of Canada 
  Recherche sur la Forteresse-de-Louisbourg Lieu historique national du Canada
CONSTRUCTION
      CHRONOLOGY FOR THE ROYAL BATTERY:
      ACTUAL AND PROPOSED
      1714 - PRESENT
BY
ERIC KRAUSE
SEPTEMBER, 1982
Report H B 16
      
Return 
      (Table of Contents) /retour 
      
      
1750 - 1774
ABBREVIATIONS:
| Date | P | A | PA | Description of Activity | Comment | Reference | 
| 1750 | A | 
            1750  - Barracks (Note: this work completed by
            15 August A. Magasin basement 1. Filled in with earth, gravel and sand up to ground floor level - 25 cubic toises 2 pieds 5 pouces of material used B. Officers Rooms 1. Enduits and repairs C. Bakery 
			1. Enduit repairs to the flooring and the mouth
            of the oven D. Barracks: general repairs using wood from various demolitions 
			1. Doors E. Barracks dormers 1. Closed off with Boston boards F. Commanders Rooms 
			1. 6 pieds high x 3 
            pieds wide plank door replacement G. Glass work 
			1. 212 glass panes cleaned and glazed with
            mastic H. Officers Latrine 1. Lock with 2 keys installed I. Guard House 
			1. Hinge replacement for the door J. Soldiers Rooms 1. Three (3) locks for three corridor doors K. Flank Door 1. A lock for the door 1 L. Advanced Barrier Gate 
			1. Repairs to the four strap hinges M. Interior Barrier Gate 
			1. Lock and key supplied  | 
            31 December 1750, C11B, Vol. 29, folio 296-297. | |||
| 1751 | A | 
			- Height of Seawall  
             1. Various 12 to 15 pieds depending on the sea and what it leaves behind - Chemin Couvert 1. Height of land A 248 toises from the battery was 102 pieds 4 pouces higher than the covered - Landward side 
			1. Two faces  - Barracks Roof 8 July, 1766, 1. In place  | 
            14 December 1751, C11B, Vol. 31, folio 159v., 169-171; 20November 1751, C11A, Vol. 126, pièce 88; 20 November 1751, C11B, Vol. 31, folio 194; 24 November 1751, C11B, Vol. 31, folios 67, 138v; 1751-25; 8 July, 1766, Halifax Crown Grant Book, Book 6, p. 593; 1751, 32 | |||
| P | 
			- 
            Establishment of a redoubt on Height A with a
            communication between 
            it and the  Royal Battery - Establishment of a redoubt on a smaller hillbetween Height A and the Royal Battery - Chemin Couvert 
			1. Together with the two faces of the rentrant
            place d'armes, the branches require 900
            8 1/2 pieds long palissades - Rentrant Place D'armes 1. Together with the branches of the chemin couvert, the two faces require nine hundred 8 1/2 pieds long palissades  | 
            ditto | ||||
| A | 
			- Distances 
            
			1. 1600 toises from the town by land - Right Flank 1. Covered way around the right flank not completed as of this date. Required 
  | 
            ditto | ||||
| P | 
            - 
			Repairs still required (some discussed first
            in 1749) 
            
      		1. Earth - Demolition of the Royal Battery with its re-establishment on Pointe a Rosse on Height A 
  | 
            ditto | ||||
| A | 
            - 
			Number of Embrasures 
            1. 
            
			Right face: 10 - Existing platform of the faces and Eperon in poor condition 
			1. Totally cover the terreplain so that there
            was no banquette from one embrasure to another  | 
            - Right flank should read Left flank and vice-versa | ditto | |||
| P | 
            - 
			Replacement platforms A. Two faces 
 B . Epèron 
 C. Two Flanks 
  | 
            ditto | ||||
| A | - 
            
			Sieur Gratian D'Arrigrand Grant of Land 1. "in the harbour of Louisbourg ... Beginning three hundred feet from High Water mark, at the Head of a Cove which lies about half a mile to the Eastward of the Grand Battery; and from thence to run West ten chains; thence North West one hundred and fifty eight chains; thence North eight hundred and eighty chains; thence South West one hundred and fifty eight chains; thence West ten chains till it meets the first mentioned boundary ..."  | 
            ditto | ||||
| PA | 2 entrance drawbridges over the double ditch | ditto | ||||
| 1752 | A | 
            - 
			Decision not to destroy the Royal 
            Battery  - Decision not to build the redoubts in the heights of land  | 
            15 March 1752, B, Vol. 95, folio 270-270v. | |||
| 1753 | A | 
            - Plans in Boucher's 
			 Cabinet: 
            
			1. "Plan et Elevation de la batterie 
            Royale"   | 
            - A listing of plans in Boucher's Cabinet. The list does not date them, but they wouold be 1753 or earlier | 27 August 1753, C11A, Vol. 126, pièce 62. | ||
| 1755 | A | 
            
			-  
            
			Gun platforms rebuilt from one end to the 
            other 1. now easy to move cannons to the flanks if required - Francis Piggot (English Ship Pilot) in Louisbourg for 6 weeks 
			1. "the Grand Battery is repaired"  | 
            25 August 1755, C11B, Vol. 35, folios 84-84v; 23 July 1757, War Office 71, Vol. 130, p. 48-49. | |||
| 1757 | A | 
			- Wooden platform  
             - Masonry merlons revetted in wood  | 
            1757, B4, Vol. 76, folio 24. | |||
| 1758 | A | 
            - Platforms intact prior to the siege 
            French Demolition of the Royal Battery  
             - 3 June: demolition process begins - 8 June: formal request made to demolish the Royal Battery 
			1. Orders 
            given to make the platforms inoperative  | 
            3 June 1758, B4, Vol. 80, folio 116v; 8 June 1758, B4, Vol. 80, folio 125v; Report A-M1, Supplement 1758; 28 August 1758, C.O. 5, Vol. 53, folio 191v; 5 November 1760, Procter Diary, p. 53. | |||
| P | 
			- 
            Repair the barracks as an infirmary and hospital for the navy - Mount a small guard as a cover for the Men of Wars using the watering place and to discourage the Indians from approaching the sides and head of the harbour  | 
            ditto | ||||
| 1759 | A | - 
            
			mill behind the 
            Grand Battery - "Ruins of the late grand Battery" - A plan of the Grand Battery as it was rebuilt by the English in the year 1759 at Louisbourg - grand Battreay [sic]  | 
            Anonymous, General orders in Wolfe's Army During the Expedition Up the River St. Lawrence, 1759, p. 8.; 24 May 1759, See Knox Journal in Brian Connell The Siege of Québec, p. 114-115; | |||
| 1760 | A | 
            - 
			English Demolition of the Royal Battery 
			 
             
			1. The works 
            of the Grand Battery are almost down  | 
            Gibson Clough Journal, Plans N.D. 237, 221; 26 October 1760, War Office 14, folios 10-11; Journal of Gibson Clough, p. 38, Library of the Artillery Institution, Journal of Demolition, p. 189. | |||
| 1766 | A | 
			Gratien D'Arrigrand Grant  
             1. 
            
			Commander in 
            Chief in Nova Scotia renewed
      the original 1751 D'Arrigrand grant of land   | 
            8 July 1766 Halifax, Crown Grant Book, Book 6, p. 393. | |||
| 1768 | A | 
            - 
			List of improvements near the Grand Battery 
			 
             1. Lawrence Kavanagh 
 2. Thomas & Richard Wheel 
 3. Thomas Mortho 
 4. William Brimigion 
 5. Matthew Rowe 
 6. Gregory Townsend 
 7. Elias Gerrot 
 - Lots 
  | 
            26 Sept. 1768, Privy Council 1, Vol. 54/63B; Foster, W,. Post Occupation History of the old French Town of Louisbourg, 1760-1930, p. 29. | |||
| 1771 | A | 
            - 
			Grant of land Halifax Crown
  | 
            Halifax Crown Lands Office, Book 8, p. 229. | |||
| 1774 | A | 
            - 
			Lots  
            
  | 
            Foster, W,. Post Occupation History of the old French Town of Louisbourg, 1760-1930, p. 34. |