Malpeque

Malpeque takes its name from the Mi'kmaq word for a great bay on the northern shore of Epekwitk, the island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Its sheltered waters and shores were part of the Mi'kmaq homeland long before French settlers arrived. In 1728 Acadian families established a farming community on the western side of the bay, near what would become Port Hill.

After the British captured the island in 1758, thousands of its French and Acadian inhabitants were assembled for deportation to France. Many from Malpeque escaped by taking refuge on the mainland. Families later returned to the island, though by the early nineteenth century the old settlement on the bay had been abandoned as its inhabitants moved to other communities.