Nerepis at Westfield Beach and Lingley into the 1920s. Westfield Beach was a particularly important summer encampment used to trap muskrat, gather fiddleheads, and collect wood and reeds for basketry and furniture making. Acadian Period It is a common misconception that Samuel de Champlain and Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons visited and named the Grand Bay. There is no mention of this event in Champlain's journals and the story is likely apocryphal. However, following Champlain's discovery of the St. John River on June 24, 1604, French settlement of the area began in earnest. In 1672, Martin D'Arprendestiguy was created Sieur de Martignon. The Martignon seigneury extended from the mouth of the Wolastoq up the west bank across the Nerepis to Long Reach. It also extended inland some distance and included the area of present day Grand Bay-Westfield. In 1749, a small French fort was built at Woodman's Point by Charles Deschamps de Boishébert; likely on the site of the former Wolastoqiyik stronghold. The site remained a French foothold for their operations against the British until around 1755 when British forces under Colonel Robert Monckton began the expulsion of Acadian French settlers throughout the region. W. F. Ganong observed that without doubt Acadian place names were numerous in New Brunswick prior to the expulsion, but the conditions under which the English replace the French in the province were not favourable to the transfer of place names. One exception to this in the Grand Bay-Westfield area is the name Ononette, which derives from the French Pointe au Ognonette - the Acadians' name for Brandy Point. By 1758, the Acadians were almost entirely expelled from the St. John River area, and permanent British settlement began. Loyalist Period From 1765 to 1785 the territory north of the Bay of Fundy had been divided between only two counties, Sunbury, which included the settlements on the Wolastoq and the Passamaquoddy Bay, and Cumberland, which included the settlements at the head of the Bay of Fundy. When Loyalist transport ships arrived at Saint John in 1783, the area now referred to as Grand Bay-Westfield was part of Sunbury County, most of it within the Township of Conway. It was not until June 18, 1784 that Britain included Sunbury County and northern Cumberland County in the colony of New Brunswick. Separation from Nova Scotia only became complete in November with the public reading on the commission of newly