Fort Frederick (Newfoundland)

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Fort Frederick was a British fort meant to strengthen control of Placentia in the Newfoundland Colony. It served as Newfoundland’s military headquarters from 1721 to 1746 under Samuel Gledhill. A report during Father Rale’s War claimed the Mi’kmaq killed about 200 English in Placentia, but the governor did not believe it. By the 1740s, the British began building New Fort on the site of the old Fort Louis. In King George’s War, Mi’kmaq from Île-Royale raided British outposts in Newfoundland in August 1745, attacking several houses and taking 23 prisoners. In the spring, 12 prisoners were taken to a rendezvous near St. John’s on the way to Quebec; the British prisoners managed to kill their Mi’kmaq captors there. Two days later, another group of Mi’kmaq took the remaining 11 prisoners to the same rendezvous. Discovering what had happened to the first group, the other Mi’kmaq killed the final 11 British prisoners. During the French and Indian War, Governor Thomas Graves had to move temporarily to Placentia after the French victory at the Battle of Signal Hill; Fort Frederick was partly repaired.