The Beaubassin monument was erected to the memory of the last known residents of the Acadian village of Beaubassin in 1750. When the English under the Command of Major Lawrence appeared off Beaubassin (Fort Lawrence) in May 1750, the village was in flames. The French practiced a scorched earth policy and had every building on the eastern side of the Missaguash River (Cumberland County), as far as River Hebert burned to the ground. Under threat of death approximately 946 men, women and children were forced to abandon their homes and possessions, to go as refugees across the Missaguash River, to what is now known as New Brunswick. In the interval between 1750 and 1755 many of these people perished through starvation and exposure.