 To guard against Mi'kmaq, Acadian and French attacks on the new Protestant settlements, British fortifications were erected in Halifax (1749), Dartmouth (1750), Bedford (Fort Sackville) (1751), Lunenburg (1753) and Lawrencetown (1754).In 1754, Nova Scotia's Lieutenant Governor Charles Lawrence, mindful of the threat the French posed at Fortress Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island, of the intentions of the Mi'kmaq and the Acadians, offered land grants to twenty families, who referred to their settlement as Lawrence's Town, which became Lawrencetown.Situated approximately 24 km east of Halifax Harbour, West Lawrencetown is located on a peninsula in the Atlantic Ocean formed by Cole Harbour to the west and Lawrencetown Lake (a natural harbour) to the east.