The first European settlers in the area were French; personnel from Fortress Louisbourgfounded a settlement in 1720 named Port La Joey on the south-western part of the harbour opposite the present-day city. This settlement was led by Michel Ache-Gallant, who used his sloop to ferry Acadian settlers from Louisburg.
During King Georges War, the British had taken over the Island. French officer Rameau sent 500 men to attack the British troops in the Battle at Port-la-Joey. The French were successful in killing or taken prisoner forty British troops.
In August 1758, at the height of the French and Indian War, a British fleet took control of the settlement and the rest of the island, promptly deporting those French settlers that they could find in the Ile Saint-Jean Campaign (this being fully three years after the original Acadian Expulsion in Nova Scotia). British forces built Fort Amherst near the site of the abandoned Port La Joey settlement to protect the entrance to the harbour.
1759 - 1855
Charlottetown was selected as the site for the county seat of Queens County in the colonial survey of 1764 by Captain Samuel Holland of the Royal Engineers. A year later, Charlottetown was made the colonial capital of St. John's Island. Further surveys conducted between 1768–1771 established the street grid and public squares which can be seen in the city's historic district. The town was named in honour of Queen Charlotte, consort of King George III.
Charlottetown was named for Queen Charlotte, consort of King George III.
On November 17, 1775, the colony's new capital was ransacked by Massachusetts-based privateers, participants in the American Revolutionary War. During the attack, the colonial seal was stolen and several prisoners, including Phillips Call beck and Thomas Wright, were taken to Cambridge, Massachusetts and later released.
In 1793, land had been set aside by Governor Fanning on the western limits of the community
