War broke out several times between 1688 and 1755. In 1710, Port Royal was renamed Annapolis, in honour of the Queen of England and was the last time that the French had control of the land. The English asked the Acadians to take an unconditional oath of allegiance to the King of England. The Acadians would always refuse to take the oath, as they believed they would not be able to practice their religion and would be forced, one day, to bare arms against France or other French colonies in Canada. In 1713, the treaty of Utrecht ended the war between France and England and transferred Acadia and Newfoundland to the English.

On August 9, 1755 in the region of Beaubassin the arrest of the first Acadians took place. At Port-Royal, the major John Handfield was in charge of the arrest and embarkation of the Acadians on boats. Almost half of them escaped from him. We are not sure exactly what happened at Port-Royal during the arrest and embarkation of the Acadians but, according to a letter from Murray (in charge of the deportation at Pigiguit - Windsor) to Winslow, dated October 8, 1755, there is reason to believe that serious troubles broke out, during which several English soldiers and Acadians were killed.

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