Settlement began in the early 1700s by French Acadians, fishermen from France (Brittany and Normandy). In 1734, nineteen heads of households, thirteen of whom were from The Gulf of St. Malo, France. In 1752 there were men and families who also came from Bayeux, France. They were all in the fishing industry. There was a French Acadian family who settled in Little Lorraine at around 1733, the Yvons. The British came to Little Lorraine and deported him and his family in 1758, at around the time of the expulsion of French Canadians from the Maritimes by the British. In 1745, twenty Englishmen were surrounded in Little Lorraine by 40–50 Indians accompanied by three Frenchmen. Most were shot down, some surrendered to live another day, some were tortured. They came and forced them out, they were deported on ships, and their houses were burned down. In the early to mid-1800s Irish immigrants came to settle in Little Lorraine.