The County of Montbéliard or Mömpelgard was a feudal county of the Holy Roman Empire from 1033 to 1796. In 1283, it was granted rights under charter by Count Reginald. Its charter guaranteed the county perpetual liberties and franchises which lasted until the French Revolution in 1789. In 1397 the county passed by marriage of Henriette, heiress of the county to Eberhard IV, Count of Württemberg, to the House of Württemberg . As a consequence of the former rule under the dukes of Württemberg, it has been for centuries one of the few Protestant enclaves in France. Many French Protestants fled this area during the 18th century.

Montbéliard immigration to Nova Scotia, 1749-1752.

Montbéliard was the homeland of about 420 French-speaking Protestants brought to Nova Scotia in the 1750s by a Dutch shipping agent named John Dick. Dick was appointed by the British Board of Trade to recruit “Foreign Protestants” along the Rhine to settle in Nova Scotia, which at that time was a remote, and with the Treaty of Ultrect in 1713, a fairly recently acquired British colony.

DNA Matches

Lunenburg, N.S. DNA Matches	JN	SB	C1	C2
Boutilier	50+	50+	47	43
Dauphinee	30	30	23	31
Jollimore  JOLIMOIS	22	17	15	12
Langille	40	32	40	34
Veinot  VIENOT,	36	33	10	18
Bourgeois	50+	50+	40	42
Millard / Maillard	35

The surname Boutilier was first found in Normandy  where the family held a family seat. By the 15th century the family name had also branched to Lorraine in France. They later became Barons of the Empire and were also the Marquis of Chavigny (https://www.houseofnames.com).

Following from www.wikitree.com describes the life of one of the Montbéliard immigrants:

Jacques Bouteillier was born in 1735 and baptized August 11, 1735, the son of Jean George Bouteillier and Sara Grange of Etobon, in the Principality of Montbéliard, a small French-speaking borderland state, now in the Franche Comté region of France. It was ruled by the Duke of Württemberg until 1793 and a majority of its inhabitants were Lutheran Protestant Christians. Although not Calvinists, as they were French-speaking and Protestant emigrants, they are considered Huguenot Emigrants by the Huguenot Emigration Project on WikiTree. On May 30,1752 he emigrated to Nova Scotia aboard the English vessel Sally along with his family. The “Sally” had a very lengthy and difficult voyage to Nova Scotia resulting in the high mortality rate – 40 of 258 passengers died en route, including both of his parents^[3]. The ship arrived in Halifax in September 1752, and all of the passengers were held on board for another three weeks in quarantine. His younger siblings were listed as orphans on the victualing list. Jacques was old enough to be considered an adult. In the spring of 1753 the “Foreign Protestants” in Nova Scotia were moved to a new settlement, called Lunenburg. In many of the English records, “Jacques” was anglicized to “James”. The family moved to Coxheath, Cape Breton in 1811, and Jacques Bouteillier died in May 1827 in Sydney River, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia (Native name: “Wunamaki”). His death was reported in the Acadian Recorder June 9, 1827.^[2]

Jacques(James) Boutilier aka Bouteillier, Boutellie Born 4 Aug 1735 in Etoban, Principauté de Montbéliard, Empire Romain Germanique

ANCESTORS: Son of Jean George Boutilier and Sara (Grange) BoutilierBrother of Catharine (Boutilier) Bouteiller, Catherine (Boutilier) Jacot, Nicholas Boutilier, Jean George Boutilier, Jean Nicholas Boutilier, Pierre Boutilier, Jeanne (Boutilier) Bouteillier and George Frederick BoutilierHusband of Suzanne Catherine (Rigoulot) Boutilier — married 22 Dec 1765 in St. John’s, Lunenburg, Nova ScotiaDESCENDANTS Father of James Frederick Boutilier, John James Boutilier, Catherine Elizabeth (Boutilier) Lewis, George Jacob Boutilier, Jean Pierre Boutilier, John George Boutilier, Mary Catherine Catherine (Boutillier) Boutilier, John David Boutilier, Susanna Margaretha (Boutilier) Andrews, Henry Joseph Boutilier, John Henry Boutilier and John George Boutilier