[7] The Nerepis river - formerly Nelepitchk[6] but now written as Nali'pits in Wolastoqey[11] - which runs through the north of the town was also frequently used as part of a portage route traveling to the Musquash watershed.

[12] As Joseph Robineau de Villebon noted in a letter dated October 22, 1696,[13] there was a fortified Wolastoqey settlement and fort at the confluence of the Nerepis and Wolastoq rivers just outside the town of Grand Bay-Westfield at Woodman's Point.

[15] While the fortified settlement fell into disuse during the 18th century, many Wolastoqiyik continued to summer near the mouth of the Nerepis at Westfield Beach and Lingley into the 1920s.

[16] Westfield Beach was a particularly important summer encampment used to trap muskrat, gather fiddleheads, and collect wood and reeds for basketry and furniture making.

[23] In 1749, a small French fort was built at Woodman's Point by Charles Deschamps de Boishébert; likely on the site of the former Wolastoqiyik stronghold.

[25] When Loyalist transport ships arrived at Saint John in 1783, the area now referred to as Grand Bay-Westfield was part of Sunbury County, most of it within the Township of Conway.

Separation from Nova Scotia only became complete in November with the public reading on the commission of newly arrived Governor Thomas Carleton.

One community member, Thomas Peters, went to England to persuade the British to provide free transport to Sierra Leone and land grants there for anyone interested.

The 1945 Local Improvement Districts Act facilitated incorporation for limited municipal purposes in many centres,[32] including the communities of Westfield and Pamdenec.

Following the December 1992 release of a government discussion paper entitled "Strengthening Municipal Government in New Brunswick's Urban Centres", a series of localized feasibility studies were commissioned by the Frank McKenna Liberals targeting six geographic areas: Edmundston, Campbellton, Dalhousie, Miramichi, Moncton, and Saint John.

In each instance, a panel composed of local representatives and expert consulting staff made specific recommendations for each urban-centred region.

As Cormier summarized it, residents "perceive Saint John as an expensive, poorly managed bureaucracy that does not serve its citizens well.

Rather, the provincial government chose to proceed with partial consolidations and opted to legislate cost sharing for five specific regional facilities.

Despite Cormier's insistence that Westfield be expanded in either consolidation scenario to "serve as a buffer zone where development is planned and well regulated" to "ensure they would prevent migration and urban sprawl.

Notably, it was predetermined by the Town Council that the name “Grand Bay-Westfield” would automatically be included on the final voting ballot.

[55] Once all submissions were received, the town created a decision-making tool based on Canada's Guiding Principles for Geographic Naming.

[56] The tool – a name matrix – was designed with and approved by both the town's Transition Facilitator and the Province's appointed toponymy expert.

Ultimately, the 5 names selected to appear on the ballot were Hillandale, Nerepis Valley, Three Rivers, Westfield, and Grand Bay-Westfield.

These changes include some alterations along the county line, the Loch Alva Wilderness Area, and at Robin Hood Lake.

[61] In 1869 the European and North American Railway Western Extension was opened through the area between Saint John and Vanceboro, Maine.

CPR established several stations through the area (Grand Bay, Pamdenec, Epworth Park, Ingleside, Ononette, Hillandale, Westfield Beach, Lingley, Sagwa, and Nerepis).

The former was owned by the Provincial and later Federal governments for public use and eventually came to be repurposed as a ferry landing and boat launch after the steamboat traffic stopped.

The Canadian Coast Guard maintains a seasonal (summer only) search and rescue station at Brundage Point near the Westfield ferry landing.

Westfield's official request for a coat of arms was made to the Chief Herald of Canada by Mayor Kevin Thorne on behalf of the Council on October 25, 1988.

This device was chosen because Ensign Henry Nase, the first Loyalist settler of Westfield, served in the unit for six years until it was disbanded in New Brunswick in 1783.

In the Westfield arms this is coloured black with five heraldic representations of ermine tails to represent fur as a nod to the early French regime in the area.

Sieur of Martignon Martin D'Arprendestiguy - whose seigneury included the lands which would become Westfield - made his living from the fur trade.

[23] The crest consists of a wreath of twisted cloth in the main colours of the shield, white and green, on which there sits a Loyalist coronet.

[23] The motto associated with the coat of arms is "INTER AGROS ET FLUMINA HABITENS", or "Dwelling between fields and rivers" in reference to the local geography.

The new logo maintained the sailboat associated with both Grand Bay and Westfield since the 1970s, but abstracted the icon into three simple shapes coloured yellow, green, and blue.