Acadie had been a British colony since 1713 when, in 1720, Governor of Acadie Richard Phlipps ordered the Acadians of Port-Royal then called Annapolis Royal in honour of Queen Anne of Great Britain, to choose six delegates to discuss an unconditional oath of allegiance. In fact, in 1715, the 36 heads of the Port-Royal Acadian families had signed a conditional oath of allegiance by which they promised to stay true to the king of Great Britain, George I, for as long as they stayed in Nova Scotia, and to remain neutral in the event of a conflict between France and Great Britain. The Acadian delegates, chosen annually from 1720 on, refused year after year to give an unconditional oath of allegiance. This was tolerated by the British because, before the foundation of Halifax in 1749, they did not have the military means to force them to do so. Between 1720 and 1749, dozens of Acadians were chosen as delegates.