Permanent settlers only arrived in Petit-de-Grat after the Treaty of Paris was signed in 1763, when a group of Acadians left Louisbourg to settle there. Louis and Joseph Boudreau, Claude Dugas, George Manet, Jean Perré, Michel Samson and their families settled there to become fishermen, a trade which was controlled at the time by the Robin Company. Petit-de-Grat later became an important centre for shipbuilding and for the processing of fish products.