Portrait of Major General Paul Mascarene, 1729. Paul Mascarene was born Jean-Paul Mascarene in France in 1684 or 1685. He was educated in Geneva and in 1706 began a military career in England. In 1708 he was in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, preparing troops for an expedition against Canada, and in 1710 he was the captain who took possession of Port Royal (renamed Annapolis Royal) in the campaign that won Nova Scotia for Britain. Between, 1740 and 1749 he was chief administrator of Nova Scotia during the campaign against Louisbourg. He became a major general in 1758 and died in Boston in 1760.