LIST
OF LANDS GRANTED BY THE CROWN
IN
THE PROVINCE OF QUEBEC FROM 1763 TO 31st DECEMBER 1890
PRINTED
BY ORDER OF THE LEGISLATURE
QUEBEC
CHARLES
FRANCOIS LANGLOIS
PRINTER
TO HER MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY THE QUEEN
1891
On
the reverse-to-title-page side reads:
“Return
To
an order of the House dated on the 29th December 1890, for an alphabetical Index
of lands granted fron 1763 to 31st December 1890, county by county and township
by township.”
INTRODUCTION
----------
In order that this list may be easily understood, it is advisable to
explain summarily the different systems of granting public lands followed in
this Province since the country was ceded to England.
Instructions of 1768.
In taking possession of Canada, the Imperial Government took steps
to avoid the inconveniences caused by large concessions of land, which the gave
rise to much trouble in the other British colonies in North America.
For that purpose, the Lords Commissioners of Trade and Plantations in
1763 sent instructions to the Canadian Government, limiting grants of public
land to 100 acres for every head of a family and 50 acres for every other
person, white or colored, composing the family, the power to extend the total
area to 1000 acres in exceptional cases. The object of this liberality was to induce English settlers
from adjacent provinces to settle in Canada.
According to these instructions, all Crown lands were to be granted in
free tenure and without any other condition than the reservation of the right of
the Crown to resume possession of the whole or part of the land granted in the
event of its being required for military purposes. These grants were made by means of location tickets or
occupation permits.
There is, in the archives of the Registrar’s Department, no
trace or rather no registration of the grants which may have been made under
these instructions. The first
registered concession bears the date of 1788.
Bouchette, in his Topographical description of Lower Canada, says that
the seigniories of Malbaie and Mount Murray were granted on the 27th April 1762
to John Naird and Malcolm Fraser, two officers of the 78th Regiment of foot; but
there is not the slightest trace of these conditions in the archives of this
Department.
Instruction of 1775.
The object of the act of 1774, the first regular constitution of
Canada, was to re-establish in the country all French laws affecting the tenure
of real estate. Consequently, the
Imperial Government, in 1775, sent new instructions to the Governor of the
Colony ordering that, in the future, the public lands were to be granted
according to the French system, that is in fiefs and seigniories, the same as
under the French rule, with the exception of the justices seignioriales.
In 1786, the Colonial Department sent special instructions to Lord
Dorchester, the Governor of the Province, ordering him to give grants of land of
a specific extent to the refugee loyalists from the United States and to the
officers and men of the 84th regiment, a colonial corps organized during the
revolutionary war. These
instructions, however, stated, in formal terms, that the concessions so made
would depend from the Crown as seignior and be subject to all the other
conditions of seigniorial tenure.
They also limited the extent of these concessions as follows:
To staff officers............................5000 acres
To captains..................................3000 acres
To subalterns................................2000 acres
To non-commissioned officers..................200 acres
To privates....................................50 acres
As the officers and soldiers declined to accept these favors
because the objected to the feudal tenure, the Government returned to the system
of grants by location tickets established by the instructions of 1763 and
abolished by those of 1775.
It was under this system of location tickets and of the
instructions of 1786 that the lands were granted to the soldiers and American
loyalists who afterwards settled in Gaspe.
The following is one of theses location tickets:
PROVINCE OF QUEBEC Dated
the twenty-first day of May, Anno Domini
Quebec
1787.
The bearer hereof, Charles Dugas, being entitled to .........
acres of Land by His Majesty’s Instructions to the Governor of this Province
has drawn Lot (No 43) consisting of one hundred acres, three acres in front by
thirty-three acres and one third in depth, in part of the said proportion in the
Seigniory of Carleton and having taken the Oaths, and made and signed the
Declaration required by the Instructions, he is hereby authorized to settle and
improve the said Lot, without delay; and being settled thereon, he shall receive
a patent, grant or deed of concession, at the expiration of twelve months from
the date hereof, to enable him to hold an inheritable or assignable estate in
the said lot.
(Signed) John
Collins.
D. S. G.
(Dictionary look-up: Socage
= soccage: The tenure of land by certain determinate services other than
knight-service.) Not one of these grants or location tickets in the district of
Gaspe appears in the books of the Registrar’s Department, which books were
only commenced in 1788 by the registration of grants to John Shoolbred,
merchant, of London, of the posts of Bonaventure and Perce, with stone house and
stores and of the seigniory of Shoolbred at the mouth of the river Nouvelle.
CONSTITUTIONAL ACT AND INSTRUCTIONS OF 1791
The act of 1791, which divided Canada into two provinces and
introduced the representative system into the country, contains the following
provision with reference to public lands.
“XLIII. All lands
which shall be hereafter granted within the said Province of Upper Canada, shall
be granted in free and common soccage, in like manner as lands are now holden in
free and common soccage, in that part of Great Britain called England; and in
every case where lands shall be hereafter granted within the said Province of
Lower Canada, and where the grantee thereof shall desire the same to be granted
in free and common soccage, the same shall be so granted; but subject,
nevertheless, to such alterations with respect to the nature and consequences of
such tenure of free and common soccage, as may be established by any law or laws
which may be made by His Majesty, His Heirs or Successors, by and with the
advice and consent of the Legislative Council and Assembly of the Province.”
After passing this Act, the Minister for the Colonies sent new
instructions to the Governor containing the same provisions as those of 1763 as
to the quantity of land to be granted and also certain conditions of settlement
which are embodied as follows in the letters patent issued under such
instructions:
“And provided always and these Our Present Letters are upon this
express condition that if the said Grantees, their Heirs and assigns or some or
one of them shall not within one year next after the date of theses Our Present
Letters settle on the premises hereby to them granted so many families as shall
amount to one family for every twelve hundred acres thereof or if they, the said
grantees, their heirs or assigns or some or one of them shall not within three
years to be computed as aforesaid, plant and effectually cultivate at least two
acres for every hundred acres of such of the hereby granted premises as are
capable of cultivation and shall not also within seven years to be computed as
aforesaid, plant and effectually cultivate at least seven acres for every
hundred acres of such of the hereby granted premises as are capable of
cultivation, that then and in any of these cases this Our Present Grant and
every thing therein contained shall cease and be absolutely void, and the lands
and premises hereby granted shall revert and escheat to Us, Our Heirs and
Successors and shall thereupon become the absolute and entire property of Us or
them, in the same manner as if this Our Present Grant had never been made, any
thing therein contained to the contrary in any way notwithstanding.”
These conditions were embodied in all the letters patent between
1791 and 1806, but they remained a dead letter and were barely observed in a few
exceptional cases. Article 59 of
the Royal Instructions of 1763 ordered the Surveyor General or any other person
appointed by the Governor to make, once a year or oftener if required, an
inspection of the lands granted by the Governor and to make a written report of
such inspection to the Governor, specifying whether the conditions contained in
the letters patent had or had not been fulfilled and what progress had been made
in the accomplishment of such conditions. But
these instructions were never followed, except under the administration of Lord
Dalhousie, who ordered Surveyor-General Bouchette to make such inspection.
Mr. Bouchette published the information collected in the course of his
inspection in his works, especially in the Topographical Description of Lower
Canada.
In practically abolishing the system of land grants, according to
the seigniorial method, the act of 1791 introduced into the country all the
evils and troubles which the British Government sought to avoid by the
instructions of 1668 and give rise to the plague of large land-holders which had
so greatly hindered the settlement and material advancement of the Province. Under the seigniorial regime an individual might, without any
trouble, obtain large grants of land inasmuch as he was obliged to concede to
any bona fide settler who applied for it. But
under the system of free grants and free tenure, as established by the act and
instructions of 1791, owing to the neglect or connivance of the provincial
authorities, a single individual could obtain a whole township and close it to
settlers; this unfortunately happened in a considerable portion of the Eastern
Townships. It was under this regime
that the system of township leaders and associates originated, which, in less
than 15 years, from 1796 to 1809, gave 1,457,209 acres of the best Crown Lands
into the possession of about seventy persons, one of whom, Nicholas Austin,
obtained in 1797 a quantity of 62,621 acres of land in the township of Bolten.
The system was carried on as follows:
A person wishing to thus take possession of a portion of the public
domain, first came to an understanding with the members of the Executive Council
and the officers occupying the highest positions, to secure their concurrence
and that of the Governor. He
afterwards came to an understanding with a certain number of individuals, picked
up at hap-hazard, to get them to sign a petition to the Governor, praying for
the granting of the land he desired. To
compensate them for this accommodating act on their part, he paid his associates
a nominal sum, generally a guinea, in consideration of which they at once
retransfered their shares to him as soon as the letters patent were issued.
Sometimes one or two of the associates kept a lot of 100 or 200 acres on
a grant covering several thousand acres, but this was the exception, not the
general rule. For that purpose
stationers sold blanks of such re-transfers, the form of which, as shown in 1821
before a committee of the Legislative Assembly, had been prepared and drafted by
the Attorney-General.
These frauds were committed with the knowledge of the Executive
Council, several of whose members even used this means to obtain large grants of
public lands. Prescott. one of the
Governors of the time, wished to stop this waste of the public domain, but he
brought down upon himself the hatred of the Executive Councillors who, headed by
Judge Osgood, managed to obtain his recall.
Sir Robert Shore Milne, Prescott’s successor, showed himself better
disposed towards the spoilers of the Crown domain and gave them a tangible proof
of his good intentions, he had a grant given to him of 48,061 acres in the
townships of Compton, Stanstead and Barnston.
Every pretext was made use of to despoil the public domain in
favor of the friends of the administration.
Thus, to reward John Black, a shipbuilder, for having betrayed the
American McLean in order to hand him over to justice and have him executed, on
the pretext that he was fomenting rebellion, the Government gave him a free
grant on the 30th December, 1799 of the greater portion of the
township of Dorset or an area of 53,000 acres.
The following list shows the extent of the principal grants of the public
lands so made from 1796 to 1809.
TownshipsGrantees
Date of Grant
Extent of Grant
------- ------------------------------
-------------- ----------
Dunham
Thomas Dunn
02 February 1796
40,825
Brome
Asa Porter
18 August
1797 41,758
Bolten
Nicholas Austin
08 August
1797 62,621
Potton
Laughlan McLean
31 October 1797
6,000
Farnham
Samuel Gale
22 October 1798
23,000
Dorset
John Black
30 December 1799
53,000
Stoneham
Kenelm Chandler
14 May
1800 23,800
Tewkesbury
Denis Letourneau
14 May
1800 24,000
Broughton
Henry Juncken and W. Hall8 October
1800 23,100
Stanstead
Isaac Ogden
27 September 1800
27,720
Upton
D. A. Grant
21 May 1800
25,200
Grantham
W. Grant
14 May
1800 27,000
Hunterstown John
Jones
29 August
1800 24,620
Stukeley
Samuel Willard
03 November 1800
23,625
Eaton
Josiah Sawyer
04 December 1801
25,620
Barnston
Robert Lester
11 April
1801 23,100
Shefford
John Savage
10 February 1801
35,490
Orford
Luke Knowlton 05 May
1801 13,600
Newport
Edmond Heard
04 July
1801 12,200
Stanbridge
John Catling
1 September 1801
38,600
Brompton
William Barnard
27 November 1801
40,200
Shipton
Elmer Cushing
04 December 1801
58,692
Stoke
James Cowan
13 February 1802
48,620
Barford
I. W. Clarke
15 April
1802 27,720
Chester
Simon McTavish
17 July 1802
11,550
Sutton
P. Conroy and Herman Best31 August
1802 39,900
Halifax
Benjamin Jobert
07 August
1802 11,550
Inverness
William McGillivary
09 August
1802 11,550
Wolfestown
Nicolas Mantour
14 August
1802 11,550
Leeds
Isaac Todd
14 August
1802 11,760
Ireland
Joseph Frobisher
20 August
1802 11,550
Durham
Thomas Scott
30 August
1802 21,991
Compton
Jesse Pennoyer
31 August
1802 26,460
Wickham
William Lindsay
31 August
1802 23,753
Arthabaska
John Gregory
30 September 1802
11,550
Thetford
John Mervin Nooth
10 November 1802
23,100
Ely
Amos Lay, junior
13 November 1802
11,550
Roxton
E. Ruiter
08 January 1803
16,400
Granby
Thomas Ainsley
08 January 1803
4,600
Buckingham
David Beach
26 January 1802
13,000
Clifton
Charles Blake
05 March
1803 22,000
Ascott
Gilbert Hyatt
05 March
1803 21,188
Burry
Calvin May
15 March
1803 11,550
Hatley
Henry Cull
25 March
1803 23,493
Ditton
Minard H. Yeomans
13 May
1803 11,550
Clinton
J. F. Holland
24 May
1803 12,400
Bulstrode
Patrick Langan
27 May
1803 24,463
Kingsley
George Longmore
07 June
1803 11,478
Kildare
P. P. de la Valtrie
24 June
1803 11,486
Clifton
Daniel Cameron
23 July
1803 5,800
Potton
Henry Ruiter
27 July
1803 27,680
Newport
Nathaniel Taylor
04 August
1803 12,000
Tingwick
S. E. Fernuson
23 January 1804
23,730
Warwick Abraham Steel
23 January 1804
23,940
Westbury
Henry Caldwell
13 March
1804 12,262
Eaton
Isaac Ogden
14 March
1804 6,000
Somerset
C. de Lanandiere
21 April
1804 8,300
Tring
Hugh McKay
20 July
1804 7,600
Kingsley
Major Holland’s family 14
January 1805
1,400
Newton
J. E. Lemoine de Longueuil06 March
1805 12,961
Melbourne
Henry Caldwell
03 April
1805 26,153
Chester
Samuel Philipps
11 April
1805 6,200
Dudswell
John Bishop
30 May 1805
11,632
Wendover
Thomas Cook
24 June 1805
3,400
Halifax
W. F. Scott
25 June 1805
11,700
Farnham
Jane Cuyler
09 September 1805
4,800
Hull
Philemon Wright
03 January 1806
13,701
Acton
James Caldwell 17 February
1806 17,500
Auckland
Elizabeth Gould
03 April
1806 23,100
Frampton
P. E. Desbarats
10 July
1806 11,569
Acton
Geo. W. Allsopp
22 July
1806 24,004
Eardley
E. Sanford
22 August
1806 5,000
Chatham
D. Robertson
31 December 1806
5,000
Lingwick
W. Vondenvelden
07 March
1807 13,650
Lochaber
A. McMillan
26 March 1807
13,161
Templeton
A. McMillan
26 March
1807 8,949
Stanfold
Jenkin Williams
08 July
1807 26,810
Ham
Nancy Allen
29 July 1807
9,200
Frampton
R. A. de Boucherville 09
September 1808
4,100
Onslow
Henry Walcot
12 November 1808
10,950
Maddington
G. W. Allsopp
01 December 1808
10,400
Farnham
John Allsopp
11 February 1809
9,800
Sherrington F.
Baby and Bishop Mountain29 May
1809 19,100
Wentworth
Jane de Montmolin
03 June
1809 11,880
Sherrington Suzan
and Margaret Findlay29 May
1809 8,300
Stanstead
Sir R. S. Milnes
02 March
1810 21,406
Barnston
Sir R. S. Milnes
02 March
1810 13,546
Compton
Sir R. S. Milnes
02 March
1810 13,110
These figures show how the public domain was disposed of at that time.
These extravagant, not to say scandalous, concessions, continued for a long time
without the grantees taking the slightest trouble to fulfill the conditions of
the settlement which were nevertheless in force.
These excessive grants virtually closed the public domain to
colonization. As the large
proprietors did not even wish to open roads through their properties, it was
impossible to pass through them to take up lands situated in rear, and bona fide settlers were unable to obtain land without passing
through the Candine Forks of the large proprietors. The Legislative Assembly took up the matter and upon its
representations, the Imperial Parliament, in 1825, passed the act 6, Geo. II,
chap. 59 ss. 10 and 11, establishing a court to ascertain whether the conditions
of settlement attached to each grant had been fulfilled and if they had not been
to declare the grant forfeited in favor of the Crown.
As the majority of those who were likely to be dealt with by this court
were the most influential in the Province, they found means to nullify this
measure of reform; two or three cases submitted to this court
of escheats at Sherbrooke were dismissed for informalities in the
proceedings and every thing remained in statu
quo. We may add that the statute establishing this court has never
been repealed and is still in force in the Province. The system of township leaders and associates commenced to
fall into desuetude about 1806 and, from that date, almost all large grants were
made in each case in the name of one individual or of a single family.
Thus, in 1810, the Ellice family obtained a grant of 25,592 acres in
Godmanchester and another of 3,819 in Hinchinbrooke.
In 1815, the Governor, Lord Drummond, granted to Hon. John Richardson
29,800 acres in Grantham and 11, 050 acres to Hon. Thos. Dunn, in Stukeley.
These violations of the instructions of the Imperial Government
which sequestrated the best part of the public domain in favour of a few
speculators, were encouraged by the Imperial Government itself. Thus, of his own accord the Duke of Portland gave 48,062 acres
to the Governor Sir Robert Shore Milnes and 12,000 acres to each of the members
of the Executive council constituting the Land Commission which had give all the
extravagant and scandalous concessions up to that date.
LOCATION
TICKETS OR OCCUPATION PERMITS
This system was introduced in 1818 to counteract a little the
abuses in the alienation of the public domain.
From that date, grants were made by means of location tickets, permitting
the grantee to occupy the land applied for by him and containing certain
conditions of settlement which had to be fulfilled before the letters patent
could be issued. At the outset
these conditions required, in addition to the building of a house, the clearing
and cultivation of four acres per lot, as well as well as permanent residence
for three years on the land so cleared. But
this condition was soon abandoned and all that was required of the grantee to
obtain his letters patent was to build a hut and cut down four acres of forest.
INSTRUCTIONS
OF 1826
Up to 1826, all the public lands had been granted free of charge.
That year the Treasury Board with the object of increasing the provincial
revenue, ordered that, in future, public land should be sold by auction and be
payable in four installments without interest.
In virtue of these inspections the only lands to be offered to purchasers
were those selected for the purpose by the Governor on the recommendation of the
Commissioner of Crown Lands, an office instituted that very year..
Those instructions also allowed small lots of land to be sold to bona fide settlers for what was called a constituted rent and which
was in reality only interest at 5 per cent of the estimated value of the land.
INSTRUCTIONS
OF 1831 AND 1837
In 1831, Lord Goderich sent new instructions to the Governor,
ordering that, in future, the price of lands was to be paid by half-yearly
instalments with interest. But
these instructions were not followed. On
the recommendation of the Commissioner of Crown Lands, the Governor gave orders
that the old system be followed and the price of Crown Lands be received by
annual instalments without interest.
In 1837, Lord Glenelg ordered the Provincial Government to receive the
full amount of the price of the land at the time of sale.
These instructions remained in force until 1840 but the troubles which
arose in the country paralysed all business and no new sales were made during
the three years.
GRANTS
TO REGULARS AND MILITIAMEN
We have already seen that, in obedience to the orders of the
Imperial Government, free grants were give to militiamen who had served in the
war of 1775 when the Province was invaded by the Americans. 232,281 acres were so granted to militiamen.
Those who served in the war of 1812 were also rewarded in the same manner
and received 217,840 acres for their services.
All these grants were subject to the ordinary conditions of
settlement and to the stipulation that the lands granted would revert to the
Crown if the conditions were not fulfilled.
But the colonial administration took no trouble to have these conditions
observed and to cancel the grants nearly all of which passed into the hands of
influential speculators. As soon as
the militiamen received their letters patent they sold their lands for a trifle,
in many instances for a bottle of rum.
GRANTS
IN THE DISTRICT OF GASPE
We have already seen that shortly after the American revolution, the
Government sent into the Gaspe district a certain number of loyalists to whom it
gave lands, without, at the same time, giving them regular title deeds.
It was the same with the Acadians who had no other title than tradition
to the lands they occupied. When
the population began to increase a little, land became comparatively scarcer and
difficulties arose nearly everywhere in connection with real estate,
difficulties which were all the harder to settle that there were no title deeds
of the grants to establish the pretentions of the various claimants.
In order to put an end to the troubles, the Legislature, in 1819, passed
the act 59 Geo. III, chap. 3, authorizing the Government to appoint
commissioners to make inquiries on the spot and to decide ownership of the
properties in dispute. Section 9 of
the said act enacts as follows:
“The said Commissioners shall, from time to time, transmit to
the Clerk of the Executive Council of the Province a report of all such claims
as they shall have examined and decided and the person or persons in whose
favour they shall have reported shall be considered as entitled to have a grant
or grants under the Great Seal of the Province of the lands in respect of which
such report shall be made.”
The commissioners, Messrs. J. T. Taschereau and L. Juchereau
Duchesnay made a report (Appendix E of Journals of the Legislative Assembly for
1821-22) which contains the enumeration of the lots adjudicated upon.
As may be easily seen by the text of the statute, these adjudications do
not constitute regular titles and are only location tickets which were to be
completed by letters patent under the Great Seal of the Province.
Nevertheless, the parties have never, except in very rare cases, take the
trouble to obtain letters patent and have really no regular titles to their
properties. In fact, in the
counties of Gaspe and Bonaventure, especially along the Baie des Chaleurs, more
than half the people have no title, not even a location ticket for the property
that they occupy, which makes it very expensive to have searches made in the
registry offices.
EXCEPTIONAL
GRANTS
All the abovementioned extravagant grants were made by the
colonial administration, but the Imperial Government displayed the same
prodigality whenever opportunity offered. Thus
the Duke of Portland, undoubtedly as a reward for their profusion, gave a
quarter of a township, about 12,000 acres, to each member of the Executive
Council constituting the Land Board which had granted the excessive concessions
to township leaders from 1796 to 1806. He
also0 made a present of 48,062 acres to the Governor, Sir Robert Shore Milnes,
who, like his predecessors, had abused his position to enrich a handful of
favorites to the detriment of the public. Mr.
Felton, an emigrant, who was afterwards Commissioner of Crown Lands, brought
with him a formal grant of 5,00 acres another conditional grant of 5,000 acres,
and others for those who accompanied him.
In accordance with instructions from the English minister, The
Duke of Richmond gave free grant to officers and soldiers of the regular army,
and in 1832, Lord Goderich gave some to pensioners in commutation of their
pensions. Finally it was from the
Imperial Government that the British American Land Company obtained the lands it
owns in the Eastern Townships: the grant in its favour covered an extent of
800,000 acres.
MONOPLY
OF THE PUBLIC DOMAIN
All this prodigality on the part of the Imperial and Provincial
Governments had the effect of concentration the possession of the public domain
in the hands of a few individuals and to give rise to the great evil of
landlordism and absenteeism which have so greatly hampered the spread of
colonization. This evil was still
further increased by sales at, low figures, by means of which some speculatiors
obtained possession of another portion of the public lands.
During the investigation by Commissioner Buller in 1838 under
instructions from Lord Durham, it was ascertained that 105 individuals or
families owned at that time 1,404,500 acres outside of the seigniories, or an
average of 13,376 acres per individual or family. The following is the list produced by John Hastings Kerr, one
of the witnesses examined:
1
Thomas Dunn Estate
about
52,000 acres
2
Frobisher Estate
57,000 acres
3
Heirs J. @Wurtell
purch.
49,000 acres
4
Colonel Penderleath
42,000 acres
5
McGill Estate
38.000 acres
6
Estate Richardson
purch.
37,000 acres
7
Hon. M. Bell
purch.
30,000 acres
8
Philemon Wright
35,000 acres
9
Estate of Judge Ogden
30,000 acres
10
Sir John Caldwell
about
35,000 acres
11
Charles Ogden
purch.
25,000 acres
12
Louis Massue
purch. 40,000
acres
13
Hart families
purch.
40,000 acres
14 Forsyth
& Hyatt
purch.
40,000 acres
15
William Vondenvelden
purch. 25,000
acres
16 Estate
of G. Glumeg
10,000 acres
17
Webb and others
purch.
28,000 acres
18
F. and M. Defoy
14,000 acres
19
Bagnes Estate
2,000 acres
20 Estate
William Holmes
purch. 14,000
acres
21
Baby family
.
10,000 acres
22
Lindsay family
10,000 acres
23
Colonel Heriot
12,000 acres
24
D. R. Stewart
purch.
14,000 acres
25
R. Taylor
purch.
17,000 acres
26
Estate Clarke
12,000 acres
27
Scott family
11,000 acres
28
P. Paterson
purch. 22,000
acres
29
J. H. Kerr
purch.
21,000 acres
30
T. A. Stayner
purch.
24,000 acres
31
Estate Blanchet
purch.
15,000 acres
32
J. B. Forsyth
purch.
10,000 acres
33
D. Burnet
10,000 acres
34
Taylor Estate
purch.
21,000 acres
35
Felton family
12,000 acres
36
W. Gregory
11,000 acres
37
Montizambert family
10,000 acres
38
Wilson Estate
13,000 acres
39
Judge Gale
10,000 acres
40
Judge Bowen
purch.
10,000 acres
41
George B. Rodington
purch.
3,000 acres
42
William Henderson
purch.
22,000 acres
43
Commissary General
purch.
10,000 acres
44
Gray, Estate
6,000 acres
45
Stewart family
6,000 acres
46
Chief Justice Sewell
purch.
6,500 acres
47
Allsopp family
16,000 acres
48
Cuyler, Estate
6,000 acres
49
William Somerville
purch.
3,500 acres
50
James Stewart
purch. 8,000 acres
51
Lester and Morrogh, Estates
4,500 acres
52
Quebec Bank
purch.
14,900 acres
53
William Philips
purch.
50,000 acres
54
Mountain family
3,000 acres
55
Estate of General McLean
6,000 acres
56
Estate of Col. Robertson
12,000 acres
57
Mr. De St-Ours
3,000 acres
58
Dunford Estate
5,200 acres
59
Blackwood Estate
4,000 acres
60
William Hall
14,000 acres
61
Sutherland Estate
12,000 acres
62
L. Knowlton
purch. 20,000
acres
63
Stanley Bagg
purch.
4,000 acres
64
Benjamin Tremain
purch.
8,000 acres
65
Honorable J. Stewart
2,000 acres
66
Walker family
2,000 acres
67
Madam Quiche
purch.
7,200 acres
68
Green family
6,000 acres
69
Staunton family
8,200 acres
70
Pozer family
purch.
20,000 acres
71
Robinson
purch.
4,000 acres
72
N. Coffin
2,000 acres
73
Begelon
10,000 acres
74
Henry Hale
purch.
4,000 acres
75
Gilpin Gorst
purch.
5,000 acres
76
Cull Estate
3,000 acres
77
Longman family
11,000 acres
78
Honorable E. Ellice
30,000 acres
79
Whyte family
purch.
6,000 acres
80
Reverend Mr. Sewell
purch.
3,000 acres
81
Fraser Estate
6,000 acres
82
Mrs. Scott
2,400 acres
83
Holland Estate
4,000 acres
84
Miss Findlay
5,000 acres
85
Mrs. Elliot
part
purch.
3,000 acres
86
James Caldwell Estate
2.000 acres
87
J. McLeod
purch. 2,000 acres
88
H. Gowan
purch.
5,000 acres
89
Dr. Skey
purch.
2,500 acres
90
B. Bowman
purch. 4,000 acres
91
William Torrance
purch.
6,000 acres
92
Horatio Patton
purch.
2,000 acres
93
William Patton
purch.
3,000 acres
94
William Price
4,500 acres
95
Henry Lemesurier
purch.
10,000 acres
96
Jacques Voyer
2,000 acres
97
J. McLean
3,000 acres
98
George Hamilton
purch.
3,500 acres
99
Pastonon family
3,000 acres
100 Mallust
Estate
3,000 acres
101 Judge
Pyke and Desbarats
24,000 acres
102 Chime
family
2,000 acres
103
Armstrong family
3,000 acres
104
Trueman Kemton
purch.
16,000 acres
105 J.
W. Wainwright
purch.
3,600 acres
-----------------
Total
1,404,500
acres
or an average of 13.376.19 acres per owner.
DEFECTS
IN SURVEYS
The surveys were not managed better than the other branches of the Crown
Lands service. The
Surveyor-General, who had excusive control of this branch, generally did not
occupy himself nearly so much in controlling the surveys as in the selection of
the best lands which he pointed out to the favorites of the administration.
That is what Lord Durham says in his famous report on the affairs of
British North America:
“I have already pointed out the importance of accurate surveys
of the public lands. Without these
there can be no security of property in land, no certainty even as to the
position or boundaries of estates marked out in maps or named in title deeds.
“The consequences of this have been confusion and uncertainty in
the possessions of almost every man, and no small amount of litigation.
As to Lower Canada, the evidence is still more complete and
unsatisfactory. The Commissioner of
Crown Lands says, in answer to question: I can instance two townships, Shefford
and Orford (and how many more may prove inaccurate as question of boundary
arise, it is impossible to say,) which are very inaccurate in their subdivision.
On actual recent survey it was found that no one lot agrees with the
diagram on record. The lines
dividing the lots, instead of running perpendicularly according to the diagram,
actually run diagonally, the effect of which is necessarily to displace the
whole of the lots, upwards of 300 in number, from their true position.
The lines dividing the ranges are so irregular as to give some lots two
and a half times the extent of others, though they are all laid down in diagram
as of equal extent; there are lakes also which occupy nearly the whole of some
lots that are entirely omitted; I have heard complaints of a similar nature
respecting the township of Grenville. I
have no reason for believing that the surveys of other townships are more
accurate than those of Shefford and Orford, other than that in some parts of the
country the same causes of error may not have existed.”
Mr. Kerr says:--“It is generally understood the surveys in many
of the various townships are very inaccurate; and many of the surveys have been
found to be so. I had in my hands
the other day a patent for four lots in the township of Inverness, three of
which did not exist, granted to a Captain Skinner.
Three of the lots were decided not to be in existence, and I received
compensation for them in another township.
A great error was discovered in the original survey of the township of
Leeds. The inaccuracy of the
surveys is quite a matter of certainty. I
would cite a number of townships, Milton, Upton, Orford, Shefford, &c.,
where the inaccuracy has been ascertained.”
Commissioner Buller said very the same in his report: “The
surveys of the township lands also were so imperfect and erroneous as to add
very considerably to the difficulties in the way of settlement.
Instances have occurred in which the lots professed to be granted had no
existence except on the diagram in the Surveyor-General’s office, yet more
numerous were the cases in which a person receiving a grant of 200 acres, found
that the lot assigned to him contained from 40 to 90 more acres or less than its
assumed dimension. In many
instances the grommet was without a boundary, or its figure and boundaries were
totally different from those which, by reference to the map, would be found to
have been assigned to it.
“From the system pursued originally, the greater part of the
surveys were made by persons who were only nominally under the control of his
department. The surveyor employed
for the purpose was paid by the person to whom the land, when surveyed, was to
be granted, and those surveyors were employed who would contract for the
performance of the survey upon the cheapest terms. Many professed surveys, therefore, were made by persons who
had never been on the ground. The
outlines of the township were run; but the interior plan was filled up entirely,
either according to the fancy of the surveyor or from the reports of the Indians
or hunters who were acquainted with the general character of the land included
within the limits of the township.”
It is not surprising after this that there should still be
considerable confusion and uncertainty as to the original title deeds under
which real estate is held in many parts of the townships conceded from 1796 to
1840.
Since the latter date, public lands have always been conceded under the system now in force, titles are much more regular and searches for the original titles are easily made.
REMARKS
There is no need to dwell upon the importance and usefulness of this
list which will enable everyone to obtain the information he requires.
In many parts of
townships not yet erected into municipalities, there are lands whose owners are
difficult to find without applying to the Registrar’s Office to find out
whether the patent has been issued; this will be avoided by means of this
present list and all that will have to be done will be to apply to the registrar
of each county for the name of the actual owner, when there have been changes in
the ownership since the date of the original grant.
Finally, the information given in this list will greatly facilitate
searches in the registry offices and consequently diminish their cost.
This is one of the chief reasons for the present publication.
J.-C. LANGELIER,
Deputy-Registrar
LIST
county by county and township by township, of lands granted by the Crown
in the Province of Quebec, from 1763 to 31st December 1890.
COUNTY
OF ARGENTEUIL. [alphabetic)]
Town
ship of Arundel – erected the 8th of July 1857,
Reg.
M., Special Grants, folio 73. [alphabetic]
[The
following is a list of the titles of the seven columns.]
Names of grantees
Numbers of the lots granted
Ranges
Acres
Date of letters-patent
Book [most
likely refers to the township registrar’s registration books]
Page [in
registration books]
[There follow 1101 pages of entries in Vol. I and Vol. II, and an
alphabetic index of 805 pages of names of grantees].
[Footnote to the above submittal to the List: Quebec-Canada. Please note that the names contained in the two Volumes discussed above cover only those parts of the Province covered by so-called English law and does not, at all, deal with the Seigniories, parishes or other parts of the Province that continued to follow the older “Napoleonic Code” from days of French rule.