Seigneurial system of New France: Difference between revisions
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==After the British conquest== |
==After the British conquest== |
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After the [[Battle of the Plains of Abraham]] and the conquest of Quebec by the [[Kingdom of Great Britain|British]] during the [[Seven Years' War]], the system became an obstacle to colonization by British settlers. The [[Quebec Act]] of 1774 retained French civil law and therefore the seigneurial system. |
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It remained relatively intact for almost a century; many Englishmen and Scotsmen purchased seigneuries; others were divided equally between male and female offspring; some were run by the widows of seigneurs as their children grew to adulthood. Over time land became subdivided among the owners' offspring and descendants, resulting in increasingly narrow plots of land. |
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When Quebec was divided in December 1791 between [[Lower Canada]] (today's [[Quebec]]) and [[Upper Canada]] (today's [[Ontario]]), a 45.7-km (28½-mile) segment of the colonial boundary was drawn at the west edge of the westernmost seigneuries along the St. Lawrence and Ottawa rivers, accounting for the small triangle of land at [[Vaudreuil-Soulanges Regional County Municipality, Quebec|Vaudreuil-Soulanges]] that belongs to Quebec rather than Ontario. |
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== Abolition == |
== Abolition == |
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Revision as of 21:39, 18 February 2009
The seigneurial system of New France was the semi-feudal system of land distribution used in the colonies of New France.[1]
Introduction to New France
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After the British conquest
Abolition
The seigneurial system was formally abolished by the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada and assented to by Governor Lord Elgin on June 22 1854 in An Act for the Abolition of Feudal Rights and Duties in Lower Canada which was brought into effect on December 18 of that year.
The act called for the creation of a special Seigneurial Court composed of all the justices of Lower Canada, which was presented a series of questions concerning the various economic and property rights that abolition would change.
Some of the vestiges of this system of landowning continued into the twentieth century as some of the feudal rents continued to be collected. The system was finally abolished when the last residual rents were repurchased through a system of Québec provincial bonds.
Fragmentary historical evidence
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Notes
References
- Jacques Mathieu. "Seigneurial system", in The Canadian Encyclopedia, Historica Foundation of Canada. retrieved April 25, 2008
- Harris, Richard Colebrook (1966). The Seigneurial System in Early Canada. A Geographical Study, Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 247 p.
- Marcel Trudel (1956). The Seigneurial Regime, Ottawa: Canadian Historical Association, 18 pages
External links
- "Daily Life in New France", in History of Canada Online (through Archive.org)
- Google Maps satellite image (requires Javascript) showing Quebec riverside "long lot" land division
this message was applied on Feb. 9
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- ^ Lee, Michael. "Seigneurial System". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Foundation of Canada. Retrieved 2009-01-06.