Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 December 2011
Two British land companies, the Canada Company and the British American Land Company (BALC), were active during the nineteenth century in settling what are now Ontario and the Eastern Townships of Quebec. Both purchased large tracts of land from the British government, with two goals: to provide funds for the governors of Canada and to relieve Britain of its surplus population. The Canada Company worked closely with the government to meet these objectives, whereas BALC indulged in land speculation and made immigration a secondary priority. One was successful, and the other struggled throughout its existence. Their success or failure was the directresult of how well they dealt with both the changing economic climate and the British and Canadian political situation.
1 Cain, P. J. and Hopkins, A. G., British Imperialism: Innovation and Expansion, 1688–1914 (London, 1993), 26.Google Scholar
2 Ibid.
3 Manning, Helen Taft, “The Civil List of Lower Canada,” Canadian Historical Review 24 (Mar. 1943).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4 Ibid.
5 Bank of England, A Book of the Governor and Company of the Bank of England, Record Books for 1825 to 1845.
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8 Strachan and Robinson to Galt, dated 21 June 1824, Ontario Archives (OA), F129, Canada Company Papers, vol. 1.
9 This was the small group of directors of the preliminary company that would later be renamed “Canada Company.”
10 Meeting of court of directors, 30 July 1824, OA, F129, A-6, Canada Company Papers, vol. 1.
11 Miscellaneous Company Charters, Proposed Charter, the Canada Company, 1824, British Library.
12 As an example, on 15 July 1825, Horton wrote to the Canada Company's attorney, Mr. Freshfield, that the Colonial Office needed legal counsel before release of the charter. On 25 Oct., he arranged a meeting at his home with Galt and Freshfield to discuss the agreement. Upon arrival, they found James Stephen, the Colonial Office counsel, there.
13 Public Record Office, Kew (PRO) CO 42 396, Colonial Office. The name “Canada Company” was first used officially on 13 Sept. 1824.
14 National Archives of Canada (NAC), MG 24 I 46, Canada Company Papers.
15 PRO, CO 42 396.
16 Minutes of the Intended Arrangement between Earl Bathurst, His Majesty's Secretary of State, and the Proposed Canada Company, 15 Apr. 1825, British Parliamentary Papers, Colonies, Canada.
17 Agreement between Lord Bathurst and the Canada Company, 23 May 1826, OA, F129, Canada Company Papers.
18 Coleman, Thelma, The Canada Company (Stratford, Ont., 1978), 43–4.Google Scholar
19 Court of directors' minutes, 29 Jan. 1829, OA, F129, A-2, vol. 1.
20 Minutes of the court of directors' meetings, 19 Jan. and 31 Mar. 1829, OA, F129, A-2, vol. 1.
21 OA, F129, A-2, vol. 1, 19 Apr. 1829.
22 OA, Canada Company to Hay, 29 Oct. 1929.
23 OA, Hay to Canada Company, 2 Dec. 1829.
24 London Times, 15 June 1831. This meant that a stockholder who was asked to pay additional capital of £1 10s. per share in return received £1 8s. in interest and dividends, for a net outlay of only 2s. per share.
25 “A Return of all Monies Received from the Canada Company and the Application Thereof,” signed by R. W. Hay, 6 Mar. 1833, Parliamentary Papers, Canada.
26 Colonial Office Instruction to Emigration Agents, 16 Apr. 1834, NAC MG 11 CO 384, Emigration Entry Books.
27 Head to Glenelg, 21 Apr. 1836, British Parliamentary Papers, Colonies, Canada, vol. 8, 218.
28 “Accounts Paid and Payable by the Canada Company,” Parliamentary Papers, Canada, vol. 6, 1825–33.
29 “An Account of the Disposal of all Appropriations received on account of the contracts with the Canada Company,” 10 Mar. 1831, Parliamentary Papers, Canada, vol. 6, 1825–33.
30 NAC MG 24 I 54, British American Land Company Papers, vol. 1.
31 Letter from Gould and Dowie & Co. to Huskisson, 10 Feb. 1827, British Library, Add 38748, Huskisson Papers, vol. 15.
32 Bouchette to Ellice, 13 Nov. 1824, National Library of Scotland (NLS), MS15114, Ellice Papers.
33 Louis Phillipe Demers, Sherbrooke, Découvertes-Legendes-Documents-Nos Rues etleur Symboles, with a foreword by Claude D. Gosselin, Ministre des Terres et Forêtes (1969), document 104.
34 McGillivray at that time was a director of the Canada Company, a position that he would not relinquish until 1829.
35 The list of proprietors and their holdings shows conclusively that such an investment was never made.
36 NAC, MG 24 I 54, vols. 1, 5. The meeting to consider this was held in London Tavern on 9 Feb. 1832.
37 Lizars, Robina and Lizars, Kathleen Macfarlane, In the Days of the Canada Company: The Story of the Settlement of the Huron Tract, 1825–1850 (Toronto, 1896), 29.Google Scholar
38 Galt to Goderich, 12 Feb. 1832, PRO, RG 42 248.
39 PRO, CO 48 248.
40 Gould to Goderich, 24 Feb. 1832, NAC, RG 7 G 1, Colonial Office Correspondence.
41 Ibid.
42 PRO CO 48/248, letter dated 24 Feb. 1832.
43 NLS, MS 9818, f 162.
44 PRO CO 48/248.
45 Ibid.
46 Goderich to Galt, 2 Mar. 1832, NAC, MG 24 I 54.
47 Galt to Howick, dated 11 and 16 Apr. 1832, Howick to Galt, 12 Apr. 1832 and 23 Apr. 1832, in NAC, MG 24 I 54.
48 John Reid, BALC secretary, to Howick, 23 Feb. 1833, in NAC, MG 24 I 54.
49 Heneker to Douglas Brymmer, 25 Feb. 1887, in NAC, MG 24 I 54.
50 “Resolutions by Mr. Girouard of St. Benoit,” Journal of the Lower Canada House of Assembly, 13 Nov. 1832.
51 This would become an issue in 1839 and 1840, when both Lord Durham and Poullett Thompson would reject the BALC claim that it was experiencing local opposition that could not be foreseen when the company was formed.
52 Hansard Parliamentary Debates, 3rd ser., vol. 25 (9 Mar. 1835).
53 Debate on the Affairs of Canada, 9 May 1837, Hansard Parliamentary Debates, vol. 38.
54 Gosford to Glenelg, 17 Mar. 1836, NAC, RG 7 G 12, vol. 50A.
55 Extracted from Parliamentary Papers, Canada, vol. 33 (1847).
56 Government pamphlet, Information for Emigrants to British North America, 2nd ed. (London, 1842).Google Scholar
57 O'Bready, Maurice, De Ktine à Sherbrooke, esquisse historique de Sherbrooke: desorigines à 1954 (Sherbrooke, Quebec, 1973)Google Scholar, quoting Roy, P. G., Les Juges de la Province de Quebec (Quebec, 1923).Google Scholar
58 “Notice of the 2nd General Court of BALC, 25 March 1836,” London Morning Post, 26 Mar. 1836.
59 “The Late Commercial Crisis–The Work of the Tyrant Majority,” Blackwood's Edin burgh Magazine, Aug. 1837.
60 Ibid.
61 Goldring, Phillip, “British Colonists and Imperial Interests in Lower Canada, 1820–1841” (Ph.D. diss., University of London, 1978).Google Scholar
62 Copy of Annual Report for Emigration in Canada for 1836, A. C. Webster to A. C.Buchanan, 13 Nov. 1836, Parliamentary Papers, Canada, vol. 8.
63 Houston, Cecil J. and Smyth, William J., Irish Emigration and Canadian Settlement: Patterns, Links and Letters (Toronto, 1990), 98.Google Scholar
64 Dispatch dated 22 Apr. 1837, NAC, MG 241 I 54.
65 Lewis Wright contract of sale, dated 18 Aug. 1835, NAC, MG 24 I 54. By 1836 printed forms were signed by Moffatt and McGill for the company. Patents were issued by William B. Felton, as commissioner of Crown Lands.
66 Register of Land Sales, vol. 8, Land Records, 1830–1934, NAC, MG 24 I 54, vol. 1.
67 Return of BALC revenues and expenditures by Receiver General, dated 22 July 1839, NAC, RG 7 G 5, vol. 42, Letterbook, Colonial Office to Canada governor generals. The BALC claim for improvements is £22,200 in addition to £6,870 to improve Port St. Francis. Robinson to Glenelg, 3 Feb. 1839, in NAC, RG 7 G 12, vol. 51, governor generals to the Colonial Office. There is a further discrepancy shown in a letter from Gosford to Glenelg, dated 19 July 1837 and repeated in the report of the inspector general, quoted by Poullett Thomson in a letter to John Russell dated 24 Mar. 1840. In both the sum for improvements expended is shown as £9,575.
68 Parliamentary Papers, Canada, 181 (1844) and 617 (1845).
69 Enclosure of Robinson letter dated 3 Feb. 1838 in dispatch from Glenelg to Lord Durham, NAC, RG 7 G5, Correspondence of Colonial Office to Canada governor general, vol. 18/54.
70 In 1825 BALC claimed subscriptions of 2,102 shares from Canada, but few are in the list of proprietors of 1834.
71 House of Lords Record Office, original document of the British American Land Company Act of 1847 as amended. Also notices in the London Gazette carried advertisements by BALC detailing the expected vote of £5 calls for increased capital every year from 1834 to 1839 and a £2 10s. increase in the last year. The capital available to BALC before a payment to their stockholders was indeed £198,000 during the period in question. Yet the calls were fewer than permitted by the charter, which enabled £10 calls every six months.
72 The act called for cessation of these payments, which presumed that they were continuing through 1847. However, an additional £2 10s. was to be paid in July 1840 and seems to have been collected. By the time the 1871 Act was passed, the capital per share paid in was £44.
73 Amount paid by the British American Land Company, dated l Apr. 1837, Parliamentary Papers, Canada.
74 “Resolutions to be proposed by Lord John Russell … relative to the affairs of Canada,” Parliamentary Papers, Canada.
75 London Guildhall copy of prospectus of the British American Land Company, hand dated 1834.
76 PRO, CO 42/302.
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78 More important, Charles Buller was well acquainted with Poullett Thomson (later Lord Sydenham), retained a key position in the Sydenham governorship, and shaped land policy for Canada for several years.
79 Glenelg to Durham, 9 May 1838, NAC RG7 G 5, vol. 18/54.
80 Ibid., 4 Sept. 1838.
81 NAC RG7 G 5, vol. 18/129.
82 Implied in Bruyeres proposal is that BALC really would make no further expenditure for improvements during the year. So much had been spent in past years that, by bookkeeping adjustments, it would be made to appear that the expenditures had been made in the current year.
83 Letters from Bruyeres dated 27 Apr. 1838 and 17 Aug. 1838, PRO CO 42/302.
84 Poullett Thomson to Russell dated 26 May 1840, vol. 55/246.
85 PRO MG 24 I 54. Also RG 7 G 12, vol. 55/31.
86 RG 7 G 12, vol. 48.
87 Skelton, Oscar D., The Life and Times of Alexander Tilloch Galt (Toronto, 1920), 40–1.Google Scholar
88 London Times, 29 Mar. 1849. Also Minutes of the Court of Directors, 28 Mar. 1849.
89 London Times, 26 Mar. 1850.
