The Heir and Devisee Commission of Upper Canada, 1797–1805

Abstract

NE of the first tasks of the government of the ew province [of Upper Canada was to fulfil the promise of the Constitutional Act concerning the change in. land tenur . This act provided that in Upper Canada land would be granted in free and common socage and that persons who already held land on certificates of occupation, which promised them grants on seigneurial tenure, would, on surrendering their certificates, receive patents in free ,and common socage. The exchange of certificates for patents proved to be a complicated undertaking and one that was not completed in Simcoe's day. It took time to devise a method of survey and a form of patent which met the requirements of the Constitutional Act and of the royal instructions and which also satisfied the people of Upper Canada. The chief difficulty was that the clergy reserve clauses of the act complicated and delayed the adoption of a method of surveying new townships. In Lower Canada the Land Committee of the Council proposed that the reserves be set aside in compact blocks in the corners of townships except in river and lake townships where the reserves hould be relegated to the rear concession, 1 but the home government' objected to these methods as contrary to the act and unfavourable to the reserves. In Upper Canada the Land Committee adopted the famous chequered plan devised by D. W. Smith. Smith's plan aroused unfavourable comment because it would prevent compact settlement, and petitions were sent to Simcoe asking for the Lower Canada system of reserves in the corners. 2 They were rejected, the home government approved the chequered plan, and Lower Canada was also ordered to adopt it. In Upper Canada the chequered plan was not deviated from except for those townships which had been fully or partially located before 1791. In such cases reserves were set aside in other townships or in blocks in the centre of townships, or in the rear concession. a Smith's chequered plan