Archives Search

Title

Series consists of

1551 lower level description(s)

Arrangement structure

Series part of

Executive Council Office of the Province of Upper Canada fonds [textual record] (R10875-0-8-E)

Date(s)

1783-1865, predominant 1783-1841

Place of creation

Ontario

Extent

Language of material

English

Scope and content

Series consists of the petitions and related records submitted to the Executive Council, sitting as a land committee in the performance of its land disposal functions. The "land committee" dealt with all manner of petitions for grants and leases, requests for title deeds and reports from the Surveyor General or, after 1827, the Commissioner of Crown Lands. Even after the introduction of the system of land sales, committee work continued. The recommendations of the committee were entered in the land minute books of the Executive Council (see the Land Minute Books of the Executive Council series, elsewhere within this fonds) while the petitions and other documents submitted to the committee for its consideration were filed separately. It is the latter records, commonly called the Upper Canada Land Petitions, which make up the present series. Petitions and other documents submitted by applicants for land grants or leases were forwarded by the governor's Civil Secretary to the Executive Council and were filed there in one series with all other submissions to the land committee. A variety of certificates and other documentation submitted in support of individual requests, as well as reports by the Surveyor General or the Attorney General on technical and legal matters, and some lists of settlers by region, will be found filed with the petitions. The great majority of the records in this series date from the years 1783-1841, although in a small number of cases records which post-date Union will be found here.

Conditions of access

Terms of use

In order to protect the fragile originals, most records in this series have been microfilmed and the originals withdrawn from circulation. The microfilm must be used for consultation and copying rather than the originals.

Finding aid

Textual records The CAB RG 1 Shelf List (see RG 1, L3 section) is a typed volume-level description which provides bundle alpha-numeric reference, petition number range, inclusive dates and corresponding microfilm reel numbers. It provides an overview of the series. It shows changes in the filing of the I-J and U-V bundles, separation of Mc and M bundles, and the special grouping of records relating to the Canada Company, the Perth Military Settlement, or the "Division Line" (boundary) with Lower Canada. CAB RG 1 Shelf List 90 (Paper)

Textual records See also the CAB RG 1 Shelf List (L6B section) for a description of a single volume (vol. 15) which, although heretofore linked to a different series, was determined in the most recent intellectual re-arrangement exercise to belong more correctly with the present series. CAB RG 1 Shelf List 90 (Paper)

Textual records Finding Aid MSS1802, commonly called the "Upper Canada Land Index", is an alphabetical nominal card index serving both the land petitions and the land books of Upper Canada (records found in this fonds), as well as both the land petitions and land books of the Province of Canada (records found in the Records of the Executive Council Office of the Province of Canada fonds). As such, the common designation "Upper Canada Land Index" is something of a misnomer since the index includes references not only to lands situated in Upper Canada but also to lands situated in the entire Province of Canada after 1841, including lands in Canada East. MSS1802 90 (Paper)

Textual records The Upper Canada Land Index is estimated to be 90% accurate and complete. As described in Patricia Kennedy's Introduction to the Index to the Upper Canada Land Books - Volume 3 (January 1806 to December 1816), the index cards were derived from list compilations, not directly from the petitions, with the result that errors or omissions in the lists were repeated on the index cards. Moreover, the spelling of names on petitions varies widely and handwriting is sometimes scarcely legible. Searching for the petitions submitted by persons whose names might be spelled variously or misread can benefit from careful correlation of land minute book and land petition references. In the event that only a land minute book entry is found in the index (as when the corresponding petition was indexed under an alternate spelling), the petition can be identified and traced from the alpha-numeric reference in the margin of the land minute book. Thus, for example, in land minute book E (i.e., vol. 23, covering 1802-1804), the reference M 80 corresponds to bundle M 6 petition 80. According to the Shelf List, petition M 6/80 will be found in vol. 332, on microfilm reel C-2194. MSS1802 90 (Paper)

Textual records Index entries are almost exclusively personal names. Petitions on behalf of groups were indexed, but not necessarily under modern headings. A few entries were made by names of Indian tribes, by place names (as for the Military Settlements, or statistical reports on lands granted in a specific township) and by office titles (as for the Surveyor General). The cards provide only the bundle and petition number; researchers must consult the Shelf List to identify the number of the microfilm reel on which that petition will appear. MSS1802 90 (Paper)

Textual records Conversely, when the index identifies a petition under one surname spelling, the corresponding land minute book entry can be traced by noting the date of reading in Council, which is given in the endorsement on the back or last page of the petition, and consulting the CAB RG 1 Shelf List (section L1) for the Land Minute Books of the Executive Council series to identify the appropriate land minute book. Note that faulty instructions to the typist resulted in index cards bearing the label "Land Index 18.. - 18.." in place of the term Land Book and the correct letter designation for the 1840s through 1860s. The identification of the microfilm for these Land Books is nonetheless easy to accomplish by using the date of the land minute books as the key when consulting the Shelf List. MSS1802 90 (Paper)

Textual records As noted elsewhere within this descriptive entry, the alphabetically-arranged nominal index cards which make up Finding Aid MSS1802 have been microfilmed (reels C-10810 to C-10836 and H-1976 to H-1978). The CAB RG 1 Shelf List (see RG 1, L3 section) includes a microfilm shelf list for these reels. This shelf list indicates the range of petitioner names appearing on each reel (e.g., reel C-10810: from Aaron (Mohawk Chief) to Baker, G. W.).When using the microfilm of the index, researchers should search under possible variant spellings of a surname, and watch for inconsistencies in the filing order of the cards. MSS1802 90 (Paper)

Textual records Since the card index identifies the page reference for a Land Book or the alpha-numeric reference for a petition, copies of the CAB RG 1 Shelf Lists (L1 and L3 sections) were included as a preface to each reel when the index was microfilmed so that users may identify the corresponding microfilm reel numbers for the land minutes. MSS1802 90 (Paper)

Upper Canada Land Petitions (1763-1865): All or some of the documents described have been digitized and are available at the following address: 90 (Electronic)
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/microform-digitization/006003-110.02-e.php?&q2=29&interval=50&sk=0&

Demandes de terres du Haut-Canada (1763-1865) : Les documents décrits ont été complètement ou en partie numérisés et sont disponibles à l'adresse suivante : 90 (Electronic)
http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/numerisation-microforme/006003-110.02-f.php?&q2=29&interval=50&sk=0&

Additional information

Source

Private

MIKAN no.

205131