Seigneurial System
French Regime
During the French Regime, land holding was held in accordance to the seigneurial system:
The seigneurs, who could also be a religious order rather than an individual, paid the king rent, and were responsible for:
The habitant had to:
While arrangements were made to transfer the use of land/buildings, other than by direct inheritance, "lods et ventes" were due the seigneur. (Remember the king owned the land.)
The system was feudal, paternal, hierarchal, and was fixed by law. Generally, with exception of the religious orders, private/free enterprise colonisation did not work, and the king stepped in by bringing out settlers directly from 1663 to c.1700.
With time, the province was divided into Administrative Districts or Gouvernements. Each Administrative District was sub-divided into Parishes. Each Parish had a "curé" (priest) as its religious head and a captain of militia as the local authority in civil and military matters.
Each district, except the Gaspé, had seigneuries. In 1760 the Gouvernements were:
See Paroisses et Missions du Quebec, Hormisdas Magnan, 1925, which provides the history of each parish and the names of the towns, counties, etc., of Quebec. The Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec in Montreal owns various collections of Seigneurial documents.
|