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Upper Canada
*** Shopping-Tip: Upper Canada
Image:Canada upper.PNG thumb|Map of Upper Canada (orange)
'''Upper Canada''' was a British territory in what is now the
Canada Canadian province of
Ontario. Upper Canada officially existed from 1774 to 1840 and covered generally present-day
Southern Ontario.
Government
The area of present day Southern Ontario was a part of
New France. It passed from
France French control into British control with the
Treaty of Paris (1763). It was incorporated into the
Province of Quebec (1763-1791) Province of Quebec by the
Quebec Act of 1774. Upper Canada became a political entity in 1791 with the passage, in 1790, of the
The Constitutional Act of 1791 Constitutional Act by the Parliament of
Kingdom of Great Britain Great Britain. The Act divided the Province of Quebec into Upper and
Lower Canada. The division was effected so that
loyalist (American Revolution) Loyalist American settlers and British immigrants in Upper Canada could have
Britain British laws and institutions, and the French-speaking population of Lower Canada could maintain French civil law and the Catholic religion.
The colony was administered by a
lieutenant-governor,
Legislative Council of Upper Canada legislative council, and
Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada legislative assembly. The first lieutenant-governor was
John Graves Simcoe. On
February 1,
1796 the capital of Upper Canada was moved from Newark (now
Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario Niagara-on-the-Lake) to
York, Upper Canada York (now
Toronto, Ontario Toronto), which was judged to be less vulnerable to attack by the Americans.
Local government in Upper Canada was based on
districts. In 1788, four districts were created:
*
Eastern District, Ontario Lunenburgh District, renamed to Eastern in 1792
*
Midland District, Ontario Mecklenburg District, later Midland
*
Home District, Ontario Nassau District, later Home
*
Western District, Ontario Hesse District, later Western
Additional districts were created from the existing districts as the population grew until 1849, when local government mainly based on
county counties came into effect. At that time, there were 20 districts; legislation to create a new Kent District never completed.
Up until 1841, the district officials were appointed by the lieutenant-governor, although usually with local input. A Court of Quarter Sessions was held four times a year in each district to oversee the administration of the district and deal with legal cases.
Land settlement
Land had been settled since the French regime, notably along the
Detroit River and the
Saint Lawrence River. However, impetus to land settlement came with the influx of
Loyalist refugees and military personnel in 1784 after the
American Revolution. As a result, prior to the creation of Upper Canada in 1791 as a separate colony, much land had been ceded by the First Nations to the Crown in accordance with the
Royal Proclamation of 1763. This land was surveyed by the government of the
Province of Quebec (1763-1791) Province of Quebec, particularly in eastern Ontario along the
Saint Lawrence River, as the
Western Townships, while the
Eastern Townships were in
Lower Canada.
Rudimentary municipal administration began with the creation of districts, notably Western (including present day
Brantford, Ontario Brantford), Eastern, Gore (including present day
Hamilton, Ontario Hamilton) and Home (including present day
Toronto, Ontario Toronto).
The
Act Against Slavery passed in
Upper Canada on
July 9,
1793.
The British garrisons withdrew from Detroit, Upper Canada to Amherstburg, and from Michimillimackinac to Drummond Island, in 1796. The lower peninsula of Michigan thus became American, initially (through 1805) as part of Indiana Territory. The upper peninsula, although claimed by the United States, remained nominally part of Upper Canada until 1818. Drummond Island, which was also part of the American claim and was formally awarded to the United States by a joint border commission in 1818, was finally released by the Province of United Canada and incorporated into the State of Michigan in 1847.
Meanwhile, during the
War of 1812, following General
Isaac Brock Isaac Brock's capture of
Detroit on
August 16,
1812, then-
Michigan Territory was again part of the Province of Upper Canada. British/Canadian troops found it necessary to withdraw from Detroit in 1813, however, as they were needed elsewhere. The British attempted to renegotiate the boundary at Michigan during the Congress of Vienna in 1815, but the Americans refused to consider any change and then Napoleon escaped. The first order of business was to recapture the resurrected French leader and defeat him once and for all. After that was accomplished at Waterloo, the British were too tired to worry whether Michigan was American or Canadian.
As before the war, organized land tracts were laid out for settlement. British regiment soldiers who were veterans of the war were offered free land, some remained despite the harsh winters. Unlike the period prior to the war, immigration was now directed at Europe and more specifically the
British Isles, not from the US, which was the largest source of immigration before the war. Very cheap or even free land was offered in some areas before
1826 to entice immigrants to settle on it, even those in financially meager circumstances. During the early 1830s, the population increased more than 10% of its total each year. In the 1820's many German speaking
Mennonite immigrants came to the Grand River region of Upper Canada from Pennsylvania, they were joined as well by many German speaking
Amish immigrants from
Alsace,
Lorraine,
Bavaria and the
Palatinate. This region was even referred to in its early days as "Little Pennsylvania", however this term is no longer used today. Many of their descendants continue to speak a form of German called
Pennsylvania German language Pennsylvania German.
Upper Canada ceased to be a political entity with the
Act of Union (1840), when, by an act of the Parliament of the
United Kingdom, it was merged with
Lower Canada to form the Province of
Province of Canada United Canada. This was principally in response to the Upper and Lower Canada rebellions of 1837 and 1837-38, respectively. At
Canadian Confederation Confederation in 1867, the Province of Canada was re-divided along the former boundary as the provinces of
Ontario and
Quebec.
The name 'Upper Canada' lives on in a few fossilized forms, most notably the
Law Society of Upper Canada, Upper Canada Lumber,
Upper Canada College and the
Upper Canada Brewing Company.
When the capital was first moved to Toronto from Newark (present-day
Niagara-on-the-Lake in 1796, the Parliament of Upper Canada was located at the corner of Parliament and Front Streets, in a building that was eventually abandoned. In 2001, some remnants of the original Parliament building were found during preparations to build a car dealership on that site. Today, there is an ongoing fight by preservationists and historians who propose the government turn over the into a publicly funded historical site. Currently the government leases most of the site.
Population
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Population of Upper Canada, 1806—1840
! Year || Census estimate
|-
|1806 || 70,718
|-
|1811 || 77,000
|-
|1814 || 95,000
|-
|1824 || 150,066
|-
|1825 || 157,923
|-
|1826 || 166,379
|-
|1827 || 177,174
|-
|1828 || 186,488
|-
|1829 || 197,815
|-
|1830 || 213,156
|-
|1831 || 236,702
|-
|1832 || 263,554
|-
|1833 || 295,863
|-
|1834 || 321,145
|-
|1835 || 347,359
|-
|1836 || 374,099
|-
|1837 || 397,489
|-
|1838 || 399,422
|-
|1839 || 409,048
|-
|1840 || 432,159
|}
(see
Province of Canada for population after 1840)
Source: Statistics Canada website Censuses of Canada 1665 to 1871.
Numismatic History
See
Coins of Upper Canada.
Bibliography
*Armstrong, Frederick H ''Handbook of Upper Canadian Chronology'' Toronto : Dundurn Press, 1985. ISBN 0-919670-92-X
*Craig, Gerald M ''Upper Canada: the formative years 1784-1841'' Toronto : McClelland and Stewart, 1963.
*Dieterman, Frank ''Government on fire: the history and archaelogy of Upper Canada's first Parliament Buildings'' Toronto : Eastendbooks, 2001.
*Dunham, Eileen ''Political unrest in Upper Canada 1815-1836'' Toronto : McClelland and Stewart, 1963.
*Errington, Jane ''The lion, the eagle, and Upper Canada: a developing colonial ideology'' Kingston, Ont. : McGill-Queen's University Press, 1987.
*Johnston, James Keith. ''Historical essays on Upper Canada'' Toronto : McClelland and Stewart, 1975.
*Lewis, Frank and Urquhart, M.C. ''Growth and standard of living in a pioneer economy: Upper Canada 1826-1851'' Kingston, Ont. : Institute for Economic Research, Queen's University, 1997.
*McCalla, Douglas ''Planting the province: the economic history of Upper Canada 1784-1870'' Toronto : University of Toronto Press, 1993.
*McNairn, Jeffrey L ''The capacity to judge: public opinion and deliberative democracy in Upper Canada 1791-1854'' Toronto : University of Toronto Press, 2000.
*Winearls, Joan ''Mapping Upper Canada 1780-1867: an annotated bibliography of manuscript and printed maps''. Toronto : University of Toronto Press, 1991.
See also
*
the Canadas
*
Canada West, period after the
Act of Union (1840)
*
List of Lieutenant Governors of Ontario
*
Upper Canada Rebellion
Category:History of Ontario
Category:British North America
de:Oberkanada
fr:Haut-Canada
pl:Górna Kanada
pt:Canadá Superior
sv:Övre Kanada
List of topics on the province of
Upper Canada and roots of the current province of
Ontario:
Category:Ontario
*** Shopping-Tip: Upper Canada
