Canada Company
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The Canada Company was a private British land development company that was established to aid in the colonization of a large part of Upper Canada. It was incorporated by royal charter on August 19, 1826,<ref name=6thgeoIVc75>Template:Cite book</ref> under the Template:Visible anchor (6 Geo. 4. c. 75) of the British parliament,<ref name="TCCA">Template:Cite canlaw, later amended by 1916 c. xiv</ref> which was given royal assent on June 27, 1825.<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> It was originally formed to acquire and develop Upper Canada's undeveloped clergy reserves and Crown reserves,<ref name="TCCA"/> which the company bought in 1827 for £341,000 ($693,000) from the Province of Upper Canada.Template:Sfn
Founded by the Scottish novelist John Galt, who became its first Superintendent, the company was successful in populating an area called the Huron Tract – an enterprise later called "the most important single attempt at settlement in Canadian history".<ref name=waynecook>Template:Cite web</ref> This resulted in the Mississauga people being dispossessed of their ancestral lands.<ref>Taylor, David (2022), The People Are Not there: The Transformation of Badenoch 1800 - 1863, John Donald, Edinburgh, pp. 172 - 174, Template:Isbn</ref>
The company is unrelated to the modern-day Canadian charity of the same name (Canada Company: Many Ways to Serve), founded in 2006 by Blake Goldring, which assists former Canadian military members and their spouses in regaining civilian employment after service in the Canadian Armed Forces.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Acquisition of lands
| Amount | Area | Lands |
|---|---|---|
| £195,850 ($398,000) | Template:Convert | Crown reserves |
| £145,150 ($295,000) | Template:Convert | Recently acquired by the government, from the Chippewa First Nation, in what would become the Huron Tract, located on the eastern shore of Lake Huron, in substitution for the originally contemplated Template:Convert of clergy reserve lands.Template:Sfn One-third of the purchase price went to fund public works and improvements, while the remaining two-thirds was paid to the Crown.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> |
Mission
The Canada Company assisted emigrants by providing good ships, low fares, implements and tools, and inexpensive land. Scottish novelist John Galt was the company's first Canadian superintendent. He first settled in York (Toronto, Ontario) but selected Guelph as the company's headquarters, and his home. The area was previously part of the Halton Block, 42,000 acres of former Crown land.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Galt would later be considered as the founder of Guelph.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
The company surveyed and subdivided the massive Huron Tract, built roads, mills, and schools and advertised lots for sale to buyers in Europe. The town of Goderich was laid out on the shores of Lake Huron to be the centre of the settlement of the Huron Tract. The company then assisted in the migration of new settlers, bringing them to the area by means of a steamboat, which the company also owned, on Lake Ontario.<ref>Template:Cite DCB</ref>
John Galt was dismissed and recalled to Great Britain in 1829, for mismanagement, particularly incompetent bookkeeping.<ref name="HallWhistler" /> General mismanagement and corruption within the company, and its close alliance with the Tory elites, known as the Family Compact, were important contributing factors to the Upper Canada Rebellion in 1837.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
In 1833, his colleague William "Tiger" Dunlop took over as Superintendent of the Company and continued Galt's work for a short time before resigning.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Company structure
Appointed Secretary of the Canada Company in 1824 John Galt helped to obtain a charter for the company on 19 August 1826.<ref name="HallWhistler" /> On that date, the formal structure of the Canada Company was put into place by the company's Court of Directors. John Galt, as secretary, had the first order of business. Tabling an abstract of the charter, Galt declared the name to be "The Canada Company" with directors and secretary as served on the Provisional Committee and listed in the charter.Template:Sfn
At the first meeting of the board, it was declared that four directors would rotate off the Company beginning in 1829.
| Position | Persons concerned |
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| Directors |
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| Chairman |
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| Secretary | |
| Auditors |
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| Solicitors | |
| Bankers |
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| Person | Role | |
|---|---|---|
| File:John Galt 7.jpg | John Galt | Founder (1824–26), secretary (1824–1832), and first superintendent (1827–1829).<ref name=HallWhistler>Template:Cite DCB</ref> |
| William Allan | Commissioner of the Canada Company (1829–1841).<ref>Template:Cite DCB</ref> | |
| Frederick Widder | Commissioner of the Canada Company (1839–1864).<ref>Template:Cite DCB</ref> | |
| Thomas Mercer Jones | Commissioner of the Canada Company (1829–1852).<ref>Template:Cite DCB</ref> | |
| File:William Benjamin Robinson.png | William Benjamin Robinson | Commissioner of the Canada Company (1852–1865), Senior Commissioner after 1865.<ref>Template:Cite DCB</ref> |
| File:Royal Ontario Museum-9558 (cropped).jpg | Dr. William "Tiger" Dunlop | Warden of the Forests, later becoming Superintendent of the Canada Company. |
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| Person | Role | |
|---|---|---|
| Richard Alexander Tucker | Provincial Secretary of Upper Canada, having considerable influence over decisions made concerning the Company in its early years. | |
| File:Peregrine Maitland Portrait.jpg | Sir Peregrine Maitland | Lieutenant governor of Upper Canada. He became associated with the Family Compact. His authoritarian leadership style was one of the causes of the Rebellion of 1837. |
| File:Alexander Macdonell.jpg | Bishop Macdonnell | Roman Catholic Bishop attacked by William Lyon Mackenzie.
Alexander Macdonell was a Roman Catholic Scotsman who accepted the government promise of Template:Convert in Upper Canada to every soldier who emigrated. He had been the chaplain of a Catholic Scottish Glengarry regiment. Macdonell was a conservative legislative councillor from 1831 leading the mainly Irish settlers against the Reform movement and Mackenzie. |
| File:Johnstrachan.JPG | Bishop Strachan | Protagonist in the Clergy Reserves issue.
An executive councillor in 1817 and legislative councillor in 1820 in the government of Upper Canada, Bishop Strachan sought special status for the Anglican church. |
Dissolution
The company retained the mineral rights of the land it sold. In 1919, it quitclaimed and transferred those rights to the Crown. In 1922<ref>Template:Cite canlaw</ref> and 1923,<ref>Template:Cite canlaw</ref> the Legislative Assembly of Ontario authorized the granting of those rights to landholders at a set price.
In 1928, a plaque was erected in Huron county, Pioneers of the Huron Tract 1828-1928, commemorating the work of the men who developed the Huron Tract and the families who lived there, starting in 1828.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
By 1938, the Canada Company held just over Template:Convert of unsold land, while the company shares were valued at 10 shillings. It had become a land company in the process of liquidation.Template:Sfn By 1950, only Template:Convert remained in its possession, distributed amongst Lambton County, the United Counties of Leeds and Grenville and Lanark County.Template:Sfn
In 1951, the remaining land was disposed of, and land that was unsold became Pinery Provincial Park.Template:Sfn
The company voted to wind up its affairs on August 12, 1953,<ref>Template:London Gazette</ref> and was dissolved on December 18, 1953.Template:Sfn
Arms
See also
Sources
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References
Further reading
- Pages with broken file links
- Chartered companies
- English colonization of the Americas
- Economic history of Canada
- Political history of Ontario
- Upper Canada
- 1825 establishments in Upper Canada
- 1953 disestablishments in Canada
- Companies established in 1825
- Companies disestablished in 1825
- Trading companies established in the 19th century
- Trading companies disestablished in the 19th century
- Trading companies of Canada
- History of Wellington County, Ontario