The
Province of Quebec was a colony in North America created by
Great Britain after the
Seven Years' War. Great Britain acquired
Canada by the
Treaty of Paris when King
Louis XV of France and his advisors chose to keep the territory of
Guadeloupe for its valuable sugar crops instead of
New France. By the
Royal Proclamation of 1763, Canada (part of New France) was renamed the Province of Quebec.
In 1774, the British Parliament passed the
Quebec Act that allowed Quebec to maintain the French Civil Code as its judicial system and sanctioned the freedom of religious choice, allowing the
Roman Catholic Church to remain. The act also enlarged the boundaries of Quebec to include the
Ohio Country and
Illinois Country, from the
Appalachian Mountains on the east, south to the
Ohio River, west to the
Mississippi River and north to the southern boundary of lands owned by the
Hudson's Bay Company, or
Rupert's Land.
Through Quebec, the British Crown retained access to the Ohio and Illinois Countries even after the Treaty of Paris, which was meant to have ceded this land to the United States. By well-established trade and military routes across the
Great Lakes, the British continued to supply not only their own troops but a
wide alliance of Native American nations through
Detroit,
Fort Niagara,
Fort Michilimackinac, and so on, until these posts were turned over to the United States following the
Jay Treaty (1794).
Quebec retained its seigneurial system after the conquest. Owing to an influx of
Loyalist refugees from the
American Revolutionary War, the demographics of Quebec came to shift and now included a substantial English-speaking, Anglican or Protestant element from the former
Thirteen Colonies. These
United Empire Loyalists settled mainly in the
Eastern Townships,
Montreal, and what was known then as the
pays d'en haut (high country) west of the
Ottawa River.
The Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the colony in two at the Ottawa River, so that the western part (
Upper Canada) could be under the British legal system, with English speakers in the majority. The eastern part was named
Lower Canada.
Governors of the Province of Quebec 1763-1791
After the capitulation of Montreal in 1760, New France was placed under military government. Civil government was instituted in 1764.
Counsellors to the Governor
The Province of Quebec did not have an elected legislature and was ruled directly by the Governor with advise from counsellors. A Council responsible to advise the Governor (then James Murray) on all affairs of State was created in 1764. In 1774, the
Quebec Act created a
Council for the Affairs of the Province of Quebec to advise the Governor on legislative affairs. The Legislative Council served as an advisory council to the Governor until a legislative assembly was established after 1791.
The individuals James Murray called into the Council from 1764 to 1766:
List of Councillors under Carleton from 1766 to 1774:
Bibliography
- Burt, Alfred LeRoy. The Old Province of Quebec. Toronto: Ryerson Press; Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, 1933. Reprinted Toronto : McClelland and Stewart, 1968.
- Lahaise, Robert and Vallerand, Noël. Le Québec sous le régime anglais : les Canadiens français, la colonisation britannique et la formation du Canada continental. Outremont, Québec : Lanctôt, 1999.
- Neatby, Hilda. Quebec : the revolutionary age 1760-1791. Toronto : McClelland and Stewart, 1966.
