Gabriel Christie's Seigneuries: Settlement and Seigneurial Administration in the Upper Richelieu Valley, 1764-1854

Type of resource
Author/collaborator
Title
Gabriel Christie's Seigneuries: Settlement and Seigneurial Administration in the Upper Richelieu Valley, 1764-1854
Abstract
During the period following New France's fall to the British, Lieutenant-Colonel Gabriel Christie (1722-1799) acquired five seigneuries in the Upper Richelieu Valley. They continued to belong to the Christie family until well after the end of seigneurial tenure in 1854. Seigneurial property rights were used, the author argues, to control access to land, timber, mill sites, and other resources. Because of the increasing importance of these resources in the colonial economy, the seigneury itself began to have a more important impact on the social structure of the colony. Significant changes in the management of the Christie Seigneuries came with each generation of the family -- changes that reflected the personality of the seigneur and the changing socio-economic conditions. There was, however, a persistent preoccupation with capitalist exploitation of the seigneur's domain property. Accordingly, the author shows that the seigneurial tenure during the century of British colonial administration was important not so much because of its differences from freehold tenure but because of its similarities: it could be used by large proprietors to monopolize scarce resources.
Type
PhD dissertation
University
McGill University
Place
Montreal
Date
1985
# of Pages
xiii-814p.
Language
en
URL
Citation
Noël, Françoise. “Gabriel Christie’s Seigneuries: Settlement and Seigneurial Administration in the Upper Richelieu Valley, 1764-1854.” PhD dissertation, McGill University, 1985. https://escholarship.mcgill.ca/concern/theses/pz50gw84z?locale=en.
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