New Brunswick and Nova Scotia Land Company

The New Brunswick and Nova Scotia Land Company was one of several organizations which were established in Canada in the nineteenth century as a means of transferring land held by the Crown to individual owners. This company was chartered in New Brunswick in 1831. Several large land companies were established in the mid-nineteenth century in Canada.

The Canada Company was founded in Ontario in 1824 (received its charter in 1826). The New Brunswick and Nova Scotial Land Company was created in New Brunswick in 1831, and received its charter in 1834. The British American Land Company was established in Quebec in 1832, and received its charter in 1834. These companies, financed by shares sold in England, purchased large areas of Canadian land at low prices, promising to develop roads, mills and towns.

Over the years, the Company tried various schemes to entice settlers from various English counties. One of these promised lots of 100 acres (40 ha), and with five acres already cleared and a log house to boot. The lease was for 50 years at a rent of one shilling per acre, with an option to purchase the freehold in 20 years' time. The company also promised employment on road works, provisions at moderate prices, and medical assistance, and offered to advance the cost of transit as a loan.

References:

Elliott, Bruce S. The New Brunswick Land Company and the settlement of Stanley and Harvey

Anatole Settling the Canadian Colonies: A Comparison of Two Nineteenth-Century Land Companies, Business History Review 76 (Summer 2002). pp. 299-335 (cited in Elliott)

Report of the Directors of the New Brunswick and Nova Scotia Land Company (London: Arthur Taylor, 1832), Canadian Institute for Historic Microreproductions (CIHM) fiche N.63916, pp. 8, 11 (cited in Elliott)

Little, J.I. Feast or Famine: The British American Land Company and the Colonization of the St Francis Tract (section of Nationalism, Capitalism, and Colonization in Nineteenth-Century Quebec: The Upper St Francis District), Kingston & Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 1989, pp. 36–63 (cited in Elliott)

Books & Publications

Book Title	Date
Sketches in New Brunswick	1836