Eastern Townships, Quebec

Eastern Townships

The Eastern Townships (French: Les Cantons de l'Est) is a tourist region in south-central Quebec, lying between the former seigneuries south of the Saint Lawrence River and the United States border. The administrative entity is officially called Estrie, and its boundaries are different from the tourist region referred to as the Eastern Townships.[1] The principal cities are Sherbrooke, Granby, Magog, and Cowansville. The region comprises the counties that are divided into townships after the traditional New England method of land grants, as opposed to other Quebec counties which are divided into municipalities based on the former seigneuries and parishes. The region boasts numerous summer colonies popular with vacationing Montrealers and several ski resorts, the biggest one being Mount Orford.

Demographics

* Population: 300,917 (2005)
* Area: 10,195 km²
* Density: 29.2 /km²[2]

The area contains 41,000 predominately English speaking inhabitants, a minority in the community.[3]

Counties

The Eastern Townships consist of the following counties:

* Arthabaska County
* Brome County
* Compton County
* Drummond County
* Frontenac County
* Megantic County
* Missisquoi County
* Richmond County
* Stanstead County
* Shefford County
* Sherbrooke County
* Wolfe County

In the early 1990s Quebec was reorganized into 17 official regions divided into regional county municipalities. The bulk of the Eastern Townships became the Estrie region (which is often called les Cantons de l'est in French), but Arthabaska, Drummond, and part of Wolfe and Megantic counties became part of the Centre-du-Québec region, the remainder of Megantic County became part of the Chaudière-Appalaches region, and part of Shefford and Missisquoi counties became part of the Montérégie region.

History

The first inhabitants of the region were the Abenaki Indians. This can be observed by the different names of towns, lakes and rivers which many are of Abenaki origin. They allied themselves with the French during the Seven Years' War to fight the British.

The region was part of New France until the 1763 Treaty of Paris which granted the region to the British. Shortly after the American Revolution, a few United Empire Loyalists, who fled the revolution in order to stay loyal to the British Crown, settled in the Eastern Townships. The land there was controlled by three English seigneurs; Colonel Henry Caldwell had purchased what had been the Foucault Seigneurie, which ran along the Richelieu River and a little over the present day frontier; Colonel Gabriel Christie was seigneur of Noyan; and Thomas Dunn was seigneur of St-Armand. The early loyalists settled in and around Missisquoi bay. A popular misconception is that there was a huge influx of Loyalists to the Eastern Townships, in fact most of the immigration fom New England happened in the early nineteenth century, thirty or so years after the Revolution and most were farmers seeking new and fertile lands, something the townships had to offer.

The land was good and the Loyalists cleared the land for farms and settled in, prospering by selling their crops at relatively high prices, thanks to the wartime market, in which trade limitations increased the demand for locally produced food and other necessities of life. When the Revolutionary War ended Sir Frederick Haldimand, the governor of Quebec, expected them to move westwards with the rest of the Loyalists, and so cut off their rations which the government had been providing. However, they resisted efforts to be moved by force, and were finally permitted to stay by Lieutenant Governor Henry Hamilton after Haldimand's return to England.

The status of the East Townships Loyalists was resolved when the seigneurs agreed to permit them to stay on their land for a nominal fee. The exact number cannot be ascertained, but a petition they sent to the governor included 378 names. Allowing for a family of five, this could suggest a population of about 1600 or so. The land they settled on, the present-day area of Noyan, Clarenceville and St. Armand, was not part of the Eastern Townships (which were not opened to settlement until 1791), but have since been regarded as part of the Townships.

Under the terms of the Constitutional Act of 1791, the Eastern Townships were open to settlement and a land rush followed. Most of the 3,000 or so settlers came from the United States. A few were Loyalist, at least in spirit, but most simply wanted land and had no strong feeling about nationality. Many more immigrated from the British Isles, including Gaelic-speaking Scots.

English-speaking inhabitants remained a majority in the Townships until the 1870s. Even though the region is now predominantly French speaking, the influence of the Loyalists and settlers from New England can still be observed in the architecture of older buildings and the names of various towns.

Footnotes

1. ^ To distinguish between the two, The French refer to the tourist area using a different name, "The Cantons of the East"
2. ^ http://www.stat.gouv.qc.ca Institut de la statistique du Québec
3. ^ (August 2007) (byline). The Outlet.