Clergy reserve

Clergy reserves were tracts of land in Upper Canada and Lower Canada reserved for the support of Protestant clergy by the Constitutional Act of 1791 which established the two provinces. One-eighth of all crown lands were reserved, with Protestant clergy initially interpreted to mean the Church of England. In 1824 the Church of Scotland was granted a share of the revenues. The reserves in Upper Canada were managed by the Clergy Corporation which was chaired by the Anglican Bishop of Quebec and run day-to-day by a Secretary Receiver.

The reserves were allotted in two hundred acre (800,000 m²) lots. Except in the Talbot Settlement they were scattered haphazardly and were a serious obstacle to economic development. The Legislative Assembly of Upper Canada passed a law to sell the reserves in 1840, but it was disallowed by the imperial (British) government.

The reserves created considerable dissatisfaction with the Anglican church and with the oligarchical rulers of Upper and Lower Canada, the Family Compact and the Château Clique.

In the 1840 a bill was passed distributing the profits of the clergy reserves amongst all leading Protestant groups (except for the Baptists, who refused to involve themselves in government funding). The lands were finally removed from church ownership and secularized in 1854 and the revenues from the reserves were transferred to the government.

See also

*Anglican Church of Canada