Early Land Grants in Madawaska - 1787, 1790 & 1794

The first Acadian settlers arrived in Madawaska in the early 1780s and settled on the lands on the St.John River near the mouth of the Madawaska River. In 1787, 1790 and 1794 the British government granted land to the Acadian settlers. Below are links to transcriptions of those grants.

The first grant was to seventeen persons. The second was to Pierre Duperré, in June 1790, of land on the south bank of the St.John near what is today Madawaska, Maine. The third grant was to 49 persons, in October 1790. The fourth grant, to 27 persons, came in August 1794.

Transcribed from the grant documents are the names of the grantees, the amount of land granted, the conditions under which the grants were made, as well as the specific description of the land granted.

Also included here is a list of who owned the 1790 and 1794 land grants in 1831. The information from 1831 was from Pierre Lizotte, Pierre Duperré's half-brother and one of the 1790 grantees, and George Thibideau, who provided it to John Deane and Edward Kavanagh during their 1831 survey of the Madawaska Settlements. This list also includes information on the original grantees, whether they were still alive in 1831, whether they had left Madawaska, etc.

If you have any further information on these grants or any of the people or land included, please let me know.

A note on units of measurement: In the description of the land grants a number of units of land measurement used by surveyors are referred to:
Chains: 1 chain = 66 feet; 1 chain is made up of 100 links
Poles
: 1 pole = 16½ feet; 4 poles = 1 chain

A note on French names: The grants were registered by English-speaking officials in Fredericton, New Brunswick. Given that most of the grantees probably had limited knowledge of English and were most likely illiterate, the spellings of their names in the grants books are not what we would consider correct. The spellings in the transcriptions are exactly as transcribed from the grant books. The first names have for the most part been anglicized; that is, Pierre becomes Peter, François becomes Francis, etc. Some of the last names that are spelled differently include: Cire and Cere = Cyr; Muzeroll = Mazerole; Willet = Ouellette ; Gagnie = Gagné; Sherrit = Charette; Aubert - Hébert; Alberre = Albert.


Transcriptions:

Grant of January 1787

Grant of June 1790

Grant of October 1790

Grant of August 1794

Conditions under which the land was granted

Holders of the lands granted in 1790 and 1794 as of 1831


Return to the Upper St.John River Valley Page

Last revised 24 Feb 2002
©2002 C. Gagnon