The Jesuits' Estate Question, 1760-1888

More than a hundred years of trouble followed the land grant of half a million acres along the St. Lawrence River to the Jesuits. The history of this land is a turbulent one that involved every area of colonial settlement and finally threatened Confederation. In 1888 the Quebec legislature passed an "Act Respecting the Settlement of the Jesuits' Estates": the result was a storm of protest that came close to shattering the union of the provinces. At the time of this Act there was no balanced hist