Theme no. 3 of the exhibit "The Irish Presence in Rawdon, Yesterday and Today", held at the Centre d'interprétation multiethnique de Rawdon, Saturdays and Sundays between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. from March 2 to 30, 2025 (except on March 22).
Richard Boyce was born in 1800 in County Wicklow. His daughter Ann Boyce Smith was born in Rawdon in 1839.
First allotments
In 1763, the British government created the Province of Quebec and instituted a new policy of granting public lands, divided into townships. Rawdon township, measuring 10 miles by 10 miles, was subdivided into 11 ranges, each comprising 28 lots of 200 acres. The first survey of Rawdon territory was carried out in 1792 by William Fortune, followed by other surveyors until 1844.
In 1763, the British government created the Province of Quebec and instituted a new policy of granting public lands. From then on, cadastral division was into townships.
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Our township measures 10 miles by 10 miles (16 kilometres by 16 kilometres). It is subdivided into 11 ranges, each comprising 28 lots of 200 acres.
Surveyors are commissioned to delimit boundaries, ranges and lots in the new townships. William Fortune carried out the first surveys of the Rawdon territory in 1792. Three more surveys followed. Samuel Holland drew the boundaries of Ranges 1 and 2 in 1799, then Joseph Bouchette did the same for Ranges 3 to 8, around 1804. Ranges 9, 10 and 11 were surveyed by James Dignan in 1844.
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A few lots in Ranges 1 and 2 were first granted in 1799 to three men and one woman from Loyalist or military families. They likely did not occupy the land, and the lots were subsequently sold.
From 1818 onwards, the new system using Tickets of Location enabled actual settlement on the lands by families, often from the educated middle class. Between 1815 and 1820, many Irish people signed petitions to obtain Tickets of Location, paving the way for the granting of lands to immigrants.
Thirty families were authorized to settle in Rawdon during the months of May, July and August 1820, according to the “Order in Council” issued by the colonial government of Lower Canada. Almost all were Irish Protestants.
Between 1820 and 1830, other pioneer Irish families, both Protestant and Catholic, obtained Tickets of Location. The pioneer families Bagnall, Blagrave, Boyce, Brown, Burgess, Burns, Burton, Carroll, Cassidy, Connelly, Corcoran, Cultra, Daly, Drought, Finlay, Gannon, Gray, Green, Hamilton, Harkness, Jackson, Kerr, Lane, Marlin, Mason, McArvill, Morgan, Nulty, Robinson, Rourke, Rowan, Scroggie, Sharpe, Shields, Skelly, Smiley, Smith, Tinkler, Wallace, Watters and Woods settled in Rawdon.
Main occupations of the early settlers of the township
The daily lives of Irish pioneers were occupied with clearing land, cultivating the soil, preparing food, growing flax for making linen, and preparing wool from the sheep. Work in flour mills, sawmills, tanneries and potasheries took up much of their time.
Lots in the middle of the forest, on the hill or near lakes and rivers, were cleared with axes and bow saws.
Daily life was punctuated by work. The forest was cleared, wood was cut for heating and for building houses and furniture. Men and women worked the cleared land: wheat, hemp and flax were sown. The women harvested turnips, peas, corn and carrots from the garden. They made clothes from sheep’s wool or country cloth. Houses were built with whatever materials were at hand.
Work in flour mills and sawmills, in the fields, at home or making potash from boiled wood ashes, occupied most of the time of Irish pioneers in the 1820s.
