Archives of Manitoba

Registers of Hudson's Bay Company land

1873-ca.1961

4.5 m of textual records

In 1869, the Hudson's Bay Company signed the Deed of Surrender, which surrendered to the Crown its territorial rights in Rupert's Land. In July 1870, the Deed of Surrender or Rupert's Land and North-Western Territory Order was made as a British order in council that transferred Rupert's Land and the North-Western territory to the newly created Dominion of Canada. In compensation, the Hudson's Bay Company recieved 300 000 pounds and a vast acreage of land. To manage this land holding, the Hudson's Bay Company created their land department in 1874, through which this series of records was created to manage the sale and disposition of lands.

Series consists of registers of land in the fertile belt that was allotted to the HBC under the terms of the Deed of Surrender. The fertile belt was defined as the land bordered on the south by the American boundary; on the west by the Rocky Mountains; on the north by the Northern Branch of the Saskatchewan River; and on the east by Lake Winnipeg and Lake of the Woods. As such, these records cover lands in present day Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and some of Ontario. The records are organized by legal land description (section, township and range) and provide a description of the land, HBC number for crown patent or notification, details regarding the date of purchase, contract or sale number, certificates of title, and deed or conveyance numbers for surface rights and mineral holdings. The registers also include annotations in blue regarding the letter of the district that the land parcels fall within. These letters are recorded alongside the sale or contract numbers.

These registers can be used to obtain sales, patent and conveyance/deed numbers that are necessary for accessing records in other Land Department series.

There are no restrictions on access to these records.

Researchers are responsible for observing copyright legislation. Permission may be required for any form of publication or exhibition where records are not in the public domain.

The Archives Department of the Hudson's Bay Company was created in London in the 1920s. The Archives Department had custody of the records of this series until they were transferred on deposit to the Archives of Manitoba in 1974, according to the 1973 Agreement between the HBC and the Province of Manitoba. In 1994, the HBC donated the records to the Province to be maintained permanently by the Archives of Manitoba.

These registers can be used to obtain information necessary for the following series:

Series requiring HBC patent numbers:

Registers of crown patents and notifications for land allotted to the Hudson's Bay Company (RG1/9)

Dominion Government advices and land patents and grants (RG1/10)

Series requiring contract number/sale number:

Registers of Hudson's Bay Company farm land sales (RG1/25)

Hudson's Bay Company farm land agreements (RG1/26)

Register of Hudson's Bay Company farm land sales paid-in-full (RG1/27)

Hudson's Bay Company farm land assignments (RG1/28)

Registers of transferred Hudson's Bay Company farm land (RG1/29)

Hudson's Bay Company farm land transfers for the North West Territories, Alberta and Saskatchewan (RG1/30)

Hudson's Bay Company farm land indentures for Manitoba (RG1/31)

Hudson's Bay Company farm land and Victoria townsite sales paid-in-full (RG1/51)

Miscellaneous Land Department sales files (RG1/53)

Series requiring HBC certificate of title number:

Registers of certificates of title for Hudson's Bay Company lands (RG1/24)

Series requiring conveyance number or date of conveyance:

Hudson's Bay Company deed copy books (RG1/61)

Hudson's Bay Company land conveyances (RG1/62a-b)

RG1/21