Timeline of Quebec history (1791–1840) explained
This section of the Timeline of Quebec history concerns the events in British North America relating to what is the present day province of Quebec, Canada between the time of the Constitutional Act of 1791 and the Act of Union 1840.
1790s
- 1790 – The Dechristianisation of France during the French Revolution marks the beginning of a sharp tightening of the powers and influence of the Roman Catholic Church in Quebec that would last until 1960.
- 1791 - The Constitutional Act is enacted by the British Parliament on June 10.
- 1792 - The first elections of Lower Canada are held on June 11.
- 1792 - The first session of the Parliament of Lower Canada opens on December 17.
- 1792 - On December 18, Jean-Antoine Panet is elected Speaker of the Legislative Assembly.
- 1792 - Opening of the first post office in Montreal on December 20.
- 1793 - Language debate at the Legislative Assembly of Quebec on January 21.
- 1793 - On January 27, Lower Canada-born Jean Basset presents a memoir to the National Convention in Revolutionary France in which he pleads for a reconquest of Canada.
- 1793 - France declares war on England on February 8.
- 1793 - Prorogation of the first session of the Parliament on May 9.
- 1793 - On September 23, governor Dorchester demands that the Assembly punishes foreigners threatening the British government in Canada or any seditious citizen.
- 1793 - In October, there are rumours that a French fleet is coming to retake Canada.
- 1793 - The second session of the Parliament opens on November 11.
- 1795 - Introduction of the first property tax in Lower Canada.
- 1796 - The first county of the Eastern Townships, Dunham, is created.
- 1797 - Robert Prescott becomes Governor General on April 27.
- 1798 - Beginning of Irish immigration to Canada.
1800s
1810s
1820s
1830s
- 1830 - Lord Matthew Aylmer is appointed Governor.
- 1830 - The Port of Montreal is officially created.
- 1831 - Alexis de Tocqueville, French aristocrat conservative political thinker and author of Democracy in America, spends a few days in the summer of 1831 in Lower Canada.
- 1831 - Ludger Duvernay and Daniel Tracey are arrested and charged with sedition.
- 1831 - Henry Musgrave Blaiklock designs the Marine and Emigrant Hospital of Quebec, a prime example of neoclassical architecture in Lower Canada.
- 1832 - Daniel Tracey spends 35 days in prison in January for writing an editorial that encouraged physical attacks on members of the colonial government.
- 1832 - During a by-election in Montreal on May 21, rioting erupted and British soldiers opened fire on the crowd and killed three people.
- 1832 - A first cholera epidemic kills 6,000 people.
- 1832 - Following the 1808 expulsion of the Ezekiel Hart, a Jew, from the Legislative Assembly of Quebec, the assembly passes a law giving full political rights to the Jewish citizens of Lower Canada (the 1832 Emancipation Act), a first in the British Empire and some 27 years before Great Britain itself.
- 1833 - Foundation of the Club des femmes patriotes (Patriot Women's Club).
- 1834 - Foundation of the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society on June 24.
- 1834 - Foundation of the monarchist Quebec Constitutional Association.
- 1834 - The Parti patriote is elected with a strong majority of the registered vote, taking 77 of 88 seats in the Legislative Assembly of Quebec. (L’élection générale de 1834 permet à la population bas-canadienne de faire choix de quatre-vingt-huit députés, répartis sur un total de quarante-six circonscriptions. /The general election of 1834 allowed voters of Lower Canada to choose 88 deputies, spread over a total of 46 constituencies.)[1]
- 1834 - The Legislative Assembly presents the Ninety-Two Resolutions, a document requesting democratic reforms in Lower Canada.
- 1835 - Founding of the monarchist Montreal Constitutional Association in January.
- 1835 - Creation of the Union patriotique.
- 1835 - Louis-Michel Viger and Jacob De Witt found La Banque du Peuple. It becomes a chartered bank in 1844.
- 1836 - Founding of the Doric Club, a reincarnation of the banned British Rifle Corp.
- 1836 - The laws establishing the normal schools of the country are passed. They would have been the first secular, public, and free schools of Lower Canada.
- 1837 - On March 6, the British Parliament resolutions arrive in Lower Canada, rejecting the major demands of the colonists, Prime Minister Russell believing it was impossible for a governor to be responsible to the sovereign and a local legislature at the same time.
- 1837 - Foundation of the Comité central et permanent in April.
- 1837 - Founded in August, the Société des Fils de la Liberté holds its first public assembly on September 5.
- 1837 - Town Hall meetings are held throughout Lower Canada between May and November.
- 1837, November 6 - The Doric Club members attack the Fils de la liberté, members of the Doric Club destroy the office of Thomas Storrow Brown at the Vindicator newspaper.
- 1837 - On November 8, General John Colborne begins to recruit volunteers for militias which are placed under the command of lieutenant-colonel Dyer.
- 1837 - On November 16, Lord Gosford orders the arrest of 26 patriots leaders on charges of high treason.
- 1837 - On November 23 British courier is killed in Saint-Denis-sur-Richelieu in an attack by the Fils de la Liberté.
- 1837 - Battle of Saint-Denis on November 23.
- 1837 - Battle of Saint-Charles on November 25.
- 1837 - Patriots take control of Saint-Eustache on November 30.
- 1837 - Proclamation of martial law in the district of Montreal on December 5.
- 1837 - 80 Patriots are forced to retreat at Moore's Corner near the American border on December 6.
- 1837 - On December 13, General John Colborne, Lord Seaton, leaves Montreal for Saint-Eustache leading 1,300 men.
- 1837 - Battle of Saint-Eustache on December 14.
- 1837 - The British troops sacked and burned the villages of Saint-Benoît and Saint-Eustache.
- 1838 - February 26, Robert Nelson, General of the Patriots, gathers between 600 and 700 volunteers, the Frères Chasseurs and American sympathisers launch an attack on the British in Lower Canada.
- 1838 - Robert Nelson proclaims the independence of Lower Canada in Week's House on February 28. See the Déclaration d'indépendance du Bas-Canada.
- 1838 - The Constitutional Act is suspended on March 27. A Special Council is formed by London.
- 1838 - The envoy of the British government, John George Lambton, Lord of Durham, arrives in Quebec City on May 27.
- 1838 - Proclamation of amnesty for all prisoners, except eight who are exiled to Bermuda, on June 28.
- 1838 - The Frères Chasseurs take positions in Beauharnois, Sainte-Martine and Saint-Mathias-sur-Richelieu on November 3.
- 1838 - New proclamation of martial law on November 4.
- 1838 - Battle of Lacolle on November 7.
- 1838 - Battle of Odelltown on November 9. End of the Lower Canada Rebellion.
- 1838 - Creation of a military court to judge 108 men.
- 1839 - Publishing of the report of Lord Durham on February 11.
- 1839 - Following a trial for treason and murder, 12 Patriots were hung at the Pied-du-Courant Prison on February 15.
- 1839 - Charles Poulett Thomson, Lord Sydenham, succeeds Lord Durham as governor general of the Canadas.
1840s
Notes and References
- http://faculty.marianopolis.edu/c.belanger/quebechistory/documents/ChapitreIIIReglesdujeu.pdf Élection générale de 1834