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The Missisquoi Museum is owned and operated by the Missisquoi Historical Society (MHS).

To report typos, errors and omissions, please send email to the webmaster.

Historical Background

At the close of the American Revolution, close to ten thousand displaced persons moved across the border into Canada claiming allegiance to the British Crown. Approximately three thousand people settled in the region around Missisquoi Bay and chose to claim this land as their own.

Despite government disapproval of these new squatters in a territory designated as a free buffer zone between the newly formed United States and the seigneuries of the St. Lawrence River, the Proclamation Act of 1792, issued by Lieutenant Governor Alured Clarke of Lower Canada, made it possible for families who desired to settle in the region from Missisquoi Bay (on Lake Champlain) east to the border of Maine, to be granted land with full title of ownership.

The Eastern Townships of Lower Canada began in 1792 when this region was surveyed into townships, south and east of the seigneuries which were along the St. Lawrence and Richelieu rivers, and Loyalists and other American settlers started to build their homes in the townships area. After the Union Act of 1841, Upper Canada was officially called Canada West (which became Ontario in 1867) and Lower Canada was called Canada East.

This region was named "Eastern Townships" in comparison with the "Western Townships" which were in Upper Canada. As early as 1806, the name Eastern Townships appeared in the Quebec Almanac. A map of 1817 identified the area of the Eastern Townships.

On July 1, 1867, Canada East became the Province of Quebec and from that date until 1898, the area of the Eastern Townships constituted a considerable proportion of the Province of Quebec. After 1820, immigrants from the British Isles came here in large numbers and beginning in the 1850's, the French population from the adjoining seigneuries also migrated into this region. The United Empire Loyalist influence was predominant in the architecture and agriculture, the culture and development of institutions and societies in the Townships. Their traditions, material culture and familial links are still strong in the County of Missisquoi which makes this County unique from the other regions of the Townships.

The Eastern Townships is generally considered to include the historical counties of Missisquoi, Brome, Stanstead, Shefford, Sherbrooke, Compton, Richmond, Drummond, Wolfe, Frontenac, Arthabaska and Megantic.

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