Surrenders to the Crown. Province of Canada. Liber CS.
This bound volume consists of a register of transcripts of original Deeds of Surrender to the Crown dated 4 June 1851 to 20 December 1848, for lands in the Province of Canada. These originals were recorded and annotated in the register between 1851 and 1868. Transcripts of supporting documents are also present in some cases.
A few of the Deeds of Surrender transcribed in this volume are for lands surrendered to the Crown to ensure the performance of conditions of sale by corporations who became purchasers of public roads, harbours, bridges or public buildings. These documents were first registered in the registry offices of the counties in which the lands were located, then laid before the Executive Council of the Province for acceptance, and finally enrolled in the Office of the Provincial Registrar. Following the transcript of each document is a reference to the county register in which it was also recorded.
Many of the Surrenders are surrenders to the Crown by First Nations peoples of lands previously granted to them. In some cases, the lands involved bordered on expanding towns. In some cases, the Deeds of Surrender were for lands granted in trust to Superintendents of Indian Affairs or surrendered to the Crown for the use of First Nations peoples, or for the purpose of selling these lands on their behalf. In many cases, the pictograms, or totems, of First Nations individuals involved in the transactions are recorded next to their English names. Hand-drawn maps are present in a very few cases.
In a very few cases, transcripts of other types of documents appear within the register, for example, surrenders of letters patent of invention or releases of mortgaged lands.
In some cases, the margins of the register contain notes indicating to whom the original document was delivered or subsequent transactions relating to the lands involved. An alphabetical index to individuals named in the documents is present at the end of the volume.
