Entrybooks compiled by the Provincial Registrar to record the texts of letters patent authorizing the alienation from the Crown of title to lands by grant or sale in Quebec, Lower Canada and Canada East, 1788-1867, were arranged first and foremost by date. As the volume of activity increased, segregation by type of transaction was implemented: from 1831 onward, there were separate entrybooks for Special Grants and Sales. The entrybooks recording land grants were identified by letter designations, in two sequences: A-Z for 1788-1851 (omitting I-J, V) and AA-MM (except II) for 1851-1867. The volumes titled Special Grants, beach and water lots are lettered I and K-M, for 1831-1861, after which the three categories were divided in books lettered N-P. The entrybooks recording sales are also designated by letter in two sequences: A-Z for 1831-1863 (omitting J) and AA-AP (except AJ) for 1862-1867.
This material is located on microfilm reels M-8162 to M-8183.
Quebec, Lower Canada, Canada East. Provincial Registrar. Entrybooks : While the offices of Secretary and Registrar of the Province were held jointly by one man, the functions of each were distinguished by the keeping of separate record systems. The first duty of the Provincial Secretary was to prepare documents for issuance over the Great Seal Deputed for the province, by engrossing letters patent on parchment, or by entering specific details on printed forms for licences, certificates, etc. The principal duties of the Provincial Registrar were to keep for the future reference a record of all such "public instruments" issued, and those received from imperial authorities (such as the Governor's commissions), and to supply certified copies on request.
The full texts of all important documents were recorded in volumes he called "registers", but which should properly be called entrybooks. Only key details of less important documents, such as licences, were recorded, in volumes called "docketbooks".
At Confederation, records were divided between the new federal and provincial governments, based on the responsibilities they were assuming. Crown lands being a provincial responsibility, the principal series of entrybooks recording leases, grants and sales of lands under English tenure were transferred to the new province of Quebec. Certain registry volumes were retained in federal custody (and can be found in RG 68).
Records relating to seigneurial tenure were similarly divided between federal and provincial custody and can be found described elsewhere in MG 8 (for copies from the Archives nationales du Québec) and RG 19 (for records of the Commissioners who oversaw the commutation of seigneurial tenure), and RG 68 (for the "Registres françaises de l'enregistrement" by which French titles were verified after 1764).
