Friends of the BC Archives

The Enormous Condescension of Cartography:Squatters’ Rights and the Archival Meridian of William Pearce, Director of the Dominion Lands Board

Raymond FrognerJanuary 19, 2014

William Pearce, [ca. 1885]

University of Alberta ArchivesWilliam Pearce fonds

“Pearce to G.E. Grogan,” 3 November 1908, 74-169-442-6, William Pearce Papers UAA, p. 1.

Squatters in Juridical Context

• Who Was Pearce?

• The traditional history of Western Canadian Settlement

• The Unbearable Vagueness of English Common Law Title and Possession

• What served as evidence of Common Law Possession in Frontier Canada?

“Pearce to G.E. Grogan,” 3 November 1908, 74-169-442-6, William Pearce Papers UAA, p. 1.

Squatters in Juridical Context

Juridical system v. Political Discourse:

Traditional and cultural practice vs. Black Letter Law. • Historical Context: Squatters’ Rights=Adverse

Possession• Squatter: • the destitute, the Aboriginal, the loyalist

settler, the religious order, the NWMP officer or any other entity not unambiguously recognized by law to hold lands patent.

Squatters in Juridical Context

• Lower Canada:

• Source: Eric Whan, Improper Property: Squatters and the Idea of Property in the Eastern Townships of Lower Canada, MA Thesis, 1996

• 1858: 15,000 Squatters Lower Cdn Commissioner of Crown Lands

• 1838: Lord Durham’s Pre-emption proclamation

• 1859: Squatting made illegal

Squatters in Juridical Context

• Upper Canada• Grand River lands of the Six Nations Confederacy• Lieutenant Governor Frederick Haldimand 1784

• Between 1800 and 1850 Upper Canada received almost a million people, many started as squatters.• a sort of Trojan horse to provide entry for

Loyalist settlers to previously conveyed land.

Squatters in Juridical Context

• Squatters’ Rights• Lower Canada

Squatters depicted as problem• Upper Canada

Squatters tolerated and tacitly encouraged

• Positive Law:

• William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England.

“Pearce to H.H. Smith,” November 6, 1886. Pearce Letterbook, Private, 1883-1888, 74-169-9/2/4-1,

William Pearce Papers, UAA, p. 507.

“Pearce to Thomas White,” 14 November 1885, Land Claims, Vol. 2, 1884-1886, WPLB, UAA p. 693.

“Pearce to H.H. Smith,” 31 October 1885, Letterbook: Land Claims Vol. II, 1884, 74-169-9-2-4-4 William Pearce Papers, UAA, p. 668

“Pearce to A. Walsh,” 12 March 1884, Letterbook: Land Claims Vol. I, 1884, Prince Albert, 74-169-9-2-4-3 William Pearce Papers, UAA, p. 496

“Pearce to the Dominion Lands Board,” 24 September 1884, Letterbook: Land Claims Vol. II, 1884-1886, 74-169-9-2-4-4 William Pearce Papers, UAA, p. 458

“Pearce to H.H. Smith,” 6 November 1886 Letterbook: Private, 1883-1888 74-169-9-2-4-1 William Pearce Papers, UAA, p. 507

“Strictly Confidential Memo,” WPLB, Private 1883-1888, William Pearce Papers, U.A.A., p. 391-392.

Titles to Land in the Three Prairie Provinces: Early Administration and Development, Unpublished Manuscript, 74-169-467, William Pearce Papers, UAA.

Colonial Archives and the Prairie Gothic

Buffalo bones at Saskatoon, Saskatchewan74-169-15-91

Squatters on Colonial Vancouver Island

“Thomas Williams is one of the chap of man known in this country as ‘squatters,’ that is, persons who have not purchased, and therefore have no legal claim to, the land they occupy ….” 28 August 1856.

Tathlasut - Cowichan Valley First Nation

HBCs Anterior Claims• 7 September 1846

• Public Offices documentPelly to Grey1074, CO 305/1, p. 1; received