Jesuit Estates, 1783-1865

The Jesuit Estates were the endowments which had been accumulated by the Jesuits in support of their educational work in Canada. This land reverted to the Crown in 1773 when the Society of Jesus was disbanded by the Pope. However, it was agreed that surviving Jesuits should be maintained by the income from the remaining properties and that not until the death of the last member of the order would the estates become finally disposable. In 1778 a commission, including James McGill as one of the commissioners, was appointed by the Governor-General to inquire into the current and future disposition of the lands. In 1793 some Québec residents proposed that the Crown should allocate the Jesuit Estates to the support of public education in Québec. A committee of nine was named to prepare and deliver an address to His Majesty on the subject; James McGill was one of the nine members named. It was not acted upon. In 1800, with the death of the last of the Jesuits, the House of Assembly approved a motion that the matter should be deferred indefinitely. The estates remained in government hands until 1831 when the income was handed over to the Legislative Assembly in support of its educational responsibilities. Between 1811 and 1814 the Society was re-established by Pope Pius VII, and in 1842 a number of Jesuits returned to Québec. The Jesuits then sought restoration of (or compensation for) its sequestered estates. This problem troubled successive Québec administrations until the Mercier government passed the Jesuits' Estates Act in 1888. This act authorized payment of $400,000 as compensation to the Jesuits for the lands confiscated by the Crown.