The Canada Company

The Canada Company was a large, private chartered, British land development company incorporated by an act of the British Parliament on July 27, 1825. It's purpose was to aid the colonization of Upper Canada in British North America. It assisted emigrants by providing good ships, low fares, implements and tools, and inexpensive land. It was founded in London, England. The names of those present were later used as the names of townships in Huron County.

The government of Upper Canada sold the company 10 000 square km of land for £341 000. John Galt became its first Canadian superintendant. Half the land purchased became known as the Huron Tract along the eastern shore of Lake Huron. Galt selected Guelph as the location of the company headquarters. There were also huge tracts of land elsewhere in Upper Canada, including the Colborne area, and large areas were set aside as clergy lands.

The company advertised for emigrants, especially in Scotland, and the Border lands. They then assisted in the migration of new settlers, bringing them to the area by means of a boat which the company owned on Lake Ontario.

The company's mismanagement and corruption, and its close ties with the Tory elite, known as the Family Compact, was an important contributing factor to the Upper Canada Rebellion in 1837. Payments for the land were spread over 16 years and went directly to the Executive branch of the Upper Canada government. This caused bitter resentment by Reformers in the elected assembly who also charged that the company failed to provide promised improvements in its structure, and treated immigrants dictatorially. The company was dissolved on December 18, 1953.