Timeline of Quebec history (1791 to 1840)

This section of the Timeline of Quebec history concerns the events between the Constitutional Act and the Union Act.

Table of contents

1 1790s 2 1800s 3 1810s 4 1820s 5 1830s 6 1840s

1790s

• 1791 - The Constitutional Act is enacted by the British Parliament on June 10.
• 1792 - The first elections of Lower Canada are held on June 11.
• 1792 - The first session of the Parliament of Lower Canada opens on December 17.

• 1803 - Napoleon sells Louisiana to the United States.
• 1805 - Foundation of the Quebec Mercury by Thomas Cary, supporter of the British tories.
• 1806 - Pierre Bédard and François Blanchet, members of the Parti Canadien found the newspaper Le Canadien.
• 1807 - On August 29, James Henry Craig becomes governor of the British American colonies.
• 1808 - Louis-Joseph Papineau and Denis-Benjamin Viger are elected for the first time. They join the Parti Canadien.

• 1810 - The governor of Lower Canada, James Craig, stops the press of Le Canadien and put its owners on trial for sedition.
• 1811 - Foundation of the newspaper The Montreal Herald by William Grey.
• 1812 - Second American invasion of Canada.
• 1815 - On January 21, Louis-Joseph Papineau is elected speaker of the Legislative Assembly.
• 1818 - The frontier between British America and the United States is established at the 49th northern parallel.

• 1821 - McGill University obtains its royal charter.
• 1822 - Lower Canadian British merchants and bureaucrats petition for the Union of Upper and Lower Canada into a single colony before the British Parliament in London.
• 1823 - On May 10, Louis-Joseph Papineau and John Neilson are sent to London by the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council to bring a petition of 60,000 signatures against the Union project.
• 1826 - Ludger Duvernay, Auguste-Norbert Morin, and Jacques Viger found the newspaper La Minerve.
• 1827 - The Parti Canadien becomes the Parti Patriote.
• 1828 - On December 12, Daniel Tracey founds the newspaper The Irish Vindicator, which became The Montreal Vindicator soon after.
• 1829 - McGill University begins instruction in 1829 with the Faculty of Medicine.

• 1831 - During the summer, Alexis de Tocqueville, political thinker and author of Democracy in America, spends two weeks in Lower Canada. His notes on the social and political situation of the Canadiens are of great historical and documentary value today.
• 1831 - Ludger Duvernay and Daniel Tracey are arrested for their opinions, charged with sedition.
• 1832 - Daniel Tracey spends 35 days in prison in January for writing an editorial attacking the non-elected bureaucrats of the colonial government.
• 1832 - During a partial election in Montreal on May 21, British soldiers open fire on the crowd and kill three supporters of the Parti Patriote.
• 1832 - A first cholera epidemic kills 6,000 people.
• 1832 - The Parti Patriote passes a law giving full political rights to the Jewish minority of Lower Canada, a first in the British Empire and some 27 years before Great Britain itself.
• 1833 - The British Parliament passes the Slavery Abolition Act giving all slaves in the British Empire their freedom.
• 1834 - Foundation of the Saint-Jean-Baptiste Society on June 24.
• 1834 - The Parti Patriote is elected with a strong majority of about 95% of the registered vote. That is 77 of 88 seats in the Legislative Assembly and 483 739 votes against 28 278.
• 1834 - The Legislative Assembly presents the Ninety-Two Resolutions, a document requesting democratic reforms in Lower Canada.
• 1835 - The Canadiens found their first Bank La Banque du Peuple. The institution will collapse with the war.
• 1836 - Foundation of the Doric Club, the reincarnation of the illegal British Rifle Corp.
• 1836 - The laws establishing the écoles normales of the country are passed. They would have been the first secular, public, and free schools of Lower Canada.
• 1837 - On March 6, the Ten Russell's Resolutions arrive in Lower Canada.
• 1837 - Founded in August, the Société des Fils de la Liberté holds its first public assembly on September 5.
• 1837 - Various Assemblées populaires are held throughout Lower Canada between May and November.
• 1837 - The Doric club attacks the Fils de la liberté on November 6, 1837 and take this occasion to destroy the office of the Vindicator and vandalize the house of Papineau, who will be wanted for treason 10 days later.
• 1837 - On November 16, Lord Gosford orders the arrest of 26 patriot leaders on charges of high treason.
• 1837 - Battle of St-Denis on November 23.
• 1837 - Battle of St-Charles on November 25.
• 1837 - The Patriotes take control of St-Eustache on November 30.
• 1837 - Proclamation of martial law in the district of Montreal on December 5.
• 1837 - 80 Patriotes are forced to retreat at Moore's Corner near the American border on December 6.
• 1837 - On December 13, General John Colborne, Lord Seaton, leaves Montreal for Saint-Eustache leading 1,300 men.
• 1837 - Battle of St-Eustache on December 14.
• 1837 - The British troops burn the village of St-Benoît.
• 1838 - February 26, Robert Nelson, General of the Patriotes, gathers between 600 and 700 volunteers, the Frères Chasseurs and American sympathisers, and tries to invade Lower Canada.
• 1838 - Robert Nelson proclaims the independence of Lower Canada in Week’s House on February 28. See the Déclaration d'indépendance du Bas-Canada.
• 1838 - The Constitutional Act is suspended on March 27. A Special Council is formed.
• 1838 - The envoy of the British government, John George Lambton, Lord of Durham, arrives in Quebec City on May 27.
• 1838 - Proclamation of amnistia for all prisoners, except 8 exiled in the Bermudas, on June 28.
• 1838 - The Frères Chasseurs take positions in Beauharnois, *Sainte-Martine and Saint-Mathias on November 3.
• 1838 - New proclamation of martial law on November 4.
• 1838 - Battle of Lacolle on November 7.
• 1838 - Battle of Odelltown on November 9. End of the Patriotes Rebellion.
• 1838 - Creation of a martial court to judge 108 men.
• 1839 - Publishing of the report of Lord Durham on February 11.
• 1839 - Hanging of 12 Patriotes at the prison of Pied-du-courant on February 15.
• 1839 - Charles Poulett Thomson, Lord Sydenham, succeeds Lord Durham as governor general of the Canadas.

• 1840 - The Act of Union receives royal assent on July 23.

1774 to 1790

1791 to 1840 History of Quebec

1841 to 1866