Key Dates in the Creation of New Brunswick, Canada

    It is well known that New Brunswick was created in 1784 by the partition of Nova Scotia, but the exact day of separation is difficult to define. This is because there were many steps involved in establishing New Brunswick, beginning with the deliberations of the Privy Council in London in May and June, and ending with the arrival of the first governor, Thomas Carleton, at Saint John in November. Fortunately, there is an excellent book by C. Alexander Pincombe, The Birth of a Province: Pertinent Historic Dates in the Bicentennial Year: 1984, that explains all of the dates in detail. Many of the dates are also given in W. S. MacNutt's classic New Brunswick, A History: 1784 - 1867. This webpage summarizes the key dates and provides some general comments and links.

   Keep in mind that when New Brunswick was established in 1784, it was a separate British colonial province. Only in 1867 did it enter Confederation as one of the founding provinces of Canada.

    New Brunswick was created by an executive decision of King George III and the Privy Council, not by the British Parliament; there was no "New Brunswick Act". The Privy Council formally proposed the partition on May 10 and held various discussions leading up to its final order-in-council of June 18. The initial provincial constitution, such as it was, consisted of Carleton's commission and instructions and these were instruments of executive, not legislative, authority. In contrast, some other entities such as Upper Canada, Lower Canada, the Province of Canada, and Canada itself were created by acts of Parliament. (See, for example, the following offsite documents from William. F. Maton's Canadian Constitutional Documents site: Constitutional Act, 1791 and Act of Union, 1840; and the Department of Justice site: Constitution Act, 1867.)

    (Click here for text of order-in-council.)

    The order-in-council of June 18, 1784 was in response to a report from the Board of Trade on the form and cost of the government of the planned province of New Brunswick, and also St. John's Island (P. E. I.) and Cape Breton. The report began with a preamble that described the Loyalist situation and noted that

His Majesty having taken the same into His Royal Consideration has thought it proper that the Province of Nova Scotia should be divided into two parts, by drawing the line of separation from the Mouth of the Musquat River to it's [sic] source, and from thence across the Isthmus into the nearest part of the Bay Verte, and that the Tract of Country bounded by the Gulph of St. Lawrence on the East, the Province of Quebec on the North; the Territories of the United States on the West, and the Bay of Fundy on the South; should be erected into a Government under the Name of New Brunswick with a Civil Establishment suitable to it's [sic] Extent.

    After the preamble, the report recommended that New Brunswick should have a government "analogous to that of Nova Scotia" with an annual cost of £3100 to commence June 24. It also requested permission to begin appointing officials for the new province. What the order-in-council actually did was to approve this report and the annual expenses, and to authorize Lord Sydney to appoint officials:

HIS MAJESTY taking the said Report into Consideration, was pleased, with the advice of His Privy Council, to approve thereof, and also of the Estimates of the Annual Expence of the said Establishments, and to Order, as it is hereby Ordered, that the Right Honourable Lord Sydney, One of His Majesty's Principal Secretaries of State, do receive His Majesty's Royal Pleasure for the appointment of the several Officers proposed as necessary for the Administration of Government, so far as relates to his Department.

    The order-in-council has been reprinted in both the 1952 and 1973 editions of the Revised Statutes of New Brunswick, and also as an appendix to Pincombe (pp. 51-54).

   Pincombe recommended that June 18 be celebrated as a New Brunswick natal day (p. 25). Unfortunately, New Brunswick Day is still celebrated on the first Monday in August, which is a completely meaningless date. (See the New Brunswick Day Act, R.S.N.B., c. N-4.1 on the Province's website).

    The process of appointing Carleton as Governor was quite drawn out, as Pincombe (p. 19) explained:

Thomas Carleton was received by the King on July 9, 1784, his Commission or Warrant was signed by Sydney on August 2nd, but the Great Seal [of Great Britain] was not impressed upon it until August 16th. His Instructions, consisting of no less than 96 Clauses, were dated just two days later, having been approved by his Majesty in Council July 28th . . .

  Carleton's commission and instructions have been reprinted in Jarvis and are followed by a biographical account written by Raymond. The opening and closing lines of the commission are as follows:

GEORGE THE THIRD BY THE GRACE OF GOD of Great Britain France and Ireland King Defender of the Faith and so forth
To our Trusty and well beloved THOMAS CARLETON Esquire

GREETING:
    Wee [sic] reposing especial Trust and Confidence in the prudence, Courage and Loyalty of you the said Thomas Carleton, of our especial Grace, certain Knowledge and mere Motion, have thought fit to constitute and appoint you the said Thomas Carleton to be our Captain General and Governor in Chief of our province of New Brunswick bounded on the Westward by the Mouth of the River Saint Croix by the said River to its Source and by a Line drawn due North from thence to the Southern Boundary of our province of Quebec to the Northward by the said Boundary as far as the Western Extremity of the Bay des Chaleurs to the Eastward by the said Bay and the Gulph of Saint Lawrence to the Bay called Bay Verte to the South by a Line in the Center of the Bay of Fundy from the River Saint Croix aforesaid to the Mouth of the Musquat River by the said River to its source, and from thence by a due East line across the Isthmus into the Bay Verte to join the Eastern line above described including all Islands within six Leagues of the Coast with all the Rights Members and Appurtenances whatsoever thereunto belonging

[Extensive text omitted. Click here for full text.]

IN WITNESS  Whereof we have Caused these Our Letters to be made Patent WITNESS ourself at Westminster the Sixteenth day of August in the Twenty-fourth year of our Reign.
BY WRIT OF PRIVY SEAL.
YORKE.

This commission as Governor, or more properly "Captain General and Governor in Chief," was only in effect for two years. Thomas Carleton's title became Lieutenant Governor in 1786 when the Governor-General / Lieutenant-Governor system was established for British North America, as Jarvis explained (pp. 392-393):

. . . Governor Thomas Carleton's Commission was revoked, and a new Commission, dated the twenty-third day of August, 1786, was issued to his brother Guy Carleton, Lord Dorchester, as Governor General, under whom Colonel Thomas Carleton became Lieutenant Governor, Lord Dorchester being also Governor General at Quebec. This system, -- a Governor General for the British North American Provinces, with Lieutenant Governors for the various Provinces, acting under subsidiary Commissions, which authorized each Lieutenant Governor to exercise within his Province all the powers of the Governor General during his absence, continued down to the period of Confederation in 1867.

    At least three of the above key dates have been reported for the founding of New Brunswick:

• Lawrence: "The 16th of August, 1784, the County of Sunbury, Nova Scotia, was established as a Province . . ."
• Hamilton (1978 and 1996): "The official partition took place on 10 September 1784 . . ."
• Lawson and Sweet: " . . . the king's decree was to take effect on the 24th of June, 1784."

 
All of these dates are significant but they need some qualification. The first day, August 16, was the date of Carleton's commission and is a sensible, though not the only sensible, definition for the birthday of the province. The second day, September 10, was the date that the provincial seal was approved and it is not clear why this would be defined as the date of partition.

    The third day, June 24, is somewhat confusing. The report in the order-in-council of June 18 included a recommendation of "Estimates of the Annual Expence of the Civil Establishment for the Province of New Brunswick and for the Island of Cape Breton, to commence on the 24th of this instant June." Lawson and Sweet interpreted this as the date of partition, but strictly speaking it appears to be the start of the officials' terms of employment. Pincombe adopted a similar interpretation by saying that June 24 was "[t]he date on which the officials named in the Order-in-Council began to receive their salaries . . ." (p. 23).

Order in Council Establishing New Brunswick, June 18, 1784

Commission Appointing Thomas Carleton Governor, August 16, 1784

• Hamilton, William B. The Macmillan Book of Canadian Place Names. Macmillan Co. of Canada Ltd. Toronto. 1978. p. 81.

 
• Hamilton, William B. Place Names of Atlantic Canada. University of Toronto Press. Toronto. 1996. p. 22.

 
• Jarvis, W. M. "Royal Commission and Instructions to Governor Thomas Carleton, August, 1784". Collections of the New Brunswick Historical Society. No. 6 (1905). pp. 391 - 438.

 
• Lawrence, J. W. Foot-Prints; or Incidents in Early History of New Brunswick (1783 - 1883). J. & A. McMillan. Saint John. 1883. p. 6. (CIHM Microfiche 08948)

 
• Lawson, Jessie I. and Sweet, Jean M. Our New Brunswick Story. Canada Publishing Co. Ltd. Toronto. c1945-52. p. 149-150.

 
• New Brunswick. Revised Statutes of New Brunswick, 1952. Volume IV. pp. 5-7.

 
• New Brunswick. Revised Statutes of New Brunswick, 1973. Index & Appendices. Appendix III.

 
• Pincombe, C. Alexander. The Birth of a Province: Pertinent Historic Dates in the Bicentennial Year: 1984. New Brunswick Bicentennial Office. 1980.

 
• Raymond, W. O. "A Sketch of the Life and Administration of General Thomas Carleton, First Governor of New Brunswick." Collections of the New Brunswick Historical Society . No. 6 (1905). pp. 439 - 480.