Most counties and parishes were created by acts of the New Brunswick legislature. The only exception that I'm aware of is for the original eight counties that were created directly by Governor Thomas Carleton through letters patent in 1785, before the first Assembly had been elected. However, once the Assembly did meet in 1786, it quickly passed an act to confirm the counties. The same act also created the original thirty six parishes. All subsequent counties and parishes were created by acts of the legislature. Some of the county acts had suspending clauses so that they didn't come into effect until they had been approved by the British government.

    The mass of county and parish boundary legislation gets re-consolidated every few decades, either in special acts for that purpose or as part of the Revised Statutes of New Brunswick. The latest codification was the Territorial Division Act, which forms Chapter T-3 of the Revised Statutes of New Brunswick, 1973. The electronic version of the Act on the Province's website is consolidated to June 30, 1998.

    There were originally (1785-86) 8 counties and 37 parish-level units. Of these, 36 were actual parishes; and 1, Saint John, was a city.

    There are presently (2001) 15 counties and 154 parish-level units. Of these, 151 are actual parishes; 2, Saint John and Fredericton, are cities; and 1, the Town of Grand Falls, is a town. The other cities, towns, and villages in New Brunswick are part of the parishes in which they are located.

    Saint John County has the fewest number of parish-level units: 4. This is because most of its population is concentrated in the City of Saint John.

    Kings, Charlotte, and York Counties are tied for the greatest number of parish-level units at 15 each, although York only has 14 if Fredericton is excluded.

    From 1785-86 to the mid-1850s, the counties and parishes were the basis for all local government. The provincial government appointed justices of the peace for each county, who formed a Court of General Sessions of the Peace that had various powers to make regulations and impose local taxes; parishes served as administrative divisions of the counties. During the period from the 1850s to 1877, all of the counties became incorporated as municipalities with elected councils. In parallel, populated areas began to be incorporated as towns in the mid- to late-1800s. The process was continued into the twentieth century with the introduction of new incorporated cities and villages.

    In the mid-1960s, the system of county government was abolished by the Robichaud government as part of its Equal Opportunity program. The counties' former roles in health, education, and social welfare services have now been taken over by the provincial government, while pure municipal services are delivered exclusively through incorporated cities, towns, and villages. In rural areas, the provincial government provides any necessary municipal services through the local service district system.

    Today, the governmentless counties and parishes have no particular purpose beyond geographic description and are simply used as administrative districts on an ad hoc basis. For example, the federal government still uses them as the basis for census districts and subdistricts, although when there is an incorporated municipality within a parish it distinguishes between the incorporated and unincorporated parts. At the provincial level some, but not all, of the local service districts are identical to the old parishes. Similarly some, but not all, of the provincial electoral districts are composed of whole numbers of parishes.

    A parish includes any incorporated municipalities within its boundaries, unless otherwise stated. For example, in Charlotte County the parishes of Saint Andrews, Saint George, and Saint Stephen include the towns of the same names, except for special purposes such as censuses. This is stated quite clearly in the Interpretation Act (R.S.N.B. 1973, c. I-13) which states, '"parish" includes any municipality that is within the limits of a parish.' It is also confirmed by the boundaries in the Territorial Division Act (R.S.N.B. 1973, c. T-3) which do not exclude municipalities from parishes.

    I don't think that the civil parishes of New Brunswick have ever had any automatic role in the Anglican or Catholic Churches. However, I suspect that if a civil parish had enough communicants, then the Church of England would choose to use it as an ecclesiastical parish. There are also many cases of the New Brunswick legislature establishing and incorporating special ecclesiastical parishes for the Church of England that did not correspond to the ordinary civil parishes. For lists of modern Anglican and Catholic parishes in New Brunswick, see the following links:

• Parish and Special Ministries Directory, Diocese of Fredericton (Anglican)
• Region Parishes, Diocese of Saint John (Roman Catholic)

    The state of Louisiana is one of the few, if only, other North American jurisdictions that uses the term "parish" for civil districts. However, in Louisiana the parishes are equivalent to counties, while in New Brunswick the parishes are roughly equivalent to townships and are subdivisions of the counties. In other words, Louisiana has parishes rather than counties, but New Brunswick has parishes and counties.

Carleton Parish is in Kent County, but Kent Parish is in Carleton County.

There are two Simonds Parishes: one is in Saint John County and one is in Carleton County.

The City of Saint John is in Saint John County.

Westmorland Parish is in Westmorland County.

There is a Grand Falls Parish and a Grand Falls Town. The Town is not part of the Parish, so they are both parish-level units.

The Cities of Saint John and Fredericton are not part of any parishes, so they are both parish-level units.

There is a Blissfield Parish in Northumberland County and a Blissville Parish in Sunbury County.

There is a Bright Parish in York County and a Brighton Parish in Carleton County.

There is no parish named New Brunswick, but there is a Brunswick Parish in Queens County.

Like any state or province, New Brunswick has a Springfield: it is a parish in Kings County.

There is a Wickham Parish in Queens County and a Wicklow Parish in Carleton County.