Clergy reserve
Clergy reserves were tracts of land in Upper Canada and Lower Canada reserved for the support of Protestant clergy. Protestant clergy was interpreted to mean the Church of England, which received all income from rent or sale of the reserves, which constituted one-seventh of the territory of Upper and Lower Canada. In 1824 the Church of Scotland was granted a share of the revenues.
The reserves were allotted in two-hundred-acre lots. Except in the Talbot Settlement they were scattered haphazardly and were a serious obstacle to economic development. The assembly of Upper Canada passed a law to sell the reserves in 1840, but it was disallowed by the imperial (British) government. In 1854 the revenues from the reserves were transferred to the governments of Upper and Lower Canada.
The reserves created considerable dissatisfaction with the Anglican church and with the oligarchical rulers of Upper and Lower Canada, the Family Compact and the Chateau Clique.
