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Megantic County
In 1792, after the conquest, the British government undertook in Quebec the cutting of the virgin lands located at the south of the French lands along the Valley of the St. Lawrence. One wanted to prepare grounds for the colonists of England, of Ireland and of Scotland, all faithful to the British crown. The cutting of the grounds started along the American border, went up gradually towards the north and joined the Megantic County in about 1796.The land surveying of the Eastern Township was finished in 1796 and was made official on August 30, 1802.
The surface thus registered represented 12,000 square miles. It was divided into 92 cantons of about 10 square miles each and that were divided into 320 batches of 200 acres. These Abenakis hunting grounds consequently became the Eastern Townships. Megantic County was divided into 9 municipalities: Leeds, Inverness, Ireland, Halifax, Broughton, Nelson, Somerset, Thetford and Tring. In 1861, Tring was no longer part of the Megantic County, and later, Somerset became part of the Arthabaska County. Broughton was transferred a little later to the Beauce County. As of 1940 what remained in the Megantic County was definitively redrawn and annexed to the new area of the Bois-Francs, from the base of the Appalachians to the Valley of the St. Lawrence.
Reference
Gwen Rawlings Barry, A HISTORY OF MEGANTIC COUNTY, Downhomers of Quebec's Eastern Townships, Evans Books, 1999, p. 2.
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