DCHP-1 Online

township

• 1a † n. Maritimes, Hist. an early land division of approximately six square miles.

  See also: settlement (def. 1b)  

  • 1756  (1932)  . . . perhaps a Division of the Province into Districts or Townships, may be the more eligible method. . . .
  • 1764  (1899)  I have been trying . . . to have my choice in the Townships of this River, the land and title as good as any in America, confirmed by the King in answer to our petition.
  • 1818  A fire getting into the woods . . . spread over the greater part of Halifax township, consuming an immense quantity of valuable wood. . . .
  • 1907  This right the townships (or settlements, as they were sometimes called) continued to enjoy until 1879.
  • 1957  As first comers, they had the choice of township sites.

• 1b † n. the administration of such a settlement, considered as a corporate body.

  • 1765  (1875)  It may be proper to observe that very few houses mentioned in the explanation of the Townships are good for anything, and by no means tenantable, except one or two at St. Peter's, kept in repair by the officers.
  • 1823  . . . the first parcel [of land] being sold . . . brought more than was required to satisfy the judgment against the Township. . . .

• 2a n. Ont. and Que., Hist. a large unorganized or partly organized frontier area established primarily for judicial purposes.

  See also: district (def. 1)  

  • 1763  (1906)  It is our Will and Pleasure, that each Township do consist of about Twenty Thousand Acres, having, as far as may be, natural Boundaries extending up into the Country, and comprehending a necessary part of the River St. Lawrence, where it can be conveniently had.

• 2b n. Ont. and Que. one of the subdivisions of a county.

  See also: county  

  • 1807-1816  (1793)  . . . the said Assessors shall cause the same to be affixed on the Church door or some other place of public resort in the said Parish, Township, reputed Township, or Place for general inspection.
  • 1815  The most exact content of ten miles square, the usual dimensions of an inland township, as prescribed by the warants of survey, is 61,000 acres, exclusive of the usual allowance of five acres on every hundred for highways.
  • 1842  The township forms a square, and is divided into 16 concessions, in each of which are 6,400 acres. These concessions are subdivided into lots of 200 acres of which there are 32 in each.
  • 1933  During the greater part of his pastorate of seventeen years he filled the position of superintendent of public schools for the township.
  • 1966  The school . . . will replace all existing public school accommodation in the township. . . .

• 2c n. Ont. and Que. the municipality of such an area, considered as a corporate body.

  • 1957  . . . Coleman is open to receive tenders for Garbage Collection in and for the Township. . . .
  • 1962  There will be action and counter-action, with demands that the township take over.

• 3 n. West a land-survey division comprising thirty-six sections (def. 2) of one square mile each.

  See also: section (def. 2)  

  • 1893  (1908)  Each of these (divisions) is known as a "township," and contains 36 square miles or "sections" which are further subdivided into "quartersections" of 160 acres. The same system of survey extends over the North-West Territory.
  • 1929  As each township was surveyed the [Hudson's Bay] Company secured in it one and three-quarter sections until the total acreage had been allotted, their sections being numbers 8 and three-fourths of 26 out of the thirty-six sections into which each township was divided.
  • 1952  With the exception of a few early settled areas such as the Red River and Saskatchewan River settlements, the land of the Prairie Provinces is divided into practically square townships, each containing thirty-six sections of as nearly one mile square as is permitted by the convergence of the meridians.