DCHP-2

seigneurial system Seigneurial system, seigniorial system DCHP-2 (October 2016)

• n. — historical, Agriculture

  the system of tenant farming practiced in the colony of New France.

  Type: 1. Origin — The seigneurial land tenure system derived from the French feudal system. The Compagnie des Cent-Associés established tenant farming in 1627 in New France. Influential seigneurs owned large tracts of land and rented sections of it to peasants. In 1854, almost a century after France had ceded the territory to Britain, legislation formally abolished the seigneurial system (see Canadian Encyclopedia reference). Although the Canadian government legally ended the system at the time, vestiges survived into the twentieth century (see, e.g., the 1928 and 1940 quotations). The term is most prevalent in Canada (see Chart 1).
  See also COD-2, s.v. "seigneurial system", which is marked "Cdn hist."

  See also: seigneurial