Colony of Prince Edward Island

Origins

Known to the French as Île Saint-Jean, the island passed to Britain in 1763 and was attached to Nova Scotia. In 1767 it was divided by lottery into 67 lots granted to absentee proprietors in Britain, and in 1769 it was made a separate colony with Walter Patterson as governor. It was renamed Prince Edward Island in 1799.

Rule and society

The colony had an elected assembly from 1773 and responsible government from 1851. Its central problem was the land question: most farmers were tenants paying rent to proprietors overseas, and agitation by the Escheat movement and the Tenant League dominated politics. The economy rested on farming, fishing and shipbuilding, with many settlers from the Scottish Highlands, Ireland and Acadia.

Decline and legacy

The Charlottetown Conference of 1864 launched Confederation, but the island at first stayed out of Canada. Debt from a costly railway, and Ottawa's promise to buy out the absentee landlords, brought it into Canada as a province in 1873.