Clergy Reserves

The term applied to that portion (one- seventh) of the land which was set apart in the Canadas by the Canada Act of 1791 for the “support and maintenance of a Protestant clergy.” Because the proceeds were used in the interests of the Church of England, the other denominations soon began to urge that the funds be used for the support of all denominations. The Durham Report cited the Clergy Reserves as one of the major causes of unrest preceding the Upper Canada rebellion in 1837. A compromise was therefore included in the Imperial Act of 1840 by which the monies realized from the sale of the reserves were divided among the denominations. The reserves remained a political sore spot until they were secularized in 1854, with payments being made to the various denominations, and with the Presbyterians and Anglicans retaining their former grants of land.

See Canada.