Description

Estate records, where they exist,can be a godsend for the genealogisttrying to trace ancestors throughPrince Edward Island's early Britishperiod. For example, between 1798 and1841, when the bulk of the Island'simmigrants arrived, there was no nominalcensus taken in the colony.* The recordskept by early proprietors or their agentsare points of light amid these statisticalshadows.** And when they chronicle alarge holding such as the MontgomeryEstate, they become even more valuable.In the Great Lottery of 1767, which dividedup the Island of St. John among variousfriends of the Crown, the Lord Advocateof Scotland, Sir James Montgomery,drew Lot 7. Three years later he had addedLots 30,34,51, and 36. By 1775, the estateincluded half of Lot 12 and two-thirds of Lot59 as well, over 100,000 acres in all.