Land Petitions : 1783-1834.

            The series contains the earliest petitions for grants of land in New Brunswick. Before a Crown Land Grant could be issued to a settler, a petition had to be submitted to the Lieutenant Governor in Council on Land Matters.  If the petition were allowed, an Order/Warrant of Survey was issued to the deputy-surveyor, who then established the boundaries of the land to be granted.  Once the surveyor had fulfilled all his duties, the grant was issued to the petitioner and this document became the proof of ownership for the land.
            

            The petitions vary considerably in the amount of information they contain about the petitioner, his family and his reasons for requesting the land grant.  Many are very brief, while others, especially the earlier ones, may provide a great deal of information about the petitioner's background, place or origin, military service or other service he may have rendered to the Crown, his present circumstances, and any other details which the petitioner felt would improve his chances of a favourable decision.  The petitions are arranged alphabetically by name of petitioner within each year.

            

            
Online: Provincial Archives of New Brunswick has online an index to this collection. Use the Microfilm Shelf List to correspond their reel numbers to UNB's; see Electronic Finding Aid section below.

A detailed inventory and a nominal index in photocopy form, alphabetically arranged by name of petitioner and giving the county, date and microfilm reel number of the petition, is available and shelved with the Loyalist Collection Finding Aids. In cases where a petitioner is requesting land with another individual, or a group, researchers should note the name in the column headed "See Petition of." This column lists the name under which the petition has been filed and microfilmed.

A microfilm shelf list is available in print and as PDF in the electronic finding aids section. It contains the UNB microfilm reel numbers and the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick reel numbers for the early series of Land Petitions, and for three additional reels of early petitions.
            

The Provincial Archives of New Brunswick holds a complementary series of Land Petitions. The reference is, Land Petitions: Current Series, RS 272.