Civilization.ca - VMNF - The Seigneurs

The Seigneur's Burdensome Rights (Droits Onéreux)

The seigneur's droits onéreux were different in purpose from the droits honorifiques (honorary rights) acorded to him. The latter gave public recognition to his status in the social hierarchy. The former were stipulated in the text of his acte de concession (deed of grant) and had to do with revenues, both substantial and symbolic.

Paying the cens et rentes

He received cens et rentes (quitrent), taxes in amounts fixed at the time the deed was signed and payable to him annually in cash or in kind. Since the habitant had little cash income, he was allowed to pay in farm produce: live capons, wheat, butter, etc. In areas where the farmers had been ceded fishing rights, they could pay their dues in eels or whatever other fish was to be had. Jacques Lefebvre, seigneur of Baie du Febvre on Lake St. Peter, required from his son René, to whom he had just ceded the property, "a hare legally and honestly taken, during his lifetime only, and after his death the said acquirer shall be bound and holden to say a mass on the aforesaid days of St. James and St. Philip, and likewise his heirs, and on occasion a De Profundis for the repose of his soul, these being the only recurring fees for the said cession.".

The common

For so long as the land had not been cleared and the cattle did not have access to adequate pastures, the farmers had a right to pasture their animals on the commune (common.) In return they had to pay the seigneur pasturage dues. The habitants of the Boucherville seigneurie paid seven livres a year for this right, or else did four days of corvée (unpaid labour.)

When a censitaire (grant holder) sold land, there was a tax of one twelfth of the sale price. The revenue from this tax, called the lods et ventes (consent and sale) right, was collected by the seigneur whenever there was a property transfer outside the direct line of inheritance. Another right, that of retrait (withdrawal), allowed the seigneur to reacquire the land within forty days if he considered it had been sold too cheaply.

The seigneur had the right to reserve for himself a portion of the catch from the fisheries on his seigneury. He could also claim the right to cut wood for heating fuel on the censitaires' land, and take building materials for the church, the mill or the manor house such as lumber, pine trees, oaks and stone. Finally, the seigneur could call up the men for corvées. This meant three or four days a year of unpaid forced labour were exacted, either for the upkeep of the seigneur's own lands and buildings or for maintaining the common lands, buildings, and winter or summer roadways.

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