La noblesse montréalaise devant les tribunaux (1750-1793)
From the end of New-France to the adoption of the Constitutional Act of 1791, the relationship between the nobility and the colonial civil court underwent drastic changes. The ‘Canadiens’ needed to conform to the British system. In New-France, aristocrats sued each other before the ‘tribunal royal’, using the Custom of Paris; but as of 1763, it was the British laws which prevailed. After some modifications, the Common Pleas Court became the French nobility’s (and therefore the military elite’s) favourite courthouse. The judicial system is an important part of research on colonial evolution because the population’s behaviour (and in our case that of the elite) before its courts shows its ability to adapt and its degree of involvement in the social life of the time.
Montreal nobility court Conquest