Land ownership in New France wasn’t as simple as it is today in Canada or the U.S. Technically speaking, the king owned all the land, but in effect sections of land, seigneuries (fiefs), were held by nobles, clergy, or other people of privilege – the landlords. The “habitants” (or “censitaires,” the tenents) of the land, as the tenants were called, would buy a farm-sized piece of the seigneury but would still have to pay rents and various fees to the seigneur.
In New France the land was granted to the company which had the monopoly on the fur trade. The company in turn granted seigneuries for valuable services. For example, Robert Giffard obtained his seigneury as payment for recruiting colonists. Military officers were also given seigneuries for their service.
Because access to a river was vital for transportation, the farm divisions of the seigneuries were usually long and narrow. Typically, habitant parcels were ten times longer than the frontage width.
Few if any habitants complained about the seigneurial system. After all, it was not unlike the system in place in France, which had its roots in the middle ages. But as land became more scarce and farms were divided between surviving children, this vestige of the feudal system would become onerous for the peasant class.
Gagnon Family History 