Hatley (Canton)

“The tract of land lying within the district of Montreal, bounded by Ascot, east by Compton, south by Barnston and Stanstead, and west by Magog, Little Magog lake and the river by that name. Containing 348 lots, it was erected into a township named Hatley, and in part granted March 25th, 1803, to Henry Cull, and Ebenezer Hovey and their associates (…)” C. M. Day, History of the Eastern Townships (1869).

Following the opening of the townships by the 1792 Proclamation of the Lieutenant-Governor of Quebec: “to such as are desirous to settle on the lands of the Crown in the Province of Lower Canada,” Col. Henry Cull and Ebenezer Hovey petitioned for a grant of land which was officially awarded in 1803 in the new Township of Hatley (named after a village in England). The Township was naturally divided from the north to south by Lake Massawippi. The subdivision of the lots was made in 1795 byread more > James Rankin.

Long before this date, the good quality of the land was discovered by early settlers who spread the word to families in the neighbouring states such as New Hampshire and Vermont. Settlers began to arrive and settle. It is well known that the first inhabitants near Lake Massawippi were the Algonquin. In her book The Story of Hatley, Maude Pellerin speaks of the Indians as being friendly with their white neighbours, as there were no records of raids against the white people, as occurred in other localities.

The villages in the original Township of Hatley were the Municipality of the Township of Hatley, the Village of North Hatley (1897), Ste-Catherine-de-Hatley (1901), Ayer's Cliff (1909), and Hatley (1912). The Municipality of the Township of Hatley expanded to the north following the annexing, in 1997, of a part of Ascot. The main attractions in the Municipality of the Township of Hatley are Lake Massawippi and the Capelton Mines.