Capital Building

This year marks the 250th anniversary of the surveying of Charlottetown, when the Maritime capital’s foundations were de ned

- Nick Walker

BY 1768, Prince Edward Island’s capital had been given a name — “Charlotte Town” — and a strategic location at the confluence of three rivers opening onto the island’s south shore, but it had yet to be given a shape.

Just five years had passed since the end of the Seven Years War and the Treaty of Paris — where France formally ceded Canada to Britain — and not a moment had been wasted in sending out Samuel Holland, prolific surveyor general of British North America, to begin “a systematic survey of Britain’s possessions in North America.” And because of the importance of the fisheries, he started with P.E.I., dividing the still-forested land mass into counties, parishes and townships.