The Niagara District was a historic
district
A district is a type of administrative division that, in some countries, is managed by the local government. Across the world, areas known as "districts" vary greatly in size, spanning regions or county, counties, several municipality, municipa ...
in
Upper Canada
The Province of Upper Canada (french: link=no, province du Haut-Canada) was a part of British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of th ...
. Created in 1798 from the
Home District, it existed until 1849.
Historic evolution
The District was formed by an Act of the
Parliament of Upper Canada
The Parliament of Upper Canada was the legislature for Upper Canada. It was created when the old Province of Quebec was split into Upper Canada and Lower Canada by the Constitutional Act of 1791.
As in other Westminster-style legislatures, i ...
in 1798, and was described as consisting of the following territory:
In 1816, the following parts of the District were detached to form
Wentworth County in the newly created
Gore District:
Upon the passage of the
Act of Union 1840
The ''British North America Act, 1840'' (3 & 4 Victoria, c.35), also known as the ''Act of Union 1840'', (the ''Act'') was approved by Parliament in July 1840 and proclaimed February 10, 1841, in Montreal. It abolished the legislatures of Lower ...
, Lincoln County was reorganized into two
ridings for electing members to the
Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada, with the 1st and 2nd Ridings becoming the North Riding, and the 3rd and 4th Ridings becoming the South Riding. The South Riding would be detached from Lincoln in 1845, forming the new
Welland County
Welland County (area, excluding cities was 226,970 acres) is a historic county in the Canadian province of Ontario.
The county was formed in 1845 from Lincoln County. The county was named from the Welland River. The river got its name from J ...
.
The district was abolished in 1850, and was replaced by the
United Counties of Lincoln, Welland and Haldimand.
Further reading
*Armstrong, Frederick H. Handbook of Upper Canadian Chronology. Toronto : Dundurn Press, 1985.
References
{{Districts of Upper Canada
Districts of Upper Canada
1798 establishments in Upper Canada
1849 disestablishments in Canada