Prince Royalty is the royalty for Prince County,

Prince Edward Island Prince Edward Island (PEI; ) is one of the thirteen Provinces and territories of Canada, provinces and territories of Canada. It is the smallest province in terms of land area and population, but the most densely populated. The island has seve ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. The township was supposed to host the county's

shire town A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

, named

Princetown Princetown is a villageDespite its name, Princetown is not classed as a town today – it is not included in the County Council's list of the 29 towns in Devon: located within Dartmoor national park in the English county of Devon. It is the p ...

, and was surveyed for this purpose during the 1764 colonial survey undertaken by Capt. Samuel J. Holland. The township is located on a peninsula extending into

Malpeque Bay Malpeque Bay is a estuarine bay on the north shore of Prince Edward Island, Canada. Description Malpeque Bay is the second largest bay in terms of surface area in Prince Edward Island, following Hillsborough Bay. It is also notable for almos ...

from adjacent Lot 18. Unfortunately, the shallow harbour made it unsuitable for a major port and the commercial centre of the county shifted to an area of Lot 17 township which fronted a sheltered harbour on the

Northumberland Strait The Northumberland Strait (French: ''détroit de Northumberland'') is a strait in the southern part of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence in eastern Canada. The strait is formed by Prince Edward Island and the gulf's eastern, southern, and western sho ...

, which was later named Summerside. Prince Royalty is part of St. David's Parish.

History

With Prince Royalty being largely unused as a shire town, it saw limited rural settlement by farmers since the Crown, and not a landlord owned the territory, thus an active settlement scheme never transpired. A military road was constructed from the colonial capital at

Charlottetown Charlottetown is the capital and largest city of the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island, and the county seat of Queens County. Named after Queen Charlotte, Charlottetown was an unincorporated town until it was incorporated as a city in ...

early on and was named the Princetown Road. Princetown became a village on December 2, 1901, but downgraded its status to a settlement in 1925. Confusingly, the

post office A post office is a public facility and a retailer that provides mail services, such as accepting letters and parcels, providing post office boxes, and selling postage stamps, packaging, and stationery. Post offices may offer additional serv ...

changed the community name from Princetown to Malpeque on November 16, 1945; the community of Princetown changed its name to Malpeque on March 13, 1947. Malpeque's status was further downgraded to a hamlet in 1960 and was amalgamated into the larger community of

in 1973, with Malpeque's status being a locality. {{Subdivisions of Prince Edward Island, royalties=yes Townships of Prince Edward Island Geography of Prince County, Prince Edward Island Populated places established in 1764 1764 establishments in the British Empire