The Deed of Surrender or Rupert's Land and North-Western Territory Order was an 1870 British order-in-council that transferred ownership of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory from the Hudson's Bay Company to the newly created Dominion of Canada. The Deed ended just over 200 years of HBC control over the lands and began western Canadian expansion. While the actual Deed of Surrender was actually only a schedule in the Order, the name Deed of Surrender is generally understood to refer to the document on whole. Often confused with Rupert's Land Act, 1868 the Deed is different as the act only expressed that the United Kingdom and Canada permitted the transfer but did not settle on the details of exchange with HBC which were outline in the Deed of Surrender.
History
On May 2, 1670 King Charles II of England granted the HBC a royal charter for "the sole Trade and Commerce of all those Seas, Streights, Bays, Rivers, Lakes, Creeks, and Sounds, in whatsoever Latitude they shall be, that lie within the entrance of the Streights commonly called Hudson's Streights... which are not now actually possessed by any of our Subjects, or by the Subjects of any other Christian Prince or State... and that the said Land be from henceforth... called Rupert's Land". Due to the extend of the lands granted not truly being known at the time, in 1821, the British Parliament further extended the companies domain to the North-Western Territory as well with the passage of "An act for regulating the fur trade, and establishing a criminal and civil jurisdiction within certain parts of North America". In 1867, with the Confederation of Canada, the new Dominion of Canada sought to expand westward. In that same year, Canada's Parliament expressed this desire to the United Kingdom and soon after entered into talks with the HBC to arrange for the transfer of the territory. These talks resulted in the Deed of Surrender, which was part of an order-in-council by the United Kingdom titled "Rupert's Land and North-Western Territory - Enactment No. 3: Order of Her Majesty in Council admitting Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory into the union, dated the 23rd day of June 1870". The Deed received royal assent on June 23, 1870 and took effect on July 15, 1870.
