Best Answer #117: from Linda Neal (edited for brevity):
" Clergy Reserves were created by The Constitutional Act of 1791, an act of the British Parliament. [Land equal to] one-seventh of all crown land grants was to be appropriated for the ‘Support and Maintenance of a Protestant Clergy’. The Church of England in Canada assumed ‘ownership’ of these lands and this became a point of conflict.

Clergy Reserves were scattered throughout Oxford County. In 1834, a Clergy Reserve land grant of five acres was recorded in the Town of Blandford (later part of the city of Woodstock).

With the arrival of Admiral Vansittart, Captain Drew, and Rev. William Bettridge, the Parish of Woodstock began to develop and an Order-in-Council committed 400 acres as an endowment for the rectory in 1836. Another Clergy Reserve, referred to as the Court House Square, existed in the area where Central School and Oxford County Court House now stand. In 1876, the Board planning the new location of St. Paul’s Church decided to locate the church at the corner of Dundas and Wellington Streets. Some of the lots of the existing Clergy Reserve land, previously leased, were then publicly auctioned to raise the necessary funds for the new church building.

Further information:

The Constitutional Act, also referred to as the Canada Act, was promoted by William Smith, the first Chief Justice of Canada, and addressed many issues [in addition to] Clergy Reserves.

Establishing Clergy Reserves ensured an endowment of the Protestant religion from the rents and/or sales of such lands. The Act also provided for local rectories [interpreted to mean only] for Church of England in Canada clergy.

At the time of the Act, this provision was not a cause for concern as there was an overwhelming supply of Crown land in Upper Canada and other church denominations - primarily Presbyterians and Methodist - were greatly outnumbered by Church of England [Anglican] adherents. [Later immigration soon put Anglicans in the minority.]

In the first quarter of the nineteenth century, grievances in Upper Canada focused on the three issues of education, land and religion. The Clergy Reserves were connected to each of these causes of discontent. The price of land had escalated, yet many of the Clergy Reserves sat idle and no taxes were paid on them. In addition, the roads [bordering] these tracts were not maintained and adjacent settlers had to deal with this problem. By the 1820s, almost two and a half million acres in Upper Canada had been set aside ‘to support the Protestant religion’. John Strachan, a leading Church of England in Canada clergyman [and member of many governing bodies], used his position of power to influence the government and proclaimed that The Constitutional Act gave the Church of England the right to control the Clergy Reserves; education, and [to] have other special privileges.

Egerton Ryerson became the spokesperson for the Methodist church and [spoke] against control by the Church of England in Upper Canada. He advocated that the proceeds from the Clergy Reserves be used for public education in Upper Canada.

Conflicts within Upper Canada resulted in the rebellions of 1837 and the subsequent appointment of Lord Durham [as High Commissioner in 1838] to investigate the situation and make recommendations. Regarding Clergy Reserves, Durham stated that any Acts relating to the Clergy Reserves should be repealed and that the legislature should assume the task of disposing of the lands and funds. [His report was ignored for some years.]

References:

  • Brown, Craig, ‘The Illustrated History of Canada. Toronto’, Lester & Orpen Dennys Ltd., 1987
  • The Constitutional Act of 1791. - www.collections.ic.gc.ca/heirloom_series
  • The Durham Report. - www.uni.ca/durhamreport.html
  • St. Paul’s Church, Woodstock, ON: archives.
  • Egerton Ryerson. - www.norfolklore.com/history/ryerson2.html
  • John Strachan. - www.desconnect.com/~splamondon1/JohnStrachan.htm
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    Extra Information From Quiz Committee:
    To make matters worse, an additional one-seventh of surveyed lands was reserved for future use by the Crown. As land within each township was sold off to settlers, the blocks reserved for the Clergy and for the Crown interrupted the continuity of land for farms and settlements. It also made difficult the expansion of roads.

    It was not until 1854 that any remaining Clergy Reserves finally came until secular control. Then, the joint MacNab and Morin Government of Canada passed a bill that, among other things, transferred the proceeds of future reserved-land sales to local municipalities and paid incumbent clerics a stipend for life. Though not all religious groups were happy, it made economic sense: the future development of communities and roads on once-reserved land (Clergy and Crown) was now in local hands.

    Sources:
    - Encyclopedia Canadiana (Woodstock Public Library)
    - Dictionary of Canadian Biography (Oxford Historical Society offices)