Shefford (Province of Canada electoral district)

Shefford was an electoral district of the Legislative Assembly of the Parliament of the Province of Canada, in Canada East, in the Eastern Townships. It was created in 1841, based on the previous electoral district of the same name for the Legislative Assembly of Lower Canada.

Shefford was represented by one member in the Legislative Assembly. It was abolished in 1867, upon the creation of Canada and the province of Quebec.

Boundaries
Shefford was located to the south-east of Montreal, in the Eastern Townships (including areas now in the regional county municipalities of Brome-Missisquoi and La Haute-Yamaska).

The Union Act, 1840 merged the two provinces of Upper Canada and Lower Canada into the Province of Canada, with a single Parliament. The separate parliaments of Lower Canada and Upper Canada were abolished. The Union Act provided that the pre-existing electoral boundaries of Lower Canada and Upper Canada would continue to be used in the new Parliament, unless altered by the Union Act itself.

Shefford electoral district of Lower Canada was not altered by the Act, and therefore continued with the same boundaries which had been set by a statute of Lower Canada in 1829:

The County of Shefford shall contain the Townships of Ely, Stukely, Brome, Shefford, Roxton, Milton, Granby, and Farnham with the gores and augmentations of the said Townships.

Members of the Legislative Assembly (1841–1867)
Shefford was a single-member constituency.

The following were the members of the Legislative Assembly for Shefford. The party affiliations are based on the biographies of individual members given by the National Assembly of Quebec, as well as votes in the Legislative Assembly. "Party" was a fluid concept, especially during the early years of the Province of Canada.

Abolition
The district was abolished on July 1, 1867, when the British North America Act, 1867 came into force, creating Canada and splitting the Province of Canada into Quebec and Ontario. It was succeeded by electoral districts of the same name in the House of Commons of Canada and the Legislative Assembly of Quebec.