The first member of the Royal Family to live in Canada was Prince Edward, later Duke of Kent and father of Queen Victoria. While undertaking military service in the 1790s, he lived in Halifax and Quebec City, eventually becoming Commander of the British Forces in North America. Prince Edward Island, which came under British control in 1758, was named after him in 1799.

This letter, written to his father George III, describes the prince’s reception by the Indigenous communities of Upper Canada: Their Professions of attachment to Your Majesty and the British Government were extremely warm, and they would not on any account return home to their tribes, till they had made me faithfully promise, that in the name of them all, I should inform you, in the strongest terms I could find of their zealous attachment to your person, and of their utmost readiness at all times to obey any Commands, with which you may at any time chuse to honour them…