Colonial Despatches

Leopold Lowenberg was born in Potsdam, Germany, 1819. In 1858, he immigrated to Vancouver Island and founded a real estate agency in Victoria.1 Lowenberg also volunteered for the city’s Fire Department.2

In 1861, Lowenberg purchased land in Victoria (“Lot Z”) from Alexander Grant Dallas. However, due to land ownership confusion between the Crown and the Hudson’s Bay Company, Colonial Office officials questioned the legitimacy of the sale. Lowenberg discovered this when city officials accused him of trespassing on the land he purchased. According to official reports, Lowenberg became very violent and attacked the Land Office employee when they tried to dissuade Lowenberg from building a fence around the lot.3 In 1862, Lot Z was given to the Crown and the sale was nullified. Lowenberg then called on the Hudson’s Bay Company to reinstate his ownership, which prompted further debate between the company and government. The case even threatened to halt the Crown’s reconveyance of Victoria. In 1865, Lowenberg agreed to take £1900 as reimbursement. The Crown and Hudson’s Bay Company then argued over who should reimburse him.

• 1. Fort Victoria Brick Project, City of Victoria, 24.
• 2. Edgar Fawcett, Some Reminiscences of Old Victoria, (Toronto: William Briggs, 1912), 79.
• 3. Douglas to Newcastle, 24 October 1861, 10953, CO 305/17, p. 479.