The New Brunswick and Canada Railway and Land Company was chartered in or prior to 1856 by Act of the New Brunswick Legislature. In that year, it took over the , which had been formed in 1836. It acquired 10,000 acres for every mile built of a railroad between Fredericton and Trois-Rivieres; in other words, 1.6 million acres in total. The railway was leased to the Canadian Pacific Railway when the NBCRLC ran into financial difficulties, but its control remained of the land, which was leased in exchange of stumpage to various timber companies. The company was granted lands, among others, in the Restigouche River, the Miramichi River and the Tobique River watersheds, and it maintained a staff in Saint John, New Brunswick to oversee stumpage on its lands.