Declared Accounts (AO 1) : 1760-1808 ; (predominant 1774-1808).

            Audit Office I consists of 2,541 bundles containing almost 12,000 rolls of declared accounts for the period 1536-1828.  The rolls are the final accounts, presented to the Treasury, of various persons who were entrusted with public funds for disbursement, or to meet contingent or extraordinary expenses. The records are divided into many categories and sub-categories.  There is a substantial quantity of material of American interest in this class.            

            The Declaration of the Account, of those persons who were entrusted with public funds in the performance of their duties in North America during the Revolutionary period begins with the latter part of Volume 324. The records on this reel concern the Province of Quebec from 1774-1784.  The payments relate to military contingencies.
Following this volume there are five volumes of accounts submitted by such high-ranking officials as Robert MacKenzie, Paymaster General of Provincial Forces in North America; Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Innes, Inspector General of Provincial Forces; Robert Gray, Deputy Paymaster and Paymaster, successively, to the Militia and Distressed Refugees in Charleston;  Thomas Gamble, Assistant Quarter Master General in North America;  Lieutenant Hugh Mackay Gordon, Acting Paymaster of Contingencies in Nova Scotia;  Edward Winslow, Deputy Paymaster of Contingencies in New Brunswick;  and many others.
Each entry records the name of the person to whom the money was given, the reason for the allowance, and the amount of the disbursement.  In the case of funds allocated for pay, contingent expenses or provisions to Provincial Forces, the regiment and the officer in command are named, and the length of the pay period is recorded.  As a result, these records provide a reasonably comprehensive list of Loyalist regiments.  Each Declaration of Account covers a specific period of time.            

            An inventory description is available in print and as a PDF in the electronic finding aids section.
 The National Archives of Canada does not hold the microfilm reels of AO 1/324-328, 335.
 The NAC holds selections from AO 1 in transcript form and these have been microfilmed on reel C-2971.
            

The Loyalist Collection Inventory entry for Great Britain. AO 12. Claims, American Loyalists: Series I should be consulted for aditional related material.