Original Correspondence : America and West Indies : Indian Affairs, Surveys, etc. (CO 5 / 65-82, 225) : 1760-1784.

Call Number: HIL-MICL FC LPR .G7C6A4C6I5
Category: Great Britain
Creator: Great Britain. Colonial Office.
Description: 10 microfilm textual records (19 volumes) ; 35 mm
Background:
            Colonial Office 5 is an artificial class which was created through a major reorganization of records in the Public Record Office between 1908-1910.  It includes, mainly, the records of the colonies, including Original Correspondence, Entry Books, Acts, Journals, Naval Office Lists, and Miscellaneous of Plantations General, and of each of the colonies now forming the United States. 

Records precede the development of the Colonial Office, created in 1854, and contain records in the offices of the Board of Trade and the Secretary of State for the Southern Department, which held responsibility for British colonial matters until 1782, when both were abolished at the end of the American Revolution. Responsibility was then held by the Home Secretary until the new position of Secretary of War was created in 1794 and the department renamed Secretary of State for War and the Colonies in 1801.  Position of Secretary of State for the Colonies, also known as Colonial Secretary, had been created in 1768 and took on more of a leadership role over the Board of Trade through the American Revolutionary period.
The Original Correspondence, or in-letters, are those documents sent from a British colony to Great Britain.

British Indian Department was created in 1755 to oversee British relations with Indigenous peoples of North America. Initially divided in North America into two units: Northern Department and Southern Department, each with a superintendent, and a boundary between the two jurisdictions running along the Ohio and Potomac rivers. William Johnson was commissioned superintendent for the north to oversee allying the Indigenous population with the British during the French and Indian War. He was replaced in 1774 upon his death by his son Guy Johnson. Edmund Atkins was the first superintendent for the Southern Department and John Stuart replaced him in 1762. The Southern Department was divided into two - east and west - during the American Revolution.             
Contents:
            The volumes contain correspondence and documents in the office responsible for British colonial affairs from officials in the colonies, 1760-1784, as well as one volume of entry books of correspondence and papers from the secretary of state to the Board of Trade, 1766-1768. Indigenous (native) affairs and relations are the main subject matter, also commerce, trade, war and conflict, diplomacy and cartography. 

Types of documents include the following: letters and petitions from merchants trading to the colonies, from colonial merchants, and from private individuals; correspondence from English officials in the colonies; maps; copies of circulars addressed to the colonial governors; papers relating to "Indian" (indigenous) affairs such as treaties, lists of presents.  Correspondents include superintendents of Indian affairs during French and Indian War and the American Revolution, such as John Stuart, Sir William Johnson, Guy Johnson,  Sir John Johnson, Thomas Brown, and Secretary of State Lord George Germain. Geographical locations of interest include West Florida, Detroit, South Carolina, Georgia, New Hampshire, New York, lands on the Ohio, and the West Indies.

Arrangement:

Volumes 65-82, "Indian Affairs, surveys, etc."

Reel 1
Vol. 65 - 1760-1764

Reel 2
Vol. 66 - 1764-1766
Vol. 67 - 1766-1767

Reel 3
Vol. 68 - 1767
Vol. 69 - 1767-1768

Reel 4
Vol. 70 - 1768-1769
Vol. 71 - 1769-1770

Reel 5
Vol. 72 - 1770-1771

Reel 6
Vol. 73 - 1771-1772
Vol. 74 - 1772-1773

Reel 7
Vol. 75 - 1773-1774
Vol. 76 - 1774-1775
Vol. 77 - 1776

Reel 8
Vol. 78 - 1776-1777
Vol. 79 - 1777-1778

Reel 9
Vol. 80 - 1778-1779
Vol. 81 - 1779-1780

Reel 10
Vol. 82 - 1780-1784

Vol. 225, Entry Books of Letters, Instructions, Commissions, Warrants, etc.. Letters from Secretary of State to Board of Trade concerning "Indian affairs" - 1766-1768
            
Originals: The original records are held by The National Archives, formerly known as the Public Record Office (PRO), London.
Archival Ref. No.: TNA CO 5, vols. 65-82, 225.
Finding Aids:
            

A Microfilm Shelf List is available in print.

Online Related Material: Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies. The State Papers Colonial are the accumulated papers of the British colonial secretaries of state relating to colonial affairs from the 16th to the 18th century. This series details papers relating to Colonial America and the West Indies for the period 1574-1739. Most documents come from CO 1 and CO 5. Summaries of each document is given; choose volume/years of interest, then search topics.

Electronic Finding Aid Record:
Notes:
Part Of: Forms part of the huge Colonial Office 5 class.
Other With: