Correspondence : United States of America : Series I (FO 4/1-16) : 1782-1795.

            In 1782, administrative reforms within the British government led to the creation of the Foreign Office under the direction of the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.  However, the records of this Department form a continuous, and to a degree, complementary series with the State Papers Foreign, which are the records of the Secretaries of State for the Northern and Southern Departments from the reign of Henry VIII to 1782.  A certain amount of overlapping in years has occurred with material that pre-dates 1782 contained in the Records of the Foreign Office.

John Temple (1731 - 1798) was the first British consul general to America in 1785 and remained in the post at New York City until his death.

Published on microfilm under the title: Foreign Office General Correspondence before 1906, United States of America, series 1, 1782-1795.            

            To the student of Loyalist history, the documents in this series are very important, supplementing the records found in several Audit Office and Treasury Series.  There are petitions to the British government representing claims of various kinds from British officials and officers serving in North America, Loyalists or their agents, merchants, and many other individuals and groups who suffered losses as a result of the American Revolution.
 In addition to the material directly related to Loyalist claims, there are letters and communications concerning the negotiations of the Treaty of Peace, and schedules of articles remaining for consideration, with observations.  In general, the letters deal with the preliminary communications between Charles Fox, Secretary of State, and David Hartley, the government's plenipotentiary in Paris, the articles of peace, negotiations for a definitive treaty, the opening of ports, and the extension of trade.  There are communications from the Senate or from the House of Representatives of several states, with copies of replies;  resolutions of Congress;  state proclamations; correspondence with Indian nations and other material relating to Indian affairs;  copies of newspapers, acts of Congress, and journals of the House of Representatives;  despatches from His Majesty's consuls in America, with copies of replies;  tables of exports from the United States;  and innumerable other documents, letters, records and miscellaneous papers reflecting British and American interests. 
  While the general arrangement of the material is chronological, there are many papers in the later volumes which deal with an earlier period. Examples of this can be found in Volume 15, 1792, where there are extracts from several letters of Sir Guy Carleton in March and April of 1783,including one to George Washington concerning the signing in Paris of the preliminary articles of the Peace Treaty;  and extracts from letters to the British Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Robert Livingston, from Benjamin Franklin in October 1782.  The class includes both incoming letters and copies of outgoing replies, instructions and despatches, along with many extracts from other documents.

Also included at the start of the collection is volume 1 of series FO 95, Foreign Office: Political and other departments: Miscellanea Series 1, Supplementary Correspondence, United States of America: 18 Oct. 1779-1793.            

            
A very brief "Means of Reference" has been microfilmed at the beginning of the first reel.
The Microfilm Shelf List, which includes the "Means of Reference," is available in print.
            

Related material: Great Britain. Audit Office. Claims, American Loyalists: Series I (AO 12): 1776-1831.