| Background: |
Colonial Office 5 is an artificial class which was created in the early years of the twentieth century with a reorganization of records in the Public Record Office, London. Following the first 285 volumes, which deal mainly with military and naval affairs, the records are arranged under the names of the colonies with Massachusetts being assigned Volumes 751-854. Of these volumes, the Original Correspondence, Volumes 751-763, and the Entry Books, Volumes 764-769, are available in The Loyalist Collection.
The Original Correspondence, or in-letters, are those sent from the colony to Great Britain, and are one of 6 groups of documents pertaining to a colony. The others are: Entry Books (letter books recording out-going letters from Britain), Acts, Sessional Papers (printed proceedings of local legislatures), Government Gazettes (official government newspapers), and Miscellanea. Apart from the first 285 volumes, the CO 5 records have been classified under the names of American colonies, for example; Carolina (Propriety) is volumes 286-292.
From 1768 to 1782 responsibility for the American colonies came under the care of the following colonial secretaries: the Earl of Hillsborough (1768-72), the Earl of Dartmouth (1772-75), Lord George Germain (1775-82), and Welbore Ellis (Feb.- 8 Mar. 1782). The secretaries of state were assisted by under-secretaries of state.
South Carolina was one of the original thirteen American colonies; it had become a crown colony in 1719. Under Crown rule, South Carolina prospered, and exports of rice and indigo contributed to its growing wealth. The colony was a slave society and cotton plantations along the low country and islands became central to the economy by the time of the American Revolutionary War. The Colonial governor, William Campbell was forced to flee Charleston in September 1775. In March 1776, South Carolina statesmen adopted a temporary system of provincial government, a precursor to the signing of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. British occupied Charleston after the successful siege in 1780. The British officially recognized the United States in 1783, and in 1788 South Carolina became the eighth state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
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| Contents: |
The Massachusetts volumes of Colonial Office 5 contain a wealth of information on both the Colonial and the Revolutionary periods. The volumes contain the Original Correspondence, Volumes 751-763, and the Entry Books, Volumes 764-769. Included are letters and enclosures from the Governors to the Secretary of State, and entry books of in-letters and out-letters of the Secretary of State; drafts of instructions to several Governors in America; orders in council; secret instructions to Jonathan Belcher and other governors; various printed official papers; many letters; memorials; petitions; secret correspondence; copies of newspaper articles; and other important records.Documents of particular interest include: letters and papers relating to Massachusetts Bay; valuable letters from William Bollan regarding illicit trade, the expedition to Crown Point requesting relief, a memorial from Bollan to the King, 1754, and other Bollan correspondence; many letters and papers regarding the Louisbourg expedition; letters from Governor Shirley to Paul Mascarene concerning the French Inhabitants of Nova Scotia, 1746; correspondence regarding Nova Scotia settlement, 1747, and many other papers on the same topic; correspondence with enclosures regarding war with the Penobscot Indians, 1753; a letter from Governor Thomas Hutchinson that includes an account of the Boston Massacre with dispositions from witnesses including British soldiers, and a lengthy report on events in Massachusetts, 1766-1770; an inventory of stores and ordnance at Castle William, Boston, 1770; a statement of Massachusetts claims to lands between the Kennebec and St. Croix Rivers, 1772; and other important records too numerous to outline in this brief overview of contents. |
