Papers Dealing with French Encroachment in America : 1749 - 1755.

            The House of Lords Record Office has custody of the records of both Houses of the British Parliament, the House of Lords and the House of Commons. The parliamentary archives is a major repository of manuscript material relating to America in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries reflecting Parliament and the Nation's commercial and strategic interest in the colonies. The importance of Anglo-French rivalry in North America is also reflected in the papers laid before the House.
On 12 March 1753, two large bundles of papers from the Secretary of State and the Board of Trade respecting the settlement of Nova Scotia, 1749-1752, were delivered to the House. This was followed on 20 February 1756, and again on 24 February 1756, by papers with enclosures and translations from the Secretary of State and the Board of Trade relating to encroachments committed by the French in North America, 1748/49-1755.            

            The 24 February 1756 Papers are composed of extracts, copies of letters, and other papers relating to encroachments committed by the French in North America and presented by the Commissioners for Trade and Plantations to the House. There are letters from the Commissioners to the Duke of Bedford, Earl of Holderness, and Sir Thomas Robinson, as well as numerous letters and other documents to the Commissioners from the following officials: Governors William Shirley of Massachusetts, Edward Cornwallis and Peregrine Thomas Hopson of Nova Scotia, George Clinton of New York, Monsieur de la Jonquiere of Canada, and Monsieur Desherbiers of Louisbourg; Lieutenant Governors Paul Mascarene of Nova Scotia, Robert Dinwiddie of Virginia, James Hamilton of Pennsylvania, Spencer Phips of Massachusetts, James De Lancey of New York, Charles Lawrence the Commander in Chief in Nova Scotia, and Colonel Lee, President of the Council of Virginia. 
There are many other important documents among this group of Papers, but only a few examples can be noted in this brief overview of contents as follows: articles of submission and agreement entered into at Boston in 1725 by the sachems of several tribes of Indians inhabiting Nova Scotia and New England; a letter from the commandant at Crown Point to Captain Marshall, Fort Frederick, 23 June 1749; speech made by the French officer commanding a detachment of French troops upon the River Ohio to the Indians of the said River; proclamation published at Piziquid in Nova Scotia, 12 December 1749, by three Indian chiefs (In French); extracts of several French letters, taken on board a French vessel in the Bay of Fundy (In French); letter from Lieutenant Butler to Colonel Johnson, Oswego, 3 September 1750; speech of a Cayuga sachem to Colonel William Johnson and the Colonel's answer, Mount Johnson, 4 December 1750; letter from Monsieur Celoron, commandant of the French garrison at Fort Detroit, to James Hamilton, Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania, 6 August 1749. (In French); account of the number and strength of the French forts and of the state of New France, by a deserter from the French, no date (In French); resolution of the Assembly of New York, Assembly Chamber, 13 November 1753; commission given by Robert Dinwiddie, Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, to George Washington, Williamsburg, 30 October 1753; Journal of Major George Washington's transactions with the French on the Ohio in 1753; and many other important historical documents.            

            A handwritten List of Papers, providing for most the names of correspondents, type of document, ie. letter, memorial, etc., and date has been microfilmed at the beginning of the reel.  This is also available in print in the Loyalist red binders and as an electronic finding aid. The Papers are arranged and numbered in a rough chronological order and the List of Papers follows the same order.

A microfilm shelf list, providing the reel and volume breakdowns, is available online; see Electronic Finding Aid section.

The Loyalist Collection only holds a portion of the Papers in the House of Lords.  For a complete listing of papers, with the same data included as on the film, and an introduction, see American Papers in the House of Lords Record Office:  A Guide.  This calendar was edited by Walter Minchinton of the University of Exeter and Peter Harper of the University of Keele, and published in 1983 by Microform Limited.  For material relevant to documents on this microfilm, see pp 234-45 in the Guide, under the item no. 1.2.            

The Papers have received a different numbering system in the Guide from that used in the List of Papers, but this does not affect access to the Papers.

For the second part of this collection: Great Britain. Parliament. House of Lords. Return. Papers Dealing with French Encroachment in America, see HIL-MICL FC LPR .G7P3L6R4A4.