Original Correspondence : America and West Indies : Military and Naval Despatches (CO 5/46-64): 1755 - 1763.

            Colonial Office 5 is an artificial class which was created with the reorganization of records in the Public Record Office in 1908-1910. Comprised chiefly from records of the Colonial Office, this class was arranged into 1,450 volumes and bundles of which the first 285 volumes deal principally with military and naval affairs.

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.

During this period, responsibility for the American colonies came under the care of the secretary of state for the southern department in conjunction with the Board of Trade. The secretaries of state were assisted by under-secretaries of state.

These volumes are similar to Colonial Office 5, Volumes 83-111, which deal with military events during the time period of the American Revolution.            

            Colonial Office 5, Volumes 46-64, contain military, as well as British military, army and navy, despatches for the years 1755 to 1763 from the records of the Secretary of State for the Colonies. Much of the material relates to military events during the Seven Years' War, known in North America as the French and Indian Wars, and contains letters, with enclosures, from generals in America, as well as the correspondence of William Pitt (leader of the British House of Commons, and secretary of state for the southern department) and Lord Egremont (Charles Wyndham, secretary of state for the southern department 1761-63) with the generals and admirals engaged in the war in America and in the West Indies. 

Arrangement: In the main arranged chronologically but includes enclosures which predate correspondence date.

Correspondents include: generals Edward Braddock (commander-in-chief of Thirteen Colonies at start of war), William Shirley (governor of Massachusetts Bay), Daniel Webb (48th Regiment of Foot), James Abercrombie (second in command under Lord Loudon 1756-57, then commander-in-chief 1757-58), Lord Loudoun (commander-in-chief of British forces in America 1756-57 and governor of Virginia 1756-57), Jeffery/Jeffrey Amherst (commander-in-chief of British forces in America as of 1758), John Forbes, James Wolfe, and Thomas Gage (60th Regiment of Foot), as well as Lt. Col. Henry Bouquet, Sir William Johnson (superintendant of northern "Indians"), and Royal Navy admirals Edward Boscawen and Sir Francis Holburne who were operating with the British naval fleet in the West Indies.
 Examples of the many important documents include: papers relating to Bouquet's defeat of the natives/indigenous people at Bushy Run during Pontiac's Rebellion, August 1763; correspondence from General Amherst on the disposition of troops, indigenous affairs, and land claims; letters and papers regarding the transfer of Florida to England with a plan of the fort at St. Augustine, 1763; and a volume which deals with the Louisbourg expedition including charts, maps, and letters from General Amherst, 1758, and many other records.            

            
A microfilm shelf list which gives the University of New Brunswick and National Archives of Canada microfilm reel numbers, along with the corresponding volume numbers and dates, and a brief content statement, is available in print and digitally; see Electronic Finding Aid section.

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.
            

Related Material: Majority of records concerning naval operations will be found among the Admiralty records (ADM) from the National Archives. Many concerning military operations, including a proportion removed from the papers of the secretary of state and board of trade, are found in War Office (WO) records. A detailed index to War Office records is found in "Alphabetical Guide to the War Office and other Series" (PRO List and Index Series, volume 53) located in the Harriet Irving Library.