- Call Number:
- HIL-MICL FC LMR .D6G8B7 Index
- Category:
- Military
- Creator:
- Dorchester, Guy Carleton, 1st Baron, 1724-1808.
- Material Description:
- 1 computer disc 12 cm + user guide (12p.)
- Background:
The British Headquarters Papers, commonly referred to as the Carleton or Dorchester Papers, contain records of successive British Commanders-in-Chief in America during the American Revolution. Sir Guy Carleton, the last British Commander-in-Chief, had the difficult and unpleasant duty of supervising the evacuation of all military personnel and civilian Loyalists from New York City.
Carleton entrusted the Papers to his private secretary, Maurice Morgan. He in turn passed them to Robert Symmons, who donated them to the Royal Institute of Great Britain, which called them The American Manuscripts. A calendar of four volumes was produced, which until the Loyalist Index was compiled, provided the only access to the material. Many years later the Carleton Papers were sold to John D. Rockefeller, reorganized by the New York Public Library, microfilmed, and deposited in the Rockefeller Museum at Colonial Williamsburg. In 1957, President Dwight Eisenhower presented the collection to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth during a visit to Canada and the United States, and the Papers were returned to England to be preserved in the Public Record Office. As there was no index to the Papers, the Sir Guy Carleton Branch (Ottawa) of the United Empire Loyalists' Association of Canada, with the financial assistance of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research of Canada and other government agencies and departments, sponsored the King's Names Project, which produced an index to the material that relates to Loyalists. The database contains over 54,568 records.
- Contents:
Online: Some or all of the material is available electronically; see Finding Aid section.
Carleton's Loyalist Index is a select index to the names of Loyalists, and those associated with them, in the British Headquarters Papers, commonly referred to as the Carleton Papers. Through the Index, researchers are able to access the documents that reveal the services and sufferings of the Loyalists who, because they had remained loyal to the established and legitimate colonial governments, found themselves on the losing side, and were subjected to proscription, confiscation of property, physical abuse and banishment.
By using the Index, it is possible to locate British, Loyalist and German soldiers, Indigenous peoples, Blacks and civilian refugees, and then to proceed with the appropriate reference to the full information that is provided in the Carleton Papers. Of particular interest is the Book of the Negroes, which is a valuable resource for Black history. It is a detailed register of 2,372 refugees who were people of colour, many of whom went to Nova Scotia. In 1792, 1100 individuals from this group of Loyalist refugees emigrated to Sierra Leone under the supervision of John Clarkson, who became Governor of the Colony as the representative of the Sierra Leone Company.
The Loyalist Index includes the following categories of information, if available: surname; given name; race; sex; occupation; department [employed]; rank; regiment; [place of] origin; [current place of] residence; [ultimate] destination; [type of] document; subject [more detailed information about a document]; continuation [additional information on a subject]; date [of document]; place [of origin of the document]; page [number of the document, and if given the page number within the document]; ID code, and NAC microfilm reel number.
- Originals:
The original records are held by The National Archives, London, England. Library and Archives Canada and several other institutions hold positive copies of the microfilm edition of the Papers.
- Archival Ref. No.:
TNA (formerly PRO) 30/55. LAC/PRO: CO 30/55 - LAC microfilm reels M-341 - M-370.
- Finding Aids:
Online: A searchable database is available from the website of Library and Archives Canada.
To locate a document in the microfilm reels of the Headquarters Papers, a researcher must first find the number of the document indicated by the word "page" in the Index, and if given, the precise number within the document. Then use the microfilm shelf list to find the corresponding reel number for that page number using the finding aid.
- PDF Finding Aid:
- Dorchester, Guy Carleton, Papers Shelf List.pdf
- Notes:
The CD version is held in the Microforms office.
Researchers are advised to read the accompanying Editorial Notes will explain for example what groups of people are not included, abbreviations and symbols, and a detailed explanation of the headings.