- Call Number:
- HIL-MICL FC LPR .G7C8P5N4
- Category:
- Great Britain
- Creator:
- Great Britain. Customs House (London).
- Material Description:
- 25 microfilm textual records (16 volumes) ; 35 mm
- Background:
The Board of Customs was first established by the British Government in 1672 to control the collection of duties for goods shipped in the plantations. The Collectors of Customs, who were appointed in America and the West Indies, were under the control of the Board. On 8 September 1767, a separate American Board of Customs was established with headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts. After the American Revolution, the American Board was abolished on 29 September 1784, and the remaining British North American Colonies were placed under the English Board. Upon the repeal of the Navigation Laws in 1849 and other measures, the need for the English Board to exercise control over customs in the colonies disappeared, and responsibility for plantation customs was gradually transferred to the various colonial administrations. By 1853, plantations abroad were no longer subject to imperial customs, and by 1856 the responsibility of the Board for matters relating to customs in British plantations had come to an end.
- Contents:
- The Plantations Papers are the in-letters of the Commissioners of Customs. They consist, principally, of reports from the customs officers of the plantations to the commissioners. The New Brunswick Papers deal with all aspects of legitimate trade, smuggling and other illegal activities, and also contain many seizure accounts. The Papers have been microfilmed on twenty-five very full reels of microfilm, and contain a vast amount of information in many different forms including: correspondence, reports, lists, returns, applications, appointments, petitions, oaths, accounts, orders, queries, duties, salaries, currency, quarantine, fees, claims, writs, evidence, complaints, Acts, decisions, proceedings, regulations, allegations, seizure accounts, and many other documents.
However, because of the number of documents and the diversity of content, seizure accounts should be singled out for particular notice. They contain details about the date, time, and place of the seizure, officer's names, quantity and quality of the goods seized, probable value, and other information. Most of the seizure accounts are recorded on printed forms with the details added in writing, but a few are completely hand written. Accompanying each form is a printed list of questions to be answered by officers making seizures, and these also contain notations in writing beside the questions that apply to a particular seizure.
Due to the size of the New Brunswick Plantation Papers, the diverse nature of the material, and the period of over sixty years that is involved, this very general overview of contents is all that can be included in the Loyalist Collection Inventory. Researchers are encouraged to investigate this rich and very much underused collection.
Reels 1-10, Miscellaneous correspondence on various topics from 1787 to 1855; Reels 11-17, Details of seizures made by the customs officers 1820 to 1852. official reports, with some correspondence; Reel 18, Trade at the out-bays of new Brunswick, 1826-1830, and with the case of an officer who appropriated seized goods to his own use and was dismissed from service; Reels 19-25, More correspondence on different topics, 1815-1855.
- Originals:
The original records were held by the British Customs House, Mark Lane, London, at the time of microfilming in 1958. The material was transferred to the Public Records Office, now held at The National Archives, Kew. Series CUST 34. Board of Customs: Papers Relating to Plantations.
- Archival Ref. No.:
PRO CUST 34 volumes 6446 on.
- Finding Aids:
There is no complete finding aid to this collection.
A Microfilm Shelf List, which provides a list of the volumes and dates that were microfilmed on each reel, is available in print with the Loyalist Collection Finding Aids and online, see Electronic Finding Aid section.
A typed item level description, including names, subjects and dates, for each manuscript from Volume 6446/2 to Volume 6461/404 is available in print and is shelved with the Loyalist Collection Finding Aids.
Volumes 6446 to Volume 6470 (reels 1 - 10) each contain a table of contents at the beginning of the volumes, which include a brief subject for each file, and date range. These content lists have been printed from the microfilm and are available with the Loyalist Collection Finding Aids.
Lists of contents are also found scattered throughout the volumes between Volume 5785 and Volume 5811.
- PDF Finding Aid:
- GB Customs House (London) Plantation Papers New Brunswick Shelf List.pdf Finding-Aid_Plantation-Papers-New-Brunswick_GB-Customs-House.pdf