From roots-in@roots-l.rootsweb.com Mon Aug 28 09:00:41 2006 Received: from mail.rootsweb.com (mail.rootsweb.com [192.168.65.34]) by admin.rootsweb.com (8.12.8/8.12.8) with ESMTP id k7SF0fjb023696; Mon, 28 Aug 2006 09:00:41 -0600 Received: from roots-l.rootsweb.com (roots-l.rootsweb.com [66.43.16.22]) by mail.rootsweb.com (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id k7SF0dsA003799 for ; Mon, 28 Aug 2006 09:00:40 -0600 Received: from roots-l.rootsweb.com (roots-l [127.0.0.1]) by roots-l.rootsweb.com (8.12.10/8.12.10) with ESMTP id k7SCKFFI019279 for ; Mon, 28 Aug 2006 08:20:15 -0400 Received: (from roots-in@localhost) by roots-l.rootsweb.com (8.12.10/8.12.8/Submit) id k7SCKFho019278 for roots-approved@rootsweb.com; Mon, 28 Aug 2006 08:20:15 -0400 Received: from lists5.rootsweb.com (lists5.rootsweb.com [66.43.27.41]) by roots-l.rootsweb.com (8.12.10/8.12.10) with SMTP id k7SB31FI019013 for ; Mon, 28 Aug 2006 07:03:01 -0400 Received: (from slist@localhost) by lists5.rootsweb.com (8.12.8/8.12.8) id k7SDhEZK010968 for roots-in@roots-l.rootsweb.com; Mon, 28 Aug 2006 07:43:14 -0600 X-Envelope-From: hornbeck@s-hornbeck.com Mon Aug 28 07:43:14 2006 Received: from mail.rootsweb.com (mail.rootsweb.com [192.168.65.34]) by admin.rootsweb.com (8.12.8/8.12.8) with ESMTP id k7SDhEjb010959 for ; Mon, 28 Aug 2006 07:43:14 -0600 Received: from smtp105.plus.mail.mud.yahoo.com (smtp105.plus.mail.mud.yahoo.com [68.142.206.238]) by mail.rootsweb.com (8.13.4/8.13.4) with SMTP id k7SDh5sK022823 for ; Mon, 28 Aug 2006 07:43:09 -0600 Received: (qmail 74336 invoked from network); 28 Aug 2006 13:43:01 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO Shirley.s-hornbeck.com) (shirleyhornbeck@sbcglobal.net@66.122.5.194 with login) by smtp105.plus.mail.mud.yahoo.com with SMTP; 28 Aug 2006 13:43:00 -0000 Message-Id: <6.2.3.4.2.20060828063737.023abd18@pop.mail.yahoo.com> X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 6.2.3.4 Date: Mon, 28 Aug 2006 06:38:27 -0700 To: RooTS-L@rootsweb.com From: Shirley Hornbeck Cc: hornbeck@s-hornbeck.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed X-Spam-Score: 1.31 (*) BAYES_00,FORGED_RCVD_HELO X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.52 on 192.168.65.34 X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.52 on 192.168.65.34 Sender: roots-in@roots-l.rootsweb.com Subject: [ROOTS-L] This and That England AMERICAN AND WEST INDIAN COLONIES BEFORE 1782 - The British colonies on the western shores of the Atlantic were founded and developed in a variety of circumstances during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries: as a result their legal status and administrative arrangements followed no common pattern. Control by the authorities in London was seldom close and in some colonies, at some periods, almost nonexistent. Local government was generally conducted by officials of the colonies themselves, and the records thereof are preserved, if they survive, in the appropriate state archive, where any inquiry should first be pursued. The responsible authorities in London were the Secretaries of State and the Board of Trade. Of the two Secretaries, it was the Secretary of State for the Southern Department who was primarily, if not exclusively, charged with the oversight of colonial administrations, except for the period between 1768 and 1782, when a third Secretary of State, the Colonial or American Secretary, was appointed. For much executive action, advice and routine administration, however, the Secretaries were dependent on the Lords of Trade and Plantations, commonly known as the Board of Trade. The Board was founded in 1696 to succeed a variety of bodies with similar titles and overlapping jurisdictions which had existed at various periods since 1660. Its functions were originally purely advisory, but came in time to include much of the administration of the colonies, and to its offices at Plantations House were addressed many of the papers now in the Public Record Office. PRINTED GUIDES - The prime source of information about the records held in the Public Record Office is C. M. Andrews Guide to the Materials for American History to 1783 in the Public Record Office (2 vols, Carnegie Institution, Washington, 1912). Some of the references given are now obsolete, but can be keyed to those in current use. A complete history of the records with guidance on their use, giving the references in their modern form, is to be found in R. D. B Pugh The Records of the Colonial and Dominions Offices, (PRO Handbook No 3, HMSO 1964). Documents in the Public Record Office and elsewhere not mentioned by Andrews are described in B R Crick and M Alman eds. A Guide to Manuscripts Relating to America in Great Britain and Ireland (Mansell Publishing 1961) a revised edition of which has been prepared by John W. Raimo and published, under the same title, by Meckler Books/Mansell Publishing (1979). Documents relating to the Caribbean are noted in H C Bell, D W. Parker and others Guide to British West Indian Archive Materials, in London and in the Islands, for the History of the United States (Carnegie Institution, Washington 1926); and P Walne ed. A Guide to Manuscript Sources for the History of Latin America and the Caribbean in the British Isles (Oxford University Press, 973). For more of this article, see This and That England, Scotland, Ireland at my This and That Tips page, url in signature below. Shirley Hornbeck - THIS & THAT GENEALOGY TIPS: