The Letters Received and other papers
The surviving records of the office of the Secretary to the Governor (1788-1821) include letters received and a few drafts of letters sent, and copies of agreements, despatches, out-letters, general orders, instructions, ordinary regulations, proclamations, memoranda, reports and returns. The original arrangement has been obscured by several re-arrangements. Few records prior to 1810 survive but the papers were fairly systematically kept after that time.
Most of the records were written on whatever sheets of paper happened to be available, in widely varying shapes and sizes. This was typical in a period of chronic shortage of stationery. Two isolated examples illustrate this: in 1794 Palmer, the Commissary, reported that lack of stationery made it difficult to keep his accounts (24); twenty-two years later Macquarie told Deputy Commissary General Allan (25) that his own and the Secretary's office was 'much in want of every kind of stationery for the use of the Public Service' and demanded some from the supply Allan had received in the Elizabeth.
The necessity felt by many early Governors to clear their names as well as the practice of not distinguishing between official and private documents, common among administrators throughout the Empire, may have been among the reasons why there are few records dated prior to 1810. Certainly many were removed contemporaneously.
Bligh is the most prominent example. He was the only Governor to suffer rebellion. Just before his arrest on 26 January 1808, he himself destroyed some official papers:
'I got together some papers ... which I thought it necessary to take care of,' and 'tore a number of them in order to lessen my bundle, which was too large to be concealed under my waistcoat. I tore a great number of them; and a vast quantity of the pieces were picked up by John Dunn, my servant, and afterwards burnt.' (26)
Other papers fell into the hands of the rebel Government. (27)
There is also some suggestion that papers were destroyed by Lieutenant Colonel Johnston to suppress damaging evidence. (28)
When Lieutenant Governor Paterson arrived he intended to return some papers to Bligh retaining only those necessary for his administration. (29) Bligh however sailed without receiving the papers from the Lieutenant Governor, so Paterson gave them to Lieutenant Colonel Johnston to take to England. (30)
When Macquarie arrived no papers of importance were found:
'The room in Government house in which Governor Bligh's papers were said to be was sealed on my arrival here. It has since been opened by himself, but no papers of any importance were found in it, and I understand they were all taken to England by Lieu't Col. Johnston and Mr McArthur.' (31)
In consequence of the practice of removing public records Earl Bathurst issued a circular despatch in 1822 directing that in future all official papers were not only to be 'most carefully and methodically' kept but were to be delivered to the next occupant of the office. (32)
Up to 1826 the letters received were probably kept in alphabetical sequence by the author of a letter or petition. No contemporary registration numbers appear on the letters. The surviving lists of memorials and petitions received are all arranged alphabetically (33) and the papers were probably put away in the same order with perhaps some division by type of application and year, probably in wooden 'pigeon holes' constructed for this purpose.
There have been several attempts to organize the early papers. The first appears to have taken place when Alexander Mcleay took office in 1826 — the lists of letters received in 1821 and 1822 are watermarked 1823. Mcleay began the systematic registration of correspondence, and set aside a room, referred to as 'the new Record Office', in the Colonial Secretary's building and had it fitted up with presses containing pigeon-holes for the files and bundles of papers. (34) The scheme was that all public correspondence from the very earliest was to be kept on one side of the room, 30 feet in length, while convict records were to be kept along one end of it, 19 feet in length, and the other records were to be arranged in subject groups round the other walls.
On 1 October 1857 Edward Smith Hall was appointed as an extra clerk in the Colonial Secretary's Office to work on the early official papers:
'... which it would be very desirable to have examined and arranged with a view to their better preservation as documents of public interest and importance.' (35)
Already frequent enquiries were received which involved reference to these documents. Hall died on 18 September 1860 and would seem to have been engaged on this work in the interim period. It is not clear what he actually did. However he may have been responsible for the registration system on the 1824 letters received, as the paper on which the register was written is watermarked 1842. (36) Only the letters A and B are covered so it was obviously left unfinished.
A major re-arrangement of the early records was undertaken in the Colonial Secretary's Office during 1888-90 for the purpose of facilitating research in connection with the publication of the History of New South Wales from the Records. The correspondence up to 1826, with a few exceptions, was made up into bundles. A Summary of Colonial Records in the Colonial Secretary's Office, 1788-1826 ([5/2331]; microfilm copy SR Reel 6036) was prepared listing each document or group of documents and showing the date of each, the writer, to whom it was addressed, and a description of its contents. A number was allocated to each bundle and to each item described. The description varies in detail however, as does the item described which may be one sheet of paper described with lengthy comments, or a whole bundle of papers dismissed with the words 'Miscellaneous and unimportant correspondence for the year. There is an index in the front of this Summary*.
The scheme adopted appears to be as follows:
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1. |
Bundles 1-3, 1788-1809 (SRNSW Items: [4/1719-22]; microfilm copy SR Reel 6041) | |
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These are in chronological order but there are many gaps. | ||
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2. |
Bundles 4-14, 1810-1820 (SRNSW Items: [4/1723-47]; microfilm copy SR Reels 6042-6050) | |
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From Bundle 4 on, there is a bundle for each year. First come the documents which apparently were considered to be important when they were bundled in 1888-90. They are in chronological order. When a file contains papers of various dates, it is filed under the date of the first paper. Papers dated only by year are filed either at the beginning or the end of the bundle. | ||
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The second part of the bundle includes the group called in the Summary, 'Unimportant and miscellaneous' which contains letters from officials and individuals as well as memorials and petitions. These are in chronological order, undated items being filed at the end. | ||
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3. |
Bundle 15, 1821 (SRNSW Items: [4/1748-51]; microfilm copy SR Reels 6051-6052) | |
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This includes papers of the year 1821 up to the end of Macquarie's governorship. First come the papers considered to be important arranged in chronological order by the date of either the individual documents or, in the case of groups of papers from departments or on specific subjects, by the date of the first paper in the group. These are followed by the papers considered to be 'Miscellaneous and unimportant'. Last come the papers from the Lunatic Asylum at Castle Hill. | ||
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4. |
Bundles 16-27, 1821-5 (SRNSW Items: [4/1752-89]; microfilm copy SR Reels 6052-6064) | |
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These begin with Brisbane's administration and there are three bundles for each year. Each of these three bundles contains records of a certain type. These are: | ||
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(a) |
records considered important when arranged, filed in chronological order; | |
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(b) |
departmental correspondence: all the letters from a department or office are filed together but there is no apparent order in the grouping of the departments; | |
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(c) |
unimportant and miscellaneous correspondence in chronological order with undated correspondence at the end. | |
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| ||
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1821-22 |
1823 |
1824 |
1825 | ||
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(a) |
Important records |
Bundle 16 |
Bundle 19 |
Bundle 22 |
Bundle 25 |
|
(b) |
Departmental records |
Bundle 17 |
Bundle 20 |
Bundle 23 |
Bundle 26 |
|
(c) |
Unimportant records |
Bundle 18 |
Bundle 21 |
Bundle 24 |
Bundle 27 |
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5. |
Bundles 28-29, 1826 (SRNSW Items: [4/1790-94]; microfilm copies SR Reels 890, 702, 2183) |
To achieve this arrangement many files were broken up and distributed between the three categories.
Apart from the papers arranged in Bundles as described in 1-5 above, there are also separate annual bundles of Memorials and Petitions from 1810, arranged alphabetically, and other Special Bundles.
In 1934 the Papers were transferred from the Chief Secretary's Office to the Mitchell Library, then the official custodian of the State's archives.
The records underwent further re-arrangement**. Quite a number of papers and volumes were extracted from these bundles in 1935 when they were being bound and filed separately. With the exception of items removed from the 'Miscellaneous' parts a note has usually been made of these extractions in the Summary of Colonial Records in the Colonial Secretary's Office 1788-1826 ([5/2331]; microfilm copy SR Reel 6036).
Most of the records written in, or relating to, the various settlements, whether from officials or individuals, have been bound in separate volumes, together with later papers. Certain papers written by, or relating to, well known individuals were also removed and bound. Papers of Oxley, Michael Robinson, Greenway and Throsby are known to have been removed. Other items were extracted and filed separately either because of their value, interest or size. Usually these were shelved with Mitchell Library Manuscripts and entries made in the Library's Manuscript Catalogue. Subsequently, most of these records were transferred to the Archives Office when it was established in 1961. However, some papers were bound with items which formed part of David Scott Mitchell's original bequest or which for some other reason could not be transferred. Whenever such papers have been identified they have been microfilmed and indexed in the publication The Colonial Secretary's Papers, 1788-1825 and recorded in this guide.
There are also three items which, though they have been removed from the correct place in the bundles, are shelved immediately following the bundle from which they have been removed. They are: Proceedings in the High Court of Appeals, 10 April 1810 - 27 May 1816 ([4/1724]; microfilm copy SR Reel 6042); Papers relating to the transport 'Surry' 1814 ([4/1731]; microfilm copy SR Reel 6044); and Charges against Major Druitt 1822-24 ([4/1754-55]; microfilm copy SR Reel 6053).
Items noted as withdrawn and bound have been found unbound but usually the intention to bind the records was carried out.
Papers which were not sorted into bundles mostly appear in the List of Special Bundles.
State Records has not attempted to place another order on these papers or to restore the original order. The arrangement remains substantially that adopted by the Mitchell Library.
* A second copy of the 'Summary' made by Watson when editing Historical Records of Australia has also survived and includes his notes and also a notation of the printing of the various documents in that publication. This is in two volumes [5/2334-35].
** The papers are also reputed to have suffered disarray during the actual transfer. Whole bundles are said to have fallen off the lorry while it was turning from Shakespeare Place into the rear of the Library and the reassembling of burst bundles caused many problems.
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