Scope and Content: Following the destruction of public records by fire in the Court House (Old State House) in 1747, the Massachusetts General Court directed the provincial secretary to record in his office the 1629 and 1691 charters, with the commissions of the governor, lieutenant governor,  justices of the Superior Court, and his own, per Orders 1747-48, c 182 (Dec. 11, 1747). Starting with these transcriptions, the state secretary (known as such from 1780), as part of his responsibility as record keeper for Massachusetts, continued to produce duplicates of its important legal documents.  Many transcripts were examined and signed by the secretary responsible for the copying. –Subseries (1) includes such transcripts, starting with charters and commissions mandated above. Other documents include indentures, orders of the King and Council, ratification of approval or disallowance by the King and Council of acts passed by the General Court. –Subseries (2) includes transcripts of treaties of the U.S. Congress under the Articles of Confederation (Treaties of Paris) signed at the end of the Revolution, the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, documents concerning western New York boundary claims by Massachusetts and other state boundary documents, Indian treaties, powers of attorney for deeds to land in the Commonwealth by nonresident proprietors in Lincoln County, Maine, and deeds of release for other Maine lands. Later records include contracts, leases, deeds, and agreements including deeds to land taken for construction of the State House, and contracts with the Board of Harbor and Land Commissioners for the dredging and filling of Boston Harbor. –For original documents see, among others: Legal records filed with the secretary, 1800-2001 ((M-Ar)134)
Arrangement: In two subseries: (1) Pre-Revolutionary  (2) Post-Revolutionary; arranged chronologically
Notes:  Collated: early items recorded from 1747, others presumably contemporarily, or in time period of examining secretary, when indicated. Contents: (SS 1:1) 1629-1763. (SS 1:2) 1677-1774 (bulk 1763-1774) (SS 2:1) 1778-1845, 1871.  (SS 2:2) 1873-1887. (SS 2:3) 1887-1891
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