Scope and Content: Pursuant to St 1872, c 236, as part of their function licensing waterways and tidelands construction, the Board of Harbor Commissioners and its successor from l879, the Board of Harbor and Land Commissioners notified the selectmen or mayor and aldermen of the municipality in which petitioner for license proposed to work of a hearing on the petition.  This series consists of copies of notices to muncipalities, each signed by the board chair and accompanied by a certified statement that original notice had been served, signed by the board clerk and attested to by a justice of the peace.
Arrangement: 1896-1902, l902-1907: Arranged chronologically in reverse order. Arranged within each sequence alphabetically by first letter of petitioner surname, thereunder chronologically in reverse order
Notes: Returns missing for 1877-1878, 1883-1891, 1895
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Scope and Content: The Board of State Charities and its successors from 1863 onward oversaw the Massachusetts state immigration and pauper relief functions, as well as the state’s charitable and correctional institutions. St 1865, c 162 required municipalities to provide care for those state paupers too sick to be moved to a state almshouse. In such cases, the local overseers of the poor were required to send an immediate notice to the Board of State Charities, in order to receive approval for state reimbursement from the board’s agent for the sick state poor. The overseers were to provide patient location information so that the board, through the agent, could investigate the case if necessary, a role alluded to in St 1869, c 12.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
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Scope and Content: Cushing Hospital in Framingham, Mass., intended for the care and custody of elderly persons, was purchased by the Commonwealth from the federal government in 1955, opened in 1957 under the Dept. of Mental Health, transferred to the Dept. of Public Health in 1984, and closed in 1991.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Restrictions: Mental health client information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 123, s 36. Public health hospital client information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 111, c 70. For conditions of access consult repository
Notes: Transferred to Archives by Tewksbury Hospital, Tewksbury, Mass., Mar. 1999
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Scope and Content: The Governor’s Legal Office advises the governor on all matters of legal concern.  In fulfilling this function, the office institutes, monitors, and comments on state agency-related legislation and litigation, and mediation or arbitration of intra-agency disputes, as documented in this series.
Arrangement: In two subseries: (1) Office and agency files; Arranged chronologically by term, thereunder alphabetically by agency and arranged alphabetically by agency (2) Litigation files; arranged by case
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Arrangement: Arranged by examiner, thereunder by case no
Restrictions: Personal medical information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 4, s 7, d 26(c) and c 66A. For conditions of access consult repository
Notes: Pre-1908 case files for Southern District apparently lost by agency. Pre-1934 case files for Northern District destroyed while in agency custody
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Scope and Content: In keeping with traditions established in the colonial period, the secretary of the Commonwealth is the custodian of the foundation records of Massachusetts, including the charters.  Indeed, at the time the Great Charter was being drafted in 1628 and 1629, a secretary was appointed by the Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay to keep the records and manage the accounts of the company.  From then until the present, the charter has been in the custody, successively, of the secretaries of the company, the province, and the Commonwealth.
Restrictions: Access by permission of state archivist or curator of Massachusetts Archives only
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Scope and Content: Phineas Pratt came from England to the New Plymouth Colony in 1622, along with others backed by Thomas Weston. The party then left to colonize Wessagusset (later Weymouth) to the north.  After difficulties with native Americans, they abandoned the settlement, and Pratt returned to Plymouth in 1623. This series is his account of the incident.
Restrictions: Access by permission of state archivist or curator of Massachusetts Archives only
Notes: Quoted in William Bradford’s History of Plymouth Plantation, the ms. was presented to the Massachusetts General Court in 1662. Some two centuries later It was rediscovered in the State House by Richard Pulsifer, who gave it to Richard C. Frothingham, Jr., for transcription and editing under the auspices of the Massachusetts Historical Society in 1858.  Evidently returned to Pulsifer, found in his effects at his death, and thereupon placed in the custody of the Maine Historical Society, it was restored by the society to the Commonwealth of   Massachusetts in 1975
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Scope and Content: Per St 1836, c 241, s 2, the state secretary received annual returns from the Massachusetts county registries of deeds and provided an abstract of these returns to the legislature.
Notes:  Formerly part of: Miscellaneous collection, box 55. Fragmentary series; no succeeding abstracts included
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Scope and Content: In fulfilling responsibility as record keeper for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the state secretary maintained reports and accounts concerning the Treasury as follows:
Arrangement: In five subseries
Notes: Formerly part of: Miscellaneous collection, boxes 20, 56
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Scope and Content: Per order of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, Jan. 11, 1836, a special joint committee of the General Court was formed to investigate the conduct of banks in the Commonwealth, especially for violations of law or of bank charter restrictions.  Files documenting activities and finding of the committee was deposited in the office of the state secretary.
Notes: Formerly part of: Miscellaneous collection, box 4
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