Scope and Content: St 1819, c 161, an act to provide for separation of the District of Maine from Massachusetts as a state, was instigated by petitions sent by Maine towns to the May 1819 session of the General Court.  This series includes petitions opposing such legislation.
Arrangement: Arranged alphabetically by county, thereunder alphabetically by town
Notes: Removed from original papers for St 1819, c 161 (Massachusetts. Office of the Secretary of State. Passed acts ((M-Ar)229)) by N. Olsberg, Apr. 1979.; Forms part of : Separation of Maine papers
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Scope and Content: St 1819, c 161, an act to provide for separation of the District of Maine from Massachusetts as a state, was instigated by petitions sent by Maine towns to the May 1819 session of the General Court. This series includes ca. 170 petitions constituting the large majority favoring such legislation.
Arrangement: Arranged alphabetically by county, thereunder alphabetically by town
Notes: Removed from original papers for St 1819, c 161 (Massachusetts. Office of the Secretary of State. Passed acts ((M-Ar)229)) by N. Olsberg, Apr. 1979.; Forms part of : Separation of Maine papers
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Scope and Content: Per St 1924, c 510, item 30 and more specifically St 1925, c 211, item 158a, the Massachusetts General Court authorized its sergeant-at-arms and the state’s Art Commission to expend funds for the preservation of photographs and photographed portraits of speakers of the House of Representatives hanging in the Speaker’s Room of the State House and presidents of the Senate hanging in the Senate Reading Room.  The objects were rephotographed by F. Ernst Zimmermann, with the resulting negatives being placed under the care of Charles O. Holt, sergeant-at-arms.  The now replaced photographic prints of the speakers of the House of Representatives authorized by Resolves 1894, c 95 and those of the presidents of the Senate authorized by Resolves 1898, c 84 (with some later ones) are also included in this series.  Photographers/studios identified in this series are Elmer Chickering, Charlotte Fairchild, Theodore C. Marceau, Richardson Bros., Frank A. Nowell, Robert E. Wescott, Notman Photographic Co., George H. Van Norman, and Julius M. Oppenheim.
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Scope and Content: The Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay in New England received a royal charter in England, Mar. 1629.  They sat as a General Court, from 1630 serving in the Massachusetts Bay colony as the governing body (along with an executive Council), until the revocation of the charter and imposition of a crown-appointed governor and council in 1686.  Series constitutes their proceedings.
Arrangement: In two subseries: (1) General Court, including Court of Assistants (volumes 1-2, 4-5)  (2) House of Deputies (volume 3); Arranged within each subseries chronologically by date of meeting.
Notes: By Thaddeus M. Harris, 1839, pursuant to agreement signed by Joseph B. Felt at request of state secretary John P. Bigelow. Bound and shelved as: Court records, volumes 1-5 (for volume list see: Massachusetts. Council. Legislative records ((M-Ar)1701X))
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Scope and Content: The Governor and Company of the Massachusetts Bay, chartered by the English Crown in 1629, sat as a General Court, which after the 1630 emigration to America became the government of the Massachusetts Bay colony.  It consisted of freemen (company stockholders), represented from 1634 by elected deputies (as a legislative lower house); and the governor, deputy governor, and assistants chosen by the freemen.  Series consists of public documents created during the period of the colonial charter (1629-1686) and revival of colonial government (1689-1692)–and a few related earlier items–reflecting the legislative, executive, and judicial phases of that government, with the exception of judicial documents specifically pertaining to the activities of the assistants sitting in their judicial capacity as the Court of Assistants.
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Scope and Content: The House of Representatives of the Massachusetts General Court, primarily through its Committee on (Contested) Elections, reviewed credentials of those representatives whose elections were contested to determine the right of a representative to his seat.  Cases before the committee were those where the validity of the election process or the eligibility of members in regard to conduct, character, or property ownership were questioned.  The committee’s reports were filed with House records and referred to as precedents when further decisions were required.
Arrangement:  In four subseries: (1) Journal of the Committee on Contested Elections, 1780-1834 (bulk 1780-1811)  (2) Draft of book on contested elections, 1834  (3) Papers on contested elections, 1783-1843  (4) Papers for individual town cases, 1777-1843; Within each subseries, arranged chronologically
Notes: Series removed from: Massachusetts. Office of the secretary of State.  House unpassed legislation ((M-Ar) 230), dockets 1134 and 4512-4521 (drawers 82-84).  Additional materials from that series (and from: Senate unpassed legislation ((M-Ar)231)) removed for filming only, as part of subseries (3), 1816-1849, and subseries (4), 1816-1825, then refiled. Box 1: Subseries (1-3), subseries (4), 1777-1809. Box 2: Subseries (4), 1809/1810-1812/1813. Box 3: Subseries (4), 1813-1843
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Scope and Content: The General Court oversaw the surveying, sale, and other disposition of Massachusetts public lands in the District of Maine from 1781, and after its separation as a state in 1819 until 1861–to 1801 through a succession of appointive bodies generically known as the Committee for the Sale of Eastern Lands, and then through various land agents/commissioners designated in 1816 as the Land Office.  Resolves 1802, c 113 (1803) directed the state secretary to publish 300 copies of a transcript kept by the land agents of resolves and other legislative documents relating to such lands.  Series includes transcript (to Mar. 8, 1803), published resolves, and a second similar compilation identified as being printed by order of the legislature of Feb. 14, 1811 (see below)
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Notes: Forms part of: Eastern Lands papers
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Scope and Content: The Massachusetts Black Caucus consists of legislators representing African American communities of the Commonwealth in the Massachusetts General Court proposing and reviewing legislation relevant to those communities.  School racial imbalance subject files document the caucus’s investigation of racial imbalance in the Boston and Springfield public school systems.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
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Scope and Content: The Speaker presides over House sessions, chairs the House Committee on Rules, and nominates the chair and majority party members of the other House standing committees.  Speaker’s administrative files are created to enable performance of these functions from an administrative aspect.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically by term, thereunder by subject
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Scope and Content: The Speaker presides over House sessions, chairs the House Committee on Rules, and nominates the chair and majority party members of the other House standing committees.  Speaker’s general correspondence is generated largely by constituent-related and ceremonial aspects of these functions.
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