Scope and Content: The State Board of Lunacy and Charity, formed per St 1886, c 101, through its Dept. of Outdoor Poor was responsible for adults in need of state medical or general assistance not committed to state institutions under the board’s jurisdiction, and of juvenile wards of the state under three years of age. Outdoor Poor oversaw funding for sick state poor, temporary aid, wife settlement, burial, foundlings and infants, auditing of claims, and contagious diseases. It was succeeded by the State Board of Charity’s Division of State Adult Poor, whose outdoor department continued to provide supervision and reimbursement for programs of public relief administered by local authorities. Expanded benefits per St 1913, c 763, ss 5-7 provided relief to mothers with dependent children under the age of fourteen. The Division of State Adult Poor’s outdoor department  was succeeded in 1919 by the Subdivision of Settlements of the Division of Aid and Relief, Dept. of Public Welfare; the division’s indoor department was succeeded by the Subdivision of Social Service of the Division of Aid and Relief.
Restrictions: Personal information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 4, s7, d 26(c), c 66A. For conditions of access consult repository
Notes: 1886 lacks volume for sick state poor. 1907, 1932/1933-1934/1935 lack volumes for Boston
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Scope and Content: The Reformatory Prison for Women was opened in Sherborn in 1877.  It was renamed the Reformatory for Women by St 1911, c 181, and because of a redrawn boundary line its fuller designation was changed from the Reformatory for Women at Sherborn to the Reformatory for Women at Framingham by St 1932, c 180, s 24.  Under St 1955, c 770 it received its current name, the Massachusetts Correctional Institution, Framingham.
Arrangement: Arranged by inmate case no
Notes: Reel GSU 473: 1877-Mar. 1906.  Reel GSU 474: Mar. 1906-1926
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Scope and Content: The adjutant general of the Commonwealth, as executive administrator of the state’s Military Establishment, has been responsible for maintaining and reporting data concerning militia strength; these activities were intensified during the Civil War.  This series provides an abstract account of military payrolls during and after the war.
Arrangement: Arranged by payroll number (i.e., chronologically).
Notes: The origin of this series is unclear.  It may have been a summary of bounty payrolls prepared by the paymaster general, but the information given is insufficient to draw that conclusion.  No connection can be made between this record and: Massachusetts. Paymaster General. Bounty payroll accounts, 1865-1866 ((M-Ar)439X).  Having come to the Archives with other records from the Adjutant General’s Office, this item has been ascribed to that agency
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Scope and Content: To establish accurate Massachusetts town boundaries, and eventually interstate boundaries as well, beginning in 1885 the Topographical Survey Commission (replaced in this function in 1901 by the Board of Harbor and Land Commissioners) sent out field teams to establish and describe triangulation stations and to set monuments designating boundary lines.  These volumes of abstracts of horizontal angles are based on field notebooks of the survey teams.  Computations were verified, adjusted, and prepared by the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically, thereunder by locality
Notes: Spine title: Boundary survey
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Scope and Content: Massachusetts has administered water works and sewage disposal for the Boston metropolitan area successively through the Board of Metropolitan Sewerage Commissioners (Metropolitan Sewerage Commission) (1889-1901) and the Metropolitan Water Board (1895-1901); the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board (1901-1919); and the Water and Sewerage Divisions of the Metropolitan District Commission (1919-1985).  Since 1985, the sewerage works functions have been assigned to the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA), and the water works functions have been shared by the MWRA (distribution) and the Metropolitan District Commission (to 2003) and the Dept.  of Conservation and Recreation (since 2003) (water supply reservoirs and their watershed management).
Notes: Transferred to Archives from Metropolitan District Commission. Typed on each first recto page: Massachusetts State Board of Health, [X.H.] Goodnough; stamped below it:: George W. Coffin. Coffin (1897-1967) served the Metropolitan District Water Supply Commission (1926-1947) as an assistant civil engineer then as senior civil engineer from 1927-1941
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Scope and Content: The Engineering Department of the Metropolitan Park Commission was responsible for planning, engineering, and supervising construction of parkways, bridges, locks, and other recreational and park facilities under the commission’s jurisdiction.  Accessions logs were created to track maps and plans made or used by engineers to plan and carry out their projects.
Arrangement: Arranged by accession number
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Scope and Content: The U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts appointed a Court Monitor in 1979 to administer court consent decrees relating to five state schools for the mentally retarded. In 1986 the responsibility was transferred to the gubernatorially established Office of Quality Assurance for the Mental Retardation Consent Decrees. In 1993 oversight was transferred to a Governor’s Commission  on Mental Retardation, while specific quality assurance functions were placed under an Office of Quality Enhancement, Office of Quality Management, Dept. of Mental Retardation, which had taken over responsibility for the mentally retarded from the Dept. of Mental Health in 1986.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Restrictions: Mental retardation client information restricted by statutory provision MGLA c 123B, s 17. For conditions of access consult repository
Notes: From the records of the Governor’s Commission on Mental Retardation, transferred to  Archives, 1994-2008. For details consult the Massachusetts Archives series control file
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Scope and Content: Successive committees of the House of Representatives were appointed to receive, examine, and pass upon accounts submitted for payment for purchases and services approved by the Revolutionary Massachusetts General Court.  From 1780, a joint standing committee of both houses of the Constitutional General Court (by at least 1782 known as the Committee on Accounts) performed the same function.  Approved accounts were forwarded to the Council (for concurrence as of 1776), which issued warrants for payment by the Treasury.  From 1786 (Resolves 1786, Sept Sess, c 128) examined accounts were submitted by the committee in the form of rolls to the General Court, which approved them by a resolve and forwarded them to the Council.  Resolves 1792, May Sess, c 15 instructed that the accounts in these rolls be arranged for support of the state poor alphabetically by town, and for militia accounts by division, and that the data be additionally recorded in a book for legislative reference.  Series records data (payee, expense detail, date, amount) for rolls 23-30 (1792-1794), and summaries only, by expense type (state poor, militia, miscellaneous, printers, sheriffs) for rolls 31-84 (1795-1821).
Arrangement: Arranged by roll (i.e. chronologically)
Notes: Fly-leaf title: “Accounts which are allowed by the Committee on Accounts are entered in this book agreeably to a Resolve of the General Court of 12 June 1792.”
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Scope and Content: The State Prison was opened in 1805 at Charlestown, Boston, as a successor to the prison on Castle Island.  During 1878-1884 the prison was closed and inmates kept at Concord.  With that exception, Charlestown remained the state prison until replaced by Massachusetts Correctional Institution, Walpole, 1955-1956.
Arrangement: Volume 2 Arranged chronologically. arranged by vendor, thereunder chronologically
Notes: Transferred to Archives from MCI Walpole, 1981
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Scope and Content: During the Revolutionary War, families of Continental Army soldiers in Massachusetts lacked money to pay for supplies sold at rapidly inflating prices.  To assist them, Resolves 1777-78, c 406 (Oct. 10, 1777) provided that towns must provide supplies to the families of noncommissioned officers and privates at rates set by the act “to prevent monopoly and oppression” (St 1776-77, c 14, Jan. 25, 1777)–except in cases where soldiers had received sufficient bounty payments to afford the extra cost–for a period of three years or for the duration of the war, as chosen by soldier at enlistment.  Resolves 1778-79, c 446 (Feb. 6, 1779) directed towns to keep exact accounts of supplies distributed in order to be reimbursed by the state, which would in turn receive settlement from the soldiers for amounts charged to them, when service pay was received (see: Massachusetts. Office of the Secretary of State. Certificates of payment for the Continental Army ((M-Ar)58X)) –Resolves 1779-80, c 67 (June 8, 1779) provided for a system of recording the accounts, which were to be sent to the General Court.  Examination of the accounts was done in the House of Representatives by the Committee on Accounts, in accordance with Resolves 1777-78, c 12 (June 5, 1777).  Additional legislation stipulated that towns’ supply and bounty (paid for military service) accounts up to Oct. 15, 1779  be lodged with the state secretary’s office (Resolves 1779-80, c 470, Oct. 8, 1779), that the Committee on Accounts would give a roll of sums due to each town to the treasurer’s office (Resolves 1779-80, c 653, Dec. 20, 1779), and that the Council would issue warrants for corresponding payment of towns to the treasurer’s office (Resolves 1779-80, c 915, Apr. 3, 1780).  Finally, Resolves 1779-80, c 933 (Apr. 7, 1780), reaffirmed town obligations to provide supplies until the end of soldier’s term of service.
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