Scope and Content: Distribution by the state secretary of published laws of the Commonwealth, laws of Congress, laws of other states, reports of decisions of the Supreme Judicial Court, and printed maps was authorized by various resolves annually.  This series consists of registers of distribution data.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
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Scope and Content: The state secretary (since 1961 through a unit currently called the Commissions Section) attests to all commissions of office signed by the governor, administering the oath of office to and/or recording the name of these and other public appointees.  In a related function, the secretary is authorized (St 1865, c 231 et seq.; MGLA c 9, ss 15-15A) to notify each person commissioned as a justice of the peace or notary public of the time of the commission’s expiration.  Registers were created to record this notification. –For a listing of related series see: Massachusetts. Office of the Secretary of State. Records of commissions, proclamations, pardons, and other official documents,  1713-1945 (bulk 1747-1936)((M-Ar)161X)
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
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Scope and Content: The Massachusetts state secretary provided certificates of citizenship and passports for seamen and travelers. Although an act of Congress, Aug. 18, 1856, prohibited nonfederal officials from issuing passports, Massachusetts continued to authorize passports per St 1857, c 224, because federal law made no provision for citizens or seamen of color. When this exclusion was corrected after the Civil War, St 1869, c 365 repealed the issuing of state passports, at the request of the U.S. secretary of state and the Massachusetts attorney general.  Register records passports and certificates of citizenship issued by the state secretary. –Vol.1 (1833-1849) includes passport numbers 1-2,297.  Vol. 2 (1850-1869) includes passport numbers 2,298-2,776 for 1850-1857.  Beginning in 1858 entries are headed as being for certificates of citizenship issued pursuant to St 1859, c 224, which authorized the state secretary to issue passports or certificates of citizenship regardless of color.  Entries include notations regarding naturalization, person to whom the applicant was known, or certification.  Numbering is continuous for 1858-1861, 1863-1865, and 1866-1869.  There are no entries for 1862, a year in which travel outside the Commonwealth was restricted. (But see: Applications for travel permission, 1862 ((M-Ar)129X) and: Register for travel permission, 1862 ((M-Ar)130X).)  From 1865, entries are headed as pursuant to St 1865, c 157, s 1, which called for the collection of a two-dollar fee and an affirmation or oath to support the Constitution of the United States in order for an individual to receive a passport or certificate of citizenship.  For actual applications see:  Application certificates for passports, 1815-1854 ((M-Ar)126X) and: Application certificates for travel to the South, 1842-1845 ((M-Ar)127X). For an earlier register see: Ledgers of fees received, 1812-1882 ((M-Ar)122X)
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Notes: Cover title: Passports
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Scope and Content: At the close of the 1918 session of the Massachusetts Constitutional Convention of 1917, a Committee on Rearrangement of the Constitution was appointed to incorporate after the 1918 election all amendments adopted since 1780 in a rearranged text.  Accepted by the Convention (Aug. 12-13, 1919) and by the electorate (Nov. 1919), the rearranged constitution was challenged by governor and council and struck down by the Supreme Judicial Court in 1920 (233 Mass 603), a decision reaffirmed in 1921 (Loring v. Young, 239 Mass 349).  A 1924 attempt to submit the rearranged constitution to the electorate by initiative petition was overruled by the attorney general.  This series contains two copies of the rearrangement, one with certification by the state secretary of the 1919 ratification, the other signed by the Committee on Rearrangement.
Notes: In keeping with traditions established in the colonial period, the state secretary is custodian of foundation records of the Commonwealth, including this series
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Scope and Content: Pursuant to St 1936, c 429, the Dept. of Public Works (DPW) filed with the office of the state secretary a report tabulating county, city, and town bridges in the Commonwealth damaged by the 1936 floods.  The report was used as a basis for selecting reconstruction projects.
Arrangement: Arranged alphabetically by county, thereunder alphabetically by municipality
Notes: T.p.: City and town bridges damaged or destroyed by floods in March 1936. Two copies of report included
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Scope and Content: The state secretary as record keeper of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts received a report addressed to the governor regarding inoculation against smallpox in the town of Milton.  Series consists of transcripts of documents
Notes: Formerly part of: Miscellaneous collection, box 20
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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 Massachusetts state prison until replaced by Massachusetts Correctional Institution, Walpole, 1955-1956.
Arrangement: Arranged by subject
Notes: Series may have been separated at an early date from: Executive correspondence ((M-Ar)116X), which contains similar matter. — Formerly part of: Miscellaneous collection, box 3. –formerly part of: Miscellaneous collection, box 207
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Scope and Content: As secretary to the governor of Massachusetts until 1861, the state secretary kept copies of executive correspondence.  This 1809 draft letter from Gov. Christopher Gore to the Marquis de Somoruelos, governor of Cuba, requests that James Drake, John Murdock, and John Reynolds of Havana be ordered to take depositions from Felix Quintera, Mates Leal, and Madame de St. George in the case of Jonathan Amory, appellant, and Nathaniel Fellows, appellee, before the Supreme Judicial Court.
Notes: Formerly part of: Miscellaneous collection, box 1
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Scope and Content: Under the provisions of St 1854, c 95, persons confined in a jail or house of correction who were diagnosed with mental illness could be removed to a lunatic hospital or other suitable location if ordered by the governor, with transport assigned to the county sheriff. St 1880, c 250 authorized the State Board of Health, Lunacy and Charity (State Board of Lunacy and Charity, 1886, State Board of Insanity, 1898) to designate two persons to examine state prison and reformatory inmates alleged to be insane and report to the governor, who could issue warrants  to prison superintendents or wardens for their transfer to state lunatic hospitals (state insane hospitals from 1898). St 1909, c 504, s 105 transferred power to issue warrants to the superior court in the county where the prison was located.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Notes: Formerly part of: Miscellaneous collection, box 100. –Separately written warrants previously held as a separate series ((M-Ar)158X) Box 1: 1855-1886. Box 2: 1887-1890.  Box 3: 1891-1899.  Box 4: 1900-1903.  Box 5: 1904-1905.  Box 6: 1906-1909.
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Scope and Content: The governor sends to the state secretary for review, legislation that may impact the state secretary’s responsibilities or laws of the Commonwealth under which the secretary has jurisdiction. Series includes requests, responses, copies of legislation, proposed amendments, and a periodic log tracking receipt at and return from the secretary of such legislation.
Arrangement: Arranged by two-year legislative session, in volumes (usually single year). Vols. in chronological order, each with initial log sheets and associated files in reverse chronological order
Notes: Contents: Box 1. 1999/2000-2007/2008. Box 2. 2009/2010- 2011/2012. Box 3. 2013/2014
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