Scope and Content: As regulated by successive legislation from St 1784, c 23 onward, local tax assessors compiled valuations for the state secretary (see also Resolves 1784, May Sess, c 36; Resolves 1785, Feb 1786 Sess, c 91), then for the state treasurer (St 1785, c 50), who provided printed forms (St 1823, c 138 (1824); St 1828, c 143 (1829)), and again for the state secretary (St 1861, c 167), who was replaced in this function by the tax commissioner per St 1908, c 314.  Such valuations were lists of taxpayers, resident and then nonresident, with a valuated description of real and personal property (e.g., livestock), and the number of polls (adult males) and ratable (taxable) polls in each household, for the purpose of assessing local poll, property, and highway taxes, and, on occasion, county and state taxes. Valuation lists thus constitute a variety of personal and agricultural census data.  Aggregates consist of totals of each category of data.
Arrangement: In two subseries: (1) Valuations (2) Aggregates; arranged within each subseries chronologically by year, thereunder by locality, and then alphabetically by taxpayer
Related Catalog Records:

Archivegrid
OCLC

Scope and Content: The governor was authorized by Resolves 1845, c 3 and Resolves 1846, c 76, to procure original documents or transcripts of them from public offices in France, in order to illustrate the colonial and other history of the Commonwealth.  Benjamin Perley Poore was commissioned to carry out this task, apparently under the direction of the state secretary.  This series contains the results of his work.
Arrangement: In two subseries: (1) Historical documents (2) Maps; arranged within each subseries chronologically.
Restrictions: Originals are restricted; access by permission of state archivist or curator of Massachusetts Archives only
Notes: Collated: 1845-1847.  Deposited in Archives, Jan. 1, 1849. Also known as: French collection; French documents; French maps; Maps collected in France. Vol. 1 lacks no. 18-20, 38, 48-49; vol. 2 lacks no. 18-19, 67-68, 70. English translation of some documents available in Archives reading room
Related Catalog Records:

Archivegrid
OCLC

Scope and Content: Publication of the complete and annotated set: The acts and resolves, public and private, of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, including the years 1692 to 1780, and popularly known as: Province laws, was authorized by Resolves 1865, c 43 and again by Resolves 1867, c 87.  (See also Resolves 1893, c 12; St 1894, c 387; and St 1899, c 477.)  Under the mandated direction of the governor and council, the twenty-one volumes were issued between 1869 and 1922, with materials relating to the project being deposited with the state secretary.  Among them were these transcripts made for the editors at the State Paper Dept. in the British Public Record Office. –Documents were transcribed from the Trade Paper, Board of Trade, Colonial Entry, American & West Indies, and Privy Council volumes.  Documents include letters from Massachusetts officials, letters of agents in London, orders in council, and: List of curious and scarce books in the British Museum relating to New England.
Restrictions: Copying is restricted
Notes: Collated: [1867?-19–]
Related Catalog Records:

Archivegrid
OCLC

Scope and Content: The Commonwealth, in order to fulfill its responsibility to provide education to its deaf residents, was required to pay tuition to the American Asylum in Hartford (Resolves 1819, c 60), to the Clarke Institution for Deaf Mutes in Northampton, and to the Horace Mann School in Boston (Boston School for Deaf Mutes until 1887) (Resolves 1868, c 200) for students who qualified as state beneficiaries.  The state secretary was required to act as secretary to the governor to receive all communications, applications, and returns concerning the education of these indigent students, thus creating the files reflected in these transcripts.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Related Catalog Records:

Archivegrid
OCLC

Scope and Content: From the establishment of the first turnpike commission in the Commonwealth (St 1796, c 5), legislation required corporations building toll roads and bridges to file annually an account of expenses with the state secretary and a report of income and expenses with the governor.  Other corporations including insurance companies were also required to file returns.  The state secretary maintained these filings and created a transcript of summary information.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Notes: Spine title: Turnpike returns
Related Catalog Records:

Archivegrid
OCLC

Scope and Content: By various acts intended to regulate the inspection of goods sold in or exported from the Commonwealth, appointed public inspectors were required to submit annual reports to the state secretary.  The secretary maintained these filings and transcribed the returns in summary form. –Transcripts of the annual returns, 1801-1889 (v. 1-2),  include date of inspection and quantity and quality of each commodity.  Among the goods inspected are beef and pork, pot and pearl ashes, leather, gun powder, pickled and smoked fish (see below), and lumber.  Volumes also include transcripts of returns of turnpike and toll bridge corporations, ca. 1856-1868 and transcripts of returns from insurance companies, 1825-1882.  For other such transcripts see Transcripts of corporation returns ((M-Ar)165X).  Originals of some of the records in the series generally are found in Returns from public inspectors, 1801-1919 ((M-Ar)139X); Returns of turnpike and toll bridge corporations, 1801-1862 ((M-Ar)957X); and Returns of the Massachusetts Hospital Life Insurance Company ((M-Ar)1049X). –Appendix (v. 3): St 1859, c 102 required the secretary to publish in newspapers annual returns of the inspector general of pickled and smoked fish. Transcripts for 1859-1877 returns provide no figures but reference these publications, as found here in a scrapbook of news clips, 1863-1896.
Related Catalog Records:

Archivegrid
OCLC

Scope and Content: The New Plymouth (later “Old”) Colony, settled in 1620, became part of the Province of Massachusetts Bay under the Charter of 1691, but its records continued to be held in Plymouth successively by the last colonial secretary, clerk of the Inferior Court, and Plymouth County register of deeds.  In the 19th century, concerns over condition of and access to records led to their transcription by the Commonwealth, allowing the originals to remain in Plymouth.
Arrangement:  In three subseries: (1) 1818 transcript; (2) 1818-1820 transcript (3) 1855-1857 transcript; arranged chronologically –both arranged by topic, thereunder chronologically
Notes: Spine title: Plymouth Colony records
Related Catalog Records:

Archivegrid
OCLC

Scope and Content: The Commonwealth, pursuant to St 1828, c 113, s 7 as amended by Resolves 1833, c 28, was required to pay to the Trustees of the New England Asylum for the Blind (later known successively as the New England Institution for the Education of the Blind (1832), the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts Asylum for the Blind (1839), the Perkins Institution and Massachusetts School for the Blind (1877), and the Perkins School for the Blind (1955)) an annual sum to provide for the tuition of up to twenty indigent children certified by a physician to be blind.  Transcripts were kept by the state secretary of returns of the supervisor of the school stating the names and number of beneficiaries attending the school.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Related Catalog Records:

Archivegrid
OCLC

Scope and Content: Authorized by a Nov. 6, 1901 vote of the New England Historic Genealogical Society, the Eddy Town Record Fund was established from the bequest of Robert Henry Eddy to publish the vital records of Massachusetts.  In 1902 the legislature authorized the state secretary to purchase copies of these published volumes with the stipulation that the mss. become the property of the Commonwealth and be deposited with the secretary’s office (St 1902, c 470).  Copies purchased by the secretary were distributed to each public library, historical society, college, and registry of deeds in the Commonwealth; and each state or territorial library in the United States.  Series mss. are bound transcripts of vital records copied in each town from sources such as vital records registers; records of marriages returned to town clerks; published birth, death, and marriage notices; and records from clergy of marriages performed. –Information includes individual’s name; names of parents and spouse; and dates of birth or baptism, death, and marriage or intent to marry.  Birth records often group births by family and may include additional information concerning family relationships.  Death records include cause and date of death and may include location of cemetery.  Source of information is also noted in some entries.
Arrangement: Arranged alphabetically by municipality
Notes: Collated: 1902-1932
Related Catalog Records:

Archivegrid
OCLC

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
Related Catalog Records:

Archivegrid
OCLC