Scope and Content: In 1886 the Massachusetts State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity was renamed the State Board of Lunacy and Charity, while a separate State Board of Health was established. The State Board of Lunacy and Charity inherited all powers and duties of its predecessor except those vested in the newly established State Board of Health, i.e., general supervision and investigative powers over charitable, reformatory, and mental health institutions and some authority over the transfer and removal of patients.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically by adoption date
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Scope and Content: Under successive authorizations, the Land Office oversaw the management and sale of public lands in Maine for the Commonwealth during the first half of the 19th century.  Among the powers held by the Land Office was that of conveying land by deed to individuals.  This series consists of a copy book containing transcripts of deeds relating to land transfers in Maine territory previously in dispute between Great Britain and the United States.  Each page consists of a deed copy that identifies the parties to the conveyance, the physical bounds, and conditions.  Deed copies were endorsed by the land agents of both Massachusetts (George Coffin) and Maine (Levi Bradley).
Notes: Spine title: Madawaska deeds
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Scope and Content: In Aug. 1774 the Council elected under the provincial charter by the General Court to serve both as its upper house and as executive body under the governor was displaced by councillors appointed by royal writ of mandamus to serve under Gov. Thomas Gage, colloquially known therefore as the Mandamus Council.  These transcripts include minutes of royal Council meetings (to Oct. 1775) and correspondence involving the Council, British officials, and Gage, from the arrangement of his appointment as governor until after the British evacuation of Boston in Mar. 1776.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Notes: Copied from the British State Paper Office by Robert lemon in 1852 pursuant to instructions by state secretary Amasa Walker. Cover title: Letters & doings of the Council &c. between April 9, 1774 & April 21, 1776
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Scope and Content: The State Advisory Board in the Dept. of Public Welfare (known until reconstitution in 1967 as the Advisory Board) advises the department’s commissioner and approves membership of community service area boards.  St 1952, c 602 gave the board authority to hold public hearings on and to approve by majority vote proposed departmental rules and regulations.  Series includes transcripts of such hearings (with supporting documentation) and of meetings to vote.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
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Scope and Content: The Board of Gas Commissioners, established in 1885, was renamed Board of Gas and Electric Light Commissioners in 1889.  That body was abolished in 1919, when its functions were combined with those of the Public Service Commission in the Dept. of Public Utilities.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Notes:  Volumes 1-5: Proceedings. Volume 6: Exhibits
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Scope and Content: The State Primary School, opened at the State Almshouse at Monson in 1866 and continuing after the almshouse’s closing in 1872 until 1895, provided lodging, instruction, and employment for dependent and neglected children under age sixteen without settlement in the Commonwealth and some juvenile offenders.  From 1879 oversight of the school was vested in the Trustees of the State Primary and Reform Schools (St 1879, c 291, s 8; St 1880, c 208)–succeeding the school’s Board of Inspectors; they fixed State Primary School rules and regulations, placed inmates out of the school with families, and transferred to the school inmates from the State Reform School and the State Industrial School.  Series records decisions made at monthly meetings transmitted to the school superintendent and transcribed at the school for him.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically by meeting date
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Scope and Content: The State Almshouse at Monson provided residence for paupers without settlement in Massachusetts from 1854 to 1872. The State Primary School, opened there in 1866 and continuing after the almshouse’s closing in 1872 until 1895, provided lodging, instruction, and employment for dependent and neglected children under age sixteen without settlement in Massachusetts and some juvenile offenders. Legislation had authorized transfer of inmates from one almshouse to another by the Board of Alien Commissioners (St 1853, c 352, s 3; St 1859, c 255) and the Board of State Charities (St 1863, c 240, s 4); and by the latter board and its successor from 1879, the State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity–through its Dept. of Indoor Poor–from the almshouses to the State Primary School (St 1866, c 209, ss 4-5; St 1872, c 45; St 1879, c 291).  Series documents these transfers, from the State Almshouse at Tewksbury and to a lesser degree from the State Almshouse at Bridgewater to the State Almshouse at Monson (to 1872) and to the State Primary School (from 1866)
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Notes: Files for 1854-1855, 1863-1871, 1878-1881, 1883 only
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Scope and Content: State responsibility for those in state almshouses and lunatic (from 1898 insane) hospitals was held successively by the Board of State Charities (1863), the State Board of Health, Lunacy, and Charity (1879) and the State Board of Lunacy and Charity (1886).  Under the latter two of these boards the Dept. of Indoor Poor was responsible for adults in these state institutions and for juvenile wards of the state over three years of age. (The 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.) In 1898, just prior to state agency reorganization, responsibilities were redivided between a Division of State Adult Poor (with Indoor and Outdoor units) and a Division of State Minor Wards, which were carried over into the State Board of Charity. –Founding legislation for these various boards gave them the authority to transfer inmates from one almshouse or lunatic hospital to another. Pursuant to Resolves 1866, c 40; 1871 c 11 and c 77, a hospital and asylum for the harmless and incurable insane had been built at the Tewksbury almshouse, and St 1876, c 179 provided for the appointment of a resident physician as director. (St 1880, c 250, s 4 required that the Board of Health, Lunacy and Charity could transfer insane almshouse inmates only when certified insane after examination by two physicians, one with no connection to the hospital.) Eventually the almshouse’s function was specialized to the extent that St 1900, c 333 renamed it the State Hospital.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
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Scope and Content: The attorney general of Massachusetts is the Commonwealth’s chief legal officer.  The Executive Bureau, which includes the attorney general and personal staff, is responsible for the overall supervision of the legal services provided by the office, for budgetary and personnel matters, and for the development of a uniform and consistent legal policy for the state.  Series is created by the bureau to administer transition in the office following a general election.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically by transition, thereunder by office unit/topic
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Scope and Content: The governor may request state agency heads to provide transition reports to facilitate the orderly transfer of responsibilities from one gubernatorial term to the next, and to assess the progress and status of state agencies.
Arrangement: Arranged by state agency
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