Scope and Content: Fort Halifax was built in 1754 in present-day Winslow, Me., at the Kennebec and Sebasticook Rivers. Massachusetts Governor Shirley ordered its construction as a defense against threatened attacks by Indians allied with the Canadian French. Built under the direction of John Winslow, the fort was in use through 1766; William Lithgow replaced Winslow as fort commander shortly after the fort opened. A truckhouse for trade with the Indians was established at the fort per Resolves 1760-61, c 281 (Jan. 26, 1761), with John Preble and then (by 1764) William Lithgow serving as truckmaster. The truckhouse appears to have ceased operation around 1768. –During the Revolution, the Massachusetts Board of War was directed to reestablish the truckhouse at Fort Halifax per Resolves 1779-1780 c 331 (Sept. 27, 1779), with Josiah Brewer as truckmaster, presumably to support the colony’s war ally, the Penobscot Indians.  Massachusetts also supported Juniper Berthiaume, a lay Franciscan recommended by the French consul, who lived with and instructed the Penobscots in 1780-1781. Berthiaume petitioned the General Court per Resolves 1781, Jan 1782 Sess, c 569 (Mar. 8, 1782), accusing Brewer of misconduct as truckmaster and with supplying the enemy. Resolves 1782, Sept Sess, c 63 (Nov. 6, 1782) closed the truckhouse at Fort Halifax, dismissed Brewer and an interpreter, and reinstated Berthiaume as instructor at the request of the Indians.
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Scope and Content: Richard Devens, a member of the Massachusetts Committee of Safety, was appointed commissary general by Resolves 1775-76, c 343 (Nov. 4, 1775).  The commissary general initially was occupied in the delivery of arms and provisions needed by the colonial/state war effort.  As war activity moved outside New England in the late 1770s, and following the end of the war, the office focused on supplying state forces, including provisioning the garrison established on Castle Island (Resolves 1785, Feb 1786 Sess, c 166 (Mar. 22, 1786)) and the troops fighting Shays’ Rebellion.  It also arranged for the building of lighthouses and helped administer a program of tax payments in kind instituted subsequent to the rebellion (St 1786, c 39) –The commissary was instructed by the Provincial Congress on Oct. 29, 1776 to manage the provisions procured by the Board of War (Resolves 1776-77, c 455). After the Board of War was dismantled in 1781, following passage of Resolves 1780, Jan 1781 Sess, c 62 (Feb. 8, 1781), its affairs were settled by Caleb Davis, as state agent, who was in turn succeeded in that function as of Jan. 1783  (Resolves 1782, Sept Sess, c 34 (Oct. 21, 1782)), by the Commissary General.  The state commissary was involved in keeping accounts, weighing provisions, making small bill payments, and in the employment of laborers, coopers, cooks, magazine keepers, cattle drivers, butchers, salters, and packers.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
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Scope and Content: Fortifications at Castle Island, Boston Harbor, used since the 1640s for military and penal purposes, were rebuilt after being burned by evacuating British forces in 1776, and then manned by various militia troops, at times under the command of Paul Revere.  A military garrison consisting of a company of men was established there in 1779; the island became the site of a prison facility for Massachusetts from 1785 to 1798.  Enabling legislation (St 1784, c 63 ((Mar. 4, 1785) provided that the convicts, sentenced to hard labor, would compensate the state for internment by money-making industry, including manufacture of nails.  Series documents sale of these nails in casks.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically in numbered batches
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Scope and Content: During the Revolutionary War, procurement and manufacture of gunpowder were crucial to supplying troops with adequate ammunition. One of the primary components of gunpowder, saltpeter, was in short supply when the war began, and special attention was paid to its manufacture and purchase by the government of Massachusetts. On the recommendation of the Continental Congress, the Massachusetts General Court authorized the creation of a committee on saltpeter (Resolves 1775-76, c 162, Aug. 24, 1775),  consisting of Dr. William Whiting, Deacon Samuel Baker, and Captain John Peck.  (Jedediah Phips was added per Resolves 1775-76, c 326, Nov. 2, 1775.)  They were instructed to identify and publicize methods of manufacture of saltpeter, to buy up all saltpeter available in the colony by Oct. 1776 at half a dollar a pound, and to deliver it to a Court-designated manufacturer.  Meantime the towns were to acquire and prepare raw materials for saltpeter manufacture as well. –Resolves 1775-76, c 319 (Nov. 1, 1775) authorized committee research on saltpeter manufacture in Connecticut, provided for the committee’s subsequent headquartering in Newburyport, and directed it to pay an additional bounty of four shillings a pound to saltpeter manufacturers of fifty pounds or more, vouched for by town selectmen, if delivered before June 1776.  Per Resolves 1775-76, c 470 (Dec. 28, 1775), all assembled saltpeter was to be delivered to Richard Devens, recently appointed commissary general.  Resolves 1775-76, c 625 (Feb. 9, 1776) appointed Dr. John Greenleaf to the committee and appropriated a sum to allow Phips to receive and purchase saltpeter at the Watertown state store twice monthly.  Devens was added to the committee per Resolves 1775-76, c 648 (Feb. 14, 1776); the next month Samuel Tufts replaced Greenleaf on the committee, to receive and purchase saltpeter at Newburyport at the rate of seven shillings a pound through May (Resolves 1775-76, c 737, Mar. 25, 1776), with Edmund Sawyer joining him there per Resolves 1775-76, c 838 (Apr. 16, 1776) –Resolves 1775-76, c 969 (May 3, 1776) set a new purchase rate of five shillings a pound to run from June until October, the original target date set the previous August.  Resolves 1776-77, c 15 (June 6, 1776) clarified procedures for qualifying for that rate, as well as for the four-shilling a pound bounty rate set in November. Resolves 1776-77, c 54 (June 15, 1776) effectively replaced the committee, empowering the commissary general, Zebediah Abbot (at Andover), and Thomas Crane (at Stoughton) to examine and purchase saltpeter.  Resolves 1776-77, c 74 (June 21, 1776) deputized Alexander Sheppard, Jr. to receive saltpeter at Watertown and Resolves 1776-77, c 336 (Sept. 17, 1776)  appointed Capt. James Sikes to do the same at Springfield, future site of the Continental Army’s laboratory ((M-Ar)2357X) –The price of saltpeter was lowered to four shillings a pound by Resolves 1776-77, c 529 (Nov. 16, 1776), and at some point after June 1, 1777, to three shillings.  That the drop in price was the result of a large inventory is suggested by Resolves 1777-78, c 176, 216 (July 5, Aug. 7, 1777), which provides for the delivery to a manufacturer of two tons of saltpeter.  The last references to saltpeter during the Revolution in Massachusetts are in Resolves 1778-79, c 99 (June 20, 1778), directing delivery by the Board of War of stores of saltpeter to Samuel Phillips of Andover, to be manufactured into gunpowder. –Additional references to appropriations by the General Court for purchase of saltpeter are found in Resolves 1775-76, c 1030, and Resolves 1776-77, c 14, 54, 371, 418, 432, 862, 1068.
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Scope and Content: HISTORICAL NOTE: The post-Revolutionary Massachusetts legislature endeavored to collect taxes levied to pay war debt and other state expenses, particularly burdening farmers in the western part of the state.  Angered by foreclosures and imprisonment imposed for tax delinquency and not receiving satisfaction for grievance petitions filed with the legislature, the protesting farmers rioted and closed courthouses under the leadership of Revolutionary veteran Daniel Shays.  The state militia was called out to suppress Shays’ Rebellion in Sept. 1786, in Jan. 1787 a state army was formed for the purpose, and by February the insurgents were defeated. –With the establishment of the state army, the commissary general’s office was responsible for furnishing provisions for the army, including food rations as well as other supplies such as wood, stationery, rum, and candles. These duties continued through March, when the commissary general was empowered by the General Court per Resolves 1786, Jan Sess, c 128 (Mar. 9, 1787), to contract with persons to supply rations to the troops, funds to be provided by the treasurer.  This resolve indicated the precise number and type (beef, pork, bread, vegetables, rum) of rations to be received on a daily basis.  Resolves 1786, Apr Sess, c 12 (April 30, 1787) and Resolves 1787, May Sess, c 26 (June 18, 1787) directed the paying of bills submitted by individuals or town selectmen for supplies furnished directly to the commissary general.
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Scope and Content: Richard Devens, a member of the Committee of Safety, was appointed commissary general by Nov. 1775 (Resolves 1775-76, c 343). A store building was built in Watertown in Feb. 1776 (Resolves 1775-76, c 679), where the state government was then located. In May 1776 the commissary’s office moved to Boston, and a store opened there, following the British evacuation of that city. The commissary general initially was occupied in the delivery of arms and provisions needed by the state for the war effort. As war activity moved outside New England in the late 1770s, and following the end of the war, the office focused on supplying state forces, including  provisioning the garrison established on Castle Island (Resolves 1785, Feb 1786 Sess, c 166)  and the troops fighting Shays’ Rebellion. It also arranged for the building of lighthouses and helped administer a program of tax payments in kind instituted subsequent to the rebellion (St 1786, c 39). Once the Board of War was disbanded in 1781, the military stores in the board’s possession were forwarded to the commissary general. The commissary office closed in June 1792 (Resolves 1792, May Sess, c 61).  Resolves 1793, May Sess, c 52 (June 22, 1793) provided the elderly Devens with one year’s compensation for his services in closing his office.
Arrangement: Arranged by commodity, thereunder chronologically
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Scope and Content: During the Revolutionary period, Massachusetts provided medical services to the military beginning in 1775, when the Committee of Safety voted in February that Dr. Joseph Warren and Dr. Benjamin Church form a committee to inventory military needs, and on Apr. 29 empowered Dr. Isaac Foster to remove sick and wounded soldiers to a Cambridge hospital.  On May 8, the Second Provincial Congress resolved that commanding officers recommend surgeons for their regiments to be approved by a committee of doctors. During the spring and summer of 1775, these surgeons, who dealt with minor illnesses, were stationed in Cambridge, Roxbury, and Prospect Hill, near the main army camps, working in conjunction with general hospitals in Cambridge, Roxbury, Metonomy, and Watertown.  After the bulk of the Continental Army moved out of Massachusetts in the spring of 1776, Craft’s artillery regiment on Castle Island and other troops used hospitals at Rainsford Island, West Boston, and Sewall’s Point in Brookline.
Arrangement: In two subseries: (1) Orders  (2) Log
Notes: Box 1: (1) Thomas Kittredge, Frye’s Regiment, June 4-Aug. 3, 1775  (2) Stephen Sevett, Phiney’s Regiment, July 18-Aug. 3, 1775 (chiefly Fort no. 2)  (3) Elisha Story, Little’s Regiment, July 17-Aug, 2, 1775 (some from Prospect Hill or College Hospital) (4) David Townsend, Brewer’s Regiment, July 4-Aug. 3, 1775 (from Prospect Hill and Cambridge, some by mate Harris Ellery Tudger)  (5) Isaac Rand, Cambridge (smallpox) Hospital, June 30-Aug. 2, 1775  (6) John Homan, Woodbridge’s Regiment, June 23-July 30, 1775  (7) Aaron Putnam, mate for Frye’s Regiment, June 26-July 29, 1775  (8) Isaac Foster, Cambridge and Metonomy hospitals, Apr. 30-July 29, 1775  (9) William Dunsmore, Whitcomb and Ward’s Regiment, June 7-Aug. 3, 1775 (includes Cambridge Hospital no. 2, Phipses House, Metonomy Hospital, College Hospital, Denes Hill)  (10) Edward Flint, Ward’s Regiment, June 20-July 26, 1776, chiefly Cambridge Hospital no. 2. Box 2: Joseph Gardner, Craft’s Regiment, Apr. 1777-May 1781 (bulk 1778-1780) (Boston and Rainsford Island Hospital, some by J. Whipple or E. Willard)
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Scope and Content: Richard Devens, a member of the Committee of Safety, was appointed commissary general by Nov. 1775 (Resolves 1775-76, c 343).  The commissary general was occupied in the delivery of arms and provisions needed by the state for the war effort. A store building was built in Watertown in Feb. 1776 (Resolves 1775-76, c 679), where the state government was then located. In May 1776 the commissary office was moved to Boston and a store established there, following the British evacuation of that city.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
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Scope and Content: During the Revolutionary War, the Continental Congress (Journals, Oct. 7, 1776) resolved that a commissary of prisoners of war be appointed in each state. The Massachusetts General Court elected Robert Pierpont commissary (exact terminology varies) (House Journal, Jan. 24, 1777).  He was replaced when the General Court elected Joseph Henderson commissary (House Journal, Feb. 10, 1778). Pierpont was paid for his services per Resolves 1777-78, c 1038, Apr. 28 1778.  Series consists of an outgoing letterbook kept by Commissary of Prisoners of War Robert Pierpont, Jan. 31, 1777-Feb. 21, 1778.
Notes: Originals loaned to Archives for photostatting sometime before 1985
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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.
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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