Scope and Content: Pursuant to St 1837, c 84, the state treasurer was authorized to issue scrip or certificates of debt to aid in the construction of the Norwich and Worcester Railroad.  Coupon certificates, issued in 1837 and valued at 1000 dollars , were due in 1857 with interest paid at five percent per annum.
Arrangement: Arranged numerically
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Scope and Content: Pursuant to St 1851, c 251, the state treasurer was authorized to issue scrip or certificates of debt to meet expenses incurred during the construction, in Taunton, of the second state lunatic hospital.  Additionally, the treasurer issued scrip pursuant to St 1853, c 195 for completion and the furnishing of the hospital.  Coupon certificates, issued in 1851 and 1853 and valued at 1000 dollars, were due in 1865 with interest paid at five percent per annum.
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Scope and Content: Pursuant to St 1856, c 235, the state treasurer was authorized to issue scrip or certificates of debt to fund the payment of the unfunded debt and to be applied to the deficiency in the income of 1856.  Coupon certificates, issued in 1856 and valued at 1000 dollars, were due in 1864 with interest paid at six percent per annum.
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Scope and Content: Over the centuries, the land of the various Massachusetts Indians was sold off for their support, often under the supervision of state-appointed guardians. In 1681 the Nipmucs sold a combined total of 1,000 square miles to William Stoughton and Joseph Dudley acting on behalf of the Massachusetts Bay colony, reserving five square miles along the Massachusetts/Connecticut border for themselves (Mass Recs 5: 365-7). This land was reduced to 8,000 acres in 1707, and an Apr. 9, 1724 indenture by William Dudley leased to the Indian natives one square mile.  St 1731-32, c 17 (Feb. 3, 1732) incorporated the town of Dudley, including this area, with the local Nipmucs becoming known as Dudley Indians. –Resolves 1762-63, c 184 (Jan. 29, 1763) allowed the heirs of William Dudley to sell the land he had leased to the Indians, leaving them with 200 acres on the east side of Dudley, as long as they continued to improve it. In exchange, Dudley’s heirs were to pay the Dudley Indian guardians for debts incurred for their care, as well as an annual sum for supporting the Indians. –Per Resolves 1797, c 21 (June 17), the General Court allowed the sale of Indian land in Dudley by the Dudley guardians to Levi Davis, who in turn was to reimburse the guardians for their expenses in supplying the Indians, to provide a payment interest from which was to be used to benefit the Indians, and to convey a deed to the Commonwealth for a 26-acre plot for the use and benefit of the Indians. In 1832 this part of Dudley became part of the new town of Webster. –The guardianship system ended when St 1869, c 463 extended Massachusetts citizenship to all Indians remaining under guardians. Probate judge-appointed commissioners disposed of remaining common lands, and the indigent were placed under the care of the Board of State Charities. The general agent of the Board of State Charities was directed to take charge of the Commonwealth-owned Webster land, which was sold. –St 1889, c 443 allowed commissioners to sue on behalf of the Dudley Indians to receive shares of money from the sale of reservation land by the state and trust fund money on deposit. Resolves 1890, c 69 authorized the paying out to the commissioners of
Notes: From 1870 the state treasurer’s  office was the official repository of deeds for Commonwealth real property. Extracted from: Massachusetts. Treasury Dept. Deeds for lands owned by the Commonwealth, 1817-1975 ((M-Ar)2468)
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Scope and Content: During the period of the  Province of the Massachusetts Bay (1692-1774), a structure erected in 1679 on Marlborough (now Washington) Street in Boston, Massachusetts, was known as the Province House and used as a gubernatorial residence; after the Revolutionary War it served as office and residence for the treasurer and other state officials.  Resolves 1794, Jan 1795 Sess, c 66 (Feb. 16) provided for the building of a new state house and the sale of the Province House.  Such sale was made by agents Edward Robbins and Thomas Dawes to John Peck, Jan. 29, 1796. Peck mortgaged it with the Commonwealth, Feb. 2, 1796, and deeded it to Thomas Cushing, Apr. 6, 1797; it was in turn deeded to Daniel Wild, July 12, 1798. –Peck defaulted on his mortgage, and after various resolves passed to address the default (Resolves 1798, c 24 (June 20), Resolves 1798, c 87 (Jan. 24, 1799), and Resolves 1798, c 93 (Jan. 29, 1799)), Peck and Wild returned the property to the Commonwealth on Apr. 6, 1799, in return for Peck’s down payment and a token payment to Wild. The Province House continued to be occupied by the treasurer, until leased July 1, 1806 to Joseph Bradley for a boarding house, per Resolves 1806, May Sess, c 31 (June 23). At the incorporation of the Massachusetts General Hospital per St 1810, c 94 (Feb. 25, 1811), the Commonwealth granted the Province House and its land to that institution in exchange for free care of indigent state patients at the hospital.
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Restrictions: Some restrictions apply to this series. Staff member must be present at use
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Scope and Content: The Troy and Greenfield Railroad Company was incorporated by St 1848, c 307 to build a railroad eastward from the termination of the Vermont and Massachusetts Railroad near Troy, New York to unite with the Connecticut River Railroad near Greenfield, Massachusetts.  Establishing this line required tunneling through the Hoosac Mountain.  The project was to have been completed in seven years, but the company was placed into receivership by St 1854, c 226.  Commissioners of a sinking fund, including the state treasurer and auditor and the treasurer of the company, were appointed for the investment, care, and management of the company’s monies.  A six-year extension was granted for completing the railroad but because of setbacks in construction of the tunnel, the project was not finished until 1876.  The property, known as the Troy and Greenfield Railroad and Hoosac Tunnel (St 1862, c 156), was consolidated with that of the Fitchburg Railroad Company (St 1887, c 52), although the Troy and Greenfield Railroad Company itself continued in existence to 1890.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
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Scope and Content: In an effort to ease the financial distress in which it found itself immediately after the Revolutionary War, Massachusetts, through the work of various committees sold public land in the District of Maine through the Committee for the Sale of Eastern Lands, the land agents from 1801, and through the Land Office from 1816. Such lands were often purchased with promissory notes. Land speculators sometimes defaulted and notes were then not fulfilled. The General Court passed numerous resolves over the years in an attempt to collect the amounts owed, or to have the lands revert back to the Commonwealth, or to allow more time for certain purchasers to meet their obligations. –With the creation of Maine as a separate state in 1820, the Massachusetts Commissioners Appointed under Act of Separation (until 1828) attempted to collect on unpaid purchases. Later,  the Land Office (usually personalized as the land agent) handled such claims.  Resolves 1847, c 40 directed the land agent to sell lands where notes due on them remained unpaid. St 1850, c 307 designated the state secretary, treasurer, and auditor as   commissioners to approve such sales.  Resolves 1859, c 52 empowered the land agent to resell lands forfeited for unpaid notes within seventeen months after passage of the resolve (i.e., Sept. 1860), and to execute and deliver deeds for such lands. St 1861, c 85 abolished the Land Office.
Notes: Papers were filed with the state treasurer as the primary fiscal agent for the Commonwealth. Extracted from: Massachusetts. Treasury Dept. Deeds for lands owned by the Commonwealth, 1817-1975 ((M-Ar)2468)
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Scope and Content: The Province of the Massachusetts Bay levied excise taxes during the 1750s that were contracted or farmed out by committees appointed by the legislature.  Those to whom the excises were contracted were required to post bond with the provincial treasurer for double the amount to be collected.
Arrangement: Arranged by tax, thereunder chronologically
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