Scope and Content: The Governor’s Legal Office advises the governor on all matters of legal concern.  In fulfilling this function it participates in the drafting of executive orders, administrative or policy statements issued by the governor as chief executive of the Commonwealth.  Executive order working files are created to assist in such drafting.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically by term, thereunder by order number
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Scope and Content: The Council (under the governor except 1775-1780) functioned as the executive counterpart of the upper house of the General Court under the colonial charter, 1629-1686; as the executive (sole) government, 1686-1689; and both as upper house of the General Court and executive body under the revival of colonial government, 1689-1692, under the provincial charter, 1692-1774, and in the later Revolutionary period, 1775-1780.  (There was a rival Council appointed by the English Crown under Gov. Thomas Gage, 1774-1776.)  Under the 1780 Constitution it is an advisory executive body to the governor separate from the General Court.  Executive records (formerly known as: Council records) document the Council’s executive function during the colonial (1650-1656, and stray entries, 1660-1661 only), intercharter (1686-1687 only), provincial, and Revolutionary periods; and under the 1780 Constitution, which mandates a signed register of council actions (Const Pt 2, C 2, S 3, Art 5)
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically by date of meeting
Notes: Records in general are transcripts: v. 2-11 (1686-1747) from the British State Paper Office, 1846-1851.  From 1689 (not in this series) to 1776, many draft originals are in: Massachusetts. Office of the Secretary of State. Massachusetts archives collection ((M-Ar)45X), v. 81-86. (For details and listing of additional Massachusetts archives collection holdings, 1650-1774, see finding aid below.)  From 1776 source document (but with less complete text at least in earlier years) is: Massachusetts Council. Minutes ((M-Ar)329) (see that series for detailed description of contents).  From 1780 records are signed by councilors. Vol. 1-94 (1650-1881) bound as numbered (v. 74 in 2); thereafter bound annually only.  Spine title: Council records
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Scope and Content: Massachusetts has administered water works and sewage disposal for the Boston metropolitan area successively through the Board of Metropolitan Sewerage Commissioners (Metropolitan Sewerage Commission) (1889-1901) and the Metropolitan Water Board (1895-1901); the Metropolitan Water and Sewerage Board (1901-1919); and the Water and Sewerage Divisions of the Metropolitan District Commission (1919-1985).  Since 1985, the sewerage works functions have been assigned to the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority (MWRA), and the water works functions have been shared by the MWRA (distribution) and the Metropolitan District Commission (to 2003) and the Dept.  of Conservation and Recreation (since 2003) (water supply reservoirs and their watershed management).
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically in two sequences
Notes: Transferred to Archives from Metropolitan District Commission
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Scope and Content: In 1885 the Topographical Survey Commission was directed to conduct a survey of town boundary lines.  Funds were appropriated by Resolves 1892, c 11, Resolves 1894, c 18, and Resolves 1895, c 41.  This journal shows how appropriated funds were expended for salaries, field supplies, and other items.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
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Scope and Content: The sergeant-at-arms and from 1919 the superintendent of buildings were successively responsible for repairs, improvements, supplies, and (to 1919 with approval of requisitions by the State House Commission) for procurement of furniture and fixtures for the State House and other state office buildings.  Ledgers were created to manage procurement of such services and furnishings.
Arrangement: Chronologically by year span: volume 1, 1909-1913; volume 2, 1914-1916; volume 3, 1917-1919; volume 4, 1920; thereunder by state agency account (volume 1 also by supplier), and then chronologically
Notes: Volume 2 has 1914 listing of expenditures by agency laid in
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Scope and Content: The State Reform School for Girls was established in 1855 and opened in 1856 at Lancaster as the State Industrial School for Girls.  From 1911 until its closing in 1972 it was known as the Industrial School for Girls.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically
Notes: Deposited in the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe College, May 4, 1976.  Transferred to Archives, No volumes 11, 1982
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Scope and Content: The Middlesex County Truant School (renamed Middlesex County Training School in 1908) was authorized in 1892 and opened in 1894 for the commitment of boys in that county and from Chelsea, Revere, and Winthrop between the ages of seven and sixteen adjudged habitual truants, absentees, or school offenders.  The school was closed in 1973.  Ledger shows expenditures of the school.
Arrangement: Arranged chronologically by month
Notes: Transferred to Archives from Middlesex County Commissioners, January 22, 1998
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Scope and Content: Middlesex County was incorporated on May 10, 1643 (Mass Recs 2:38), continuing under successive governments of Massachusetts, most recently the Commonwealth (1780), as outlined in MGLA c 34.  Administrative powers and duties previously exercised at various times under the laws of the Commonwealth by the county courts of general sessions of the peace, county courts of common pleas, and circuit courts of common pleas, were assigned to commissioners in Middlesex and other counties, per St 1827, c 77 (1828).  The government of Middlesex County in this and other respects was abolished as of the effective date of St 1997, c 48 (approved July 11, 1997)
Arrangement: In two subseries: (1) Record books, 1831-1929  (2) Item books: Dockets/Orders, 1851-1997; Contracts, 1922-1997; arranged within each subseries chronologically
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Scope and Content: The Massachusetts Agricultural College was established in Amherst through a board of trustees mandated by St 1863, c 220, to promote branches of learning relating to agriculture and the mechanic arts, for the benefit of the industrial classes so-called.  The college admitted its first students in 1867.  Reflecting its increasingly inclusive liberal arts curriculum over the next seven decades, the institution was reorganized and renamed the Massachusetts State College in 1931 (eventually becoming the University of Massachusetts in 1947).
Notes: Transferred to Archives, Feb. 1996, from State Library of Massachusetts, Special Collections
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Scope and Content: The Comptroller’s Bureau, established in 1922 within the Commission on Administration and Finance, was replaced in 1963 by the Comptroller’s Division within the Executive Office for Administration and Finance, and in 1986 by the Office of the Comptroller.
Arrangement: In two subseries: (1) Extraordinary expenses, FY1949-1983 (2) Executive expenses, FY1949-1974
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