Collection search - Lieutenant Governors: Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Vancouver Island and British Columbia [textual record]
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Finding aid (Other) David W. Parker's Guide to the Materials for United States History in Canadian Archives (Washington, 1913) and Guide to the Documents in the Manuscript Room at the Public Archives of Canada (Ottawa, 1914) provide volume-by-volume analysis of the original G Series. Finding Aid 690 provides conversion tables to correlate the G Series references given in Parker's guides with the modern RG 7 references. 690The arrangement within the series is predominantly chronological, with some classification by subject or province. Entrybooks customarily were prefaced with a table of contents or schedule listing the despatch number and date, the addressee, the subject and details respecting enclosures. At various times, a separate register or index of despatches received or sent was compiled, but practices varied substantially over time and from province to province.The shelf lists in the Guide for RG 7 identify both the volume contents by date and title, and the reel numbers for the microfilm. -
Record information 
Lieutenant Governors: Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Vancouver Island and British Columbia [textual record]
Date:1769-1873Reference:R17903-0-5-E, RG7-G8A,G8B,G8C,G8DType of material:Textual materialFound in:Archives / Collections and FondsItem ID number:105398Date(s):1769-1873Place of creation:No place, unknown, or undeterminedExtent:9.850 meter(s)Language of material:EnglishScope and content:Despatches received from the Colonial Office and copies of despatches sent were filed and preserved in each Lieutenant Governor's office, although customs in recording and filing varied from province to province, and over time. The surviving records exhibit many similarities: chronological sequences, the use of entrybooks and the preparation of schedules or registers to provide ready access. Despatches exchanged with fellow governors and with the British Minister at Washington were generally preserved with the Colonial Office despatches. While many of the surviving series of records from the Lieutenant Governors' offices are incomplete, the practice of recording the text of outgoing despatches in entrybooks, and of providing reference copies for interested parties, has created certain overlaps between the records preserved by the governors and by the Colonial Office. Taken together, the various series provide a comprehensive record. Correspondence in the governors' name, carried out by the Private or Civil and Military Secretaries, does not figure in the records described below, but must be sought in provincial archives.Provenance:Biography/Administrative history:Lieutenant Governors : The administration of Nova Scotia was led by a Governor from 1749 to 1786, when the rank was altered to Lieutenant Governor. New Brunswick and Cape Breton were made separate jurisdictions in 1784, under a Lieutenant Governor; Cape Breton was reunited to Nova Scotia in 1820. Administered by a Governor from 1770 to 1787 and thereafter by a Lieutenant Governor, the Island of St. John was renamed Prince Edward Island in 1799. From 1786 until Confederation, the Governor-in-Chief of Quebec or Lower Canada held a Commission as Governor-in-Chief for each of these provinces in British North America. While the Royal Instructions were addressed to the Governor-in-Chief, they were carried out by the respective Lieutenant Governors.
The first Governor of Vancouver Island was appointed in 1849 and took up his duties in 1850. The colony of British Columbia was jurisdictionally separate but shared Sir James Douglas as Governor from its inception in 1858 until 1864. The island and mainland colonies were united on 19 November 1866 and as British Columbia joined Confederation in 1871.Additional information:Availability of other formats note:With the exception of certain duplicates (series G 8B, volumes 60-61), all of these series have been microfilmed. The reel numbers are identified in the shelf lists (see above) that serve as finding aids to these series.Reproduction note:Microfilming of Series G 8B (except volumes 60-61) was accomplished in 1952 and 1980. Seriers G 8A and G 8C were microfilmed in 1980, and series G 8D in 1981.Subject heading:Source:PrivateFormer archival reference no.:RG7-G8A,G8B,G8C,G8D -
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