Collection search - Civil Secretary to the Governor at Quebec [textual record]

Record information – Brief
1
Civil Secretary to the Governor at Quebec [textual record]

Hierarchical level:

Sub-series

Date:

1790-1841.

Reference:

R178-92-3-E, RG7-G-15-C, RG7-G-15-D

Type of material:

Textual material

Found in:

Archives / Collections and Fonds

Item ID number:

105400

Context of this record:

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Office of the Governor General of Canada fonds

Office of the Governor of Quebec and Lower Canada

Civil Secretary to the Governor at Quebec
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Record information – Details

Sub-series includes:

2 lower level description(s)
View lower level description(s)

Date(s):

1790-1841.

Place of creation:

Canada

Extent:

1.37 m of textual records

Language of material:

English

Scope and content:

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Sub-series consists of records of the Civil Secretary to the Governor at Quebec divided into two sub-sub-series comprised of letter books and letters to Crown law officers.

Additional name(s):

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Quebec, Lower Canada, Upper Canada, Canada. Civil Secretary to the Governor

Biography/Administrative history:

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Quebec, Lower Canada, Upper Canada, Canada. Civil Secretary to the Governor : While a governor communicated with colleagues in other jurisdictions and with senior officials in his own name, letters and petitions from individuals (even when addressed to the governor) were responded to by the Secretaries on his behalf. By convention, despatches from colleagues were filed separately from general correspondence, and the replies were recorded in separate entry books. Matters relating to the civil administration of the province were handled by the Civil Secretary and those relating to military affairs by the Military Secretary. The superintendence of Indian affairs was at various times classed as a matter of civil or military administration; the appropriate Secretary to the governor preserved the correspondence and letter books in separate series.

Distinctions between the responsibilities of various offices are often not readily apparent. While the Private Secretary was on the personal staff of the Governor and the Civil Secretary was part of the permanent staff of the province, on occasion one individual held both offices. Continuity of operations was provided by the Civil and Military Secretaries remaining in office while Governor succeeded Governor. Of much greater import for record-keeping at this period was the imprecise demarcation of responsibilities between the Civil Secretary and the Provincial Secretary. A further layer of confusion was added when through plurality of office-holding a Secretary took responsibility for widely varying functions but did not maintain separate record series for each (see RG 4, A 1 and RG 5, A 1).

The practice of preparing duplicate entry books, such that a governor might retain one set for future personal reference, extended to the Secretaries' letter books. Examples of these private copies are found in the Robert Prescott fonds (R6918-0-9-E) and the Peter Hunter collection (R2456-0-1-E). Where the official record has not survived, these private volumes take on new significance.

Finding aid:

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Customarily an index, table of contents or "schedule" was compiled at the beginning or end of each entrybook. Some volumes contain both an index and a schedule. The arrangement within each volume is predominantly chronological, with some classification by subject. The shelf lists in the Guide for RG 7 identify both the volume contents by date and the reel numbers for the microfilm.

The index to a letterbook can facilitate access to records outside the series in which it is located and to which it immediately relates. Incoming correspondence can be traced and identified through the dates and other clues provided in the replies.

Additional information:

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General note:

Custodial and reference questions related to these records should be directed to the Canadian Archives Branch (CAB).

Availability of other formats note:

The records in this sub-series are available on microfilm reels C-922 to C-926. For lists correlating volume numbers with microfilm reel numbers, see the finding aids cited in the descriptive entries for the appropriate sub-sub-series.

Reproduction note:

Microfilming of series G 15C and G 15D was completed in 1952. Series G 16C was microfilmed in 1977 and series G 18 in 1981. The correspondence files of series G 20 were microfilmed in 1983; the indexes and registers for them were microfilmed in 1991.

Accruals:

No further accruals are expected.

Source:

Government

Former archival reference no.:

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RG7-G-15-C
RG7-G-15-D
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Conditions of access:

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Textual records

[Consultation90 Open]

Terms of use:

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Copyright belongs to the Government of Canada.
In order to protect the fragile originals, records in this sub-series have been microfilmed and the originals withdrawn from circulation. The microfilm must be used for consultation and copying rather than the originals.

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