Colonial Office 714 consists of chronological and alphabetical indexes to the various "colony" classes of correspondence from 1815 to 1870. This class does not comprise contemporary indexes of the sort represented by CO 335 and CO 362, but rather indexes which were compiled by the Colonial Office Librarian, George Mayer (1817-1859). The library appears to have discontinued work of this sort early in the 1870s after the process of large-scale transfers of material to the Public Record Office had begun. Acquired are microfilm copies of 26 volumes of the class, reels B-1279, B-1656, B-1661 to B-1667.
CO 714 is arranged by colony. Correspondence is arranged chronologically by date of the correspondence. The name of the governor for each colony appears at the top of every page until about 1864 when it was replaced by a title such as "Schedule of Despatches Transmitted by the Governor General of Canada to the Secretary of State for the Colonies from Quebec on the 25th day of April 1864", etc. Three columns were used to provide relevant information: Date (the date on which the correspondence was written), No. &/or Security Classification (number referring to the despatch number where applicable), and Description (brief note on the contents of the correspondence). After 1864, an additional column, "Number of Enclosures" was utilized.
An alphabetical index, generally the last volume of each colony class series, provides a subject and nominal index to the previous chronological indexes. The first part of this volume contains an internal alphabetical index to the subject and the nominal indexes which follow. For a breakdown of PRO Class Number, i.e., CO 714, and volume number; PRO Index Room Number; Colony; Years and Contents, consult the published General Inventory of Manuscript Group 11.
CO 714 may be used as a limited finding aid to correspondence relating to the colonies from 1815 to 1870. The correspondence is listed in chronological order of writing. Where possible, the indexes should be used in conjunction with the contemporary registers to provide optimum utility and to avoid confusion which might arise from the fact that the correspondence was filed, as it was entered in the registers, according to the date of receipt by the Colonial Office.
