State and known as New Jersey Archives, but entitled Documents relating to the Colonial History of the State of New Jersey, the last volume published at the time of writing (Sept., 1886) is the tenth, which covers the administration of Gov. William Franklin, 1767-1776. A general index to the series was published in 1888.2 In 1752 the Provincial legislature published the original Grants and Concessions of the proprietors to the first settlers, and the Acts of the Legislature of East and West Jersey till 1703. This collection is sometimes cited as Leaming and Spicer, from the names of its compilers, and it has been recently reprinted. There is in the Sparks MSS. a small collection of copies from the public offices of New Jersey, made in 1826.3 The Board of Proprietors of East Jersey have at their office at Perth Amboy very full records of surveys and warrants for the sale of lands from 1683 to date; and scattered through their minutes and other records is much relating to the government of the colony prior to its surrender in 1702 to the crown. A like class of records is to be found in the office at Burlington of the Board of Proprietors of West Jersey. Much of local history is to be found in both offices down to the Revolution. Many papers relating to these Boards are to be found in the collections of the New Jersey Historical Society (papers of Ferdinand John Paris, and the Rutherfurd, Whitehead, and other manuscripts), of the Pennsylvania and New York historical societies, and in the State Library at Albany, and in private hands. In the office of the Secretary of State at Trenton are the original records of deeds and wills formerly kept at Perth Amboy and Burlington, for East and West Jersey, respectively, down to the present century, and the original wills to date. In these records are also entered, somewhat promiscuously, charters for public and private corporations, commissions of military and civil officers, and other documents.+ Copies of the official correspondence of the royal governors of New Jersey (1765-1774) with the neighboring colonies and with the home government are among the Sparks MSS. (xliii., vols. ii. and iv.), and in no. xi. are various public papers of date previous to 1775. The letter-books of Gov. Belcher are in the Mass. Hist. Society.5 The legislative acts of the Revolutionary period were printed at Burlington in 1776 and at Trenton in 1784,6 and were reprinted in 1835 at Woodbury. The present adjutant-general of the State, William S. Stryker, who has devoted much time to the elucida tion of the Revolutionary annals of New Jersey, published at Trenton in 1872 an Official Register of the offi cers and men of New Jersey in the Revolutionary War, which was prepared, as Gen. Stryker says, "without the aid of any valuable documents preserved by the State." The State has printed the Journal of the Governor and Council, 1682-1703 (now reprinting with great care from the original manuscript by the N. J. Hist. Soc. as vol. xi. of the N. J. Archives), the Journal of the House of Representatives, 1703, and the Minutes of the New Jersey Council of Safety for 1777; and in 1879 it published the Minutes of the Provincial Congress and the Council of Safety for 1775 and 1776. This last volume begins with certain preliminary records, the first being extracts from the minutes of the Assembly, Feb. 8, 1774, which is followed by sundry county resolutions, the correspondence of the committees of Boston and New Jersey, the records of the Council and Assembly, and various other papers (pp. 1-168). The records of 1775-76 cover the doings of the Provincial Congress, the Council of Safety, the Assembly, the Convention of 1776, and gives the ordinances passed.? In 1877 the State also printed an Index to the Laws, 1663-1877. There is also a compilation of the Revolutionary correspondence of the executive of New Jersey, published by the N. J. Hist. Soc. in 1844, which is now out of print. The papers of Gov. William Livingston were in the possession of Theodore Sedgwick, Jr., when Sparks, in 1832, made the copies now in the Sparks MSS. (lii., vol. iii.) These copies cover 1776-1777. The originals, contained in ten volumes, are now in the library of S. L. M. Barlow of New York. The Pettit papers are in the library of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, and Sparks made some copies which are now in the Sparks MSS. (no. lii., vol. ii.) 9 The New Jersey Historical Society has the Paris, Robert Hunter Morris, Rutherfurd, and Whitehead manuscripts relating to the proprietors of East Jersey, and incidentally to the early history of the whole colony and province. It has also many of the papers of John Fenwick of West Jersey, the manuscripts of Samuel Smith (forming the body of Proud's Hist. of Pennsylvania) touching the history of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and the Quakers. The Society has many minor collections of early papers, as well as orderly-books, journals, and other material relating to the Revolution. There are also in the Society's keeping the original manuscript of 8 When, in Feb., 1779, Liberty Hall, the seat of Governor Livingston, was ransacked by a party of British for papers, the adroit representations of a young lady in the house guided the plunderers away from the public papers for which they were in search. Cf. "Gov. William Livingston and Liberty Hall" in Mag. Amer. Hist., May, 1889, p. 375. 9 Charles Pettit was secretary of New Jersey. For a note on the family, see N. Jersey Archives, x. 133. the Journal of the Governor and Council, 1682–1703, and certified copies from England of the Journal from 1708 to 1776. The years 1703-8 are missing. In the State Library at Trenton are several volumes of Revolutionary manuscripts, including letters, claims for property destroyed, etc. Among private collections of manuscripts, that of General Stryker is particularly rich in Revolutionary material. Garret D. W. Vroom of Trenton has much of a general character, particularly political and personal. Judge John Clement of Haddonfield has gathered a great deal pertaining to West Jersey history. William Nelson of Paterson has several hundred documents in his collection of early papers. PENNSYLVANIA. The series of published documents known as the Colonial Records has been described elsewhere. The period of the Revolution is covered by vols. ix. to xiii., including the minutes of the Coun. cil of Safety. In the supplemental series of the Pennsylvania Archives (second series) we find in vol. i. the minutes of the Board of War; in vol. iii., papers of the war (1777-81), including officers of the State under the Constitution of 1776, the names of such as took the oath of allegiance; 2 and other records in the first series, vols. iv. to ix. In vol. x. we have the rosters of the Pennsylvania troops, 1775-1783, interspersed with the portraits and autographs of their distinguished officers; other military details 3 in vol. xi., including an account of Pennsylvanians in Col. Hazen's regiment "Congress' Own," 1776-1783; the corps of Count von Ollendorf, 1776-1780; the German regiments of the Continental line, July 12, 1776, to Jan. 1, 1781; with the independent companies raised in the Wyoming Valley and attached to the Connecticut line, and still other details in vols. xii., xiii., and xiv.4 The MS. originals of the Col. Records are preserved in the State archives; those of the series called Penna. Archives are scattered. In the Sparks MSS. (no. 1.) there is a volume of letters and papers copied from the originals in the office of the Secretary of State in 1826. The Pennsylvania Register of Samuel Hazard is a convenient gathering for the student.5 Papers relating to the forfeited estates of loyalists belonging to the State, have never been printed. There are in the Sparks MSS. (xliii., vol. iii.) copies of the official correspondence of the authorities of Pennsylvania with the home government (1763-1776). There are also in the Sparks MSS. (vol. 104) in Harvard College library various papers on the colony of New Sweden, copied from the Stockholm Archives, including a copy, made by I. F. Bahr in 1835, of Lindström's map of the siege of Fort Christine in 1655, and a copy, also by Bahr, of the same date, of Lindström's map of the Delaware, 1654-1655, "Calquée sur cette qui se trouve chez Campanius." The local aspects of the Revolution are to be studied in the histories of Philadelphia, in the histories of towns as enumerated in part elsewhere; 6 and particularly, for the period of the war, U. J. Jones's Early Settlement of the Juniata Valley (Phil., 1856); and Lewis H. Garrard's Chambersburg in the Colony of the Revolution (Phil., 1856), and in some of the County histories like those by Dr. W. H. Egle of Dauphin and Lebanon counties. A few of the papers of Elias Boudinot are in the library of the Pennsylvania Historical Society. The letter-books of Gen. Brodhead (1779-80) are in the State archives; and they have been mostly printed in the publications of the State. The manuscripts of Thomas Bradford, commissary of prisoners, are in the same library, as are those of Col. Wm. Bradford, a part of which have been obtained since Wallace prepared his life of Bradford. The letter-books and correspondence of Major Isaac Craig of the Revolutionary army are owned by his grandson, Mr. Isaac Craig of Alleghany City. There is in the Philadelphia Library a collection in five volumes of the letters of William Dillwyn, addressed to his daughter, Susanna Emlen, which are of great importance in the study of the social life of the period from 1770 to 1824.7 The papers of John Fitch, 1784-1794, are in the Library of Congress, and his MS. autobiography belongs to the Library Company of Philadelphia. There are copies from the letters of Persifer Frazer in the Sparks MSS., no. xxi.; they are addressed to his wife, and concern events of 1776-1778 in New York and New Jersey. A letter-book of General Edward Hand from Fort Pitt, Oct. 10, 1777, to April 11, 1778, is in the Museum at Deerfield, Mass.8 It pertains to Indian affairs on the borders of Virginia and Pennsylvania. Two large etc., and many of these are preserved in the library of the Philad. Library Bulletin, July, 1884, p. 37. 8 There is a likeness of Hand in The Campaign of 1776 in Canada, p. 114. An original likeness belongs to the Hist. Soc. of Penna. volumes of Hand papers are in the possession of his descendants at Lancaster, Pa.; and these or others have been of late for sale by a dealer in New York. The papers of Capt. Thomas Hutchins are in the library of the Penna. Hist. Soc. They embrace various maps of his making, including one of Fort Pitt and vicinity. The letters of Gen. James Irvine, of the Pennsylvania militia, while a prisoner on Long Island, are in the Pennsylvania Hist. Society's library. The papers of General William Irvine are contained in 11 volumes. They were in the possession of Dr. William A. Irvine of Warren, Pa., when Sparks secured copies of some of them for the Sparks MSS. (no. liv.), in 1847, and remained in his hands till his death, Sept. 7, 1886, after which they passed into the library of the Pennsylvania Historical Society. They include also orderly-books of Generals McIntosh and Broadhead, kept at Fort McIntosh (Beaver, Pa.) and Fort Pitt, 1778-79; and one of General Irvine, kept at Fort Pitt, 1781-83. C. W. Butterfield used a portion of them in The Washington-Irvine Correspondence: The official letters which passed between Washington and Brig. Gen. William Irvine, etc., 1781–1783 (Madison, Wisc., 1882); and others were published under the editing of Mr. F. D. Stone, in the Penna. Mag. of Hist., v. 259. The Logan Papers belong to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.1 Papers supposed to be those of Dr. Mease (1776-1783) are in the library of the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, and copies of some of them are in the Sparks MSS. (lii. vol. ii.) Among the diaries which have been preserved illustrating life in Pennsylvania during the Revolutionary period are those of Christopher Marshall 2 and Mrs. Margaret Morris.3 The Penn papers are in the library of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. The letter-books of Richard Peters are in the library of the Pennsylvania Historical Society. In the library of the Pennsylvania Historical Society are the papers of Dr. Jonathan Potts, the deputy director-general of the medical staff of the Northern army, 1775-1780. The papers of Joseph Reed came from the hands of his grandson, William B. Reed, into the keeping of the New York Historical Society, except a series of letters, written by Washington to Reed during the former's stay at Cambridge in 1775-1776, which are at present in the Carter-Brown library at Providence. The papers of Benjamin Rush are in the keeping of the Philadelphia Library, and cover the interval 17691869. Of the fifty-two volumes and bundles in which they are arranged, one is distinctively devoted to the Revolution; another contains the letters of David Ramsay (1776-1813). The miscellaneous letters addressed to Rush take twenty-six of the volumes, and there is one of Rush's letter-books.5 The papers of Arthur St. Clair were found in 1869, in a bad condition, in the possession of the heirs of Col. Robert Graham, in Kansas, and were bought in 1870 by the State of Ohio, arranged, and placed in the State Library. When it was found that the care of the state librarian was not sufficient to prevent the papers being carried off piecemeal by autograph-hunters, the State confirmed an arrangement with Robert Clarke & Co. of Cincinnati for publishing them, and entrusted the preparation of the volumes to William Henry Smith. This editor endeavored, as far as he could, to perfect the rough drafts of St. Clair's letter-books by the letters actually sent, in cases where they could be traced. The Shippen papers are in the Pennsylvania Historical Society's library. They have been increased from time to time, until they now make ten large volumes. Some part of them were printed by Thomas Balch in 1855; but in the main they refer to ante-Revolutionary times. A portion of the family papers are still in the possession of Mr. Edward Shippen of Philadelphia.7 The papers of Charles Thomson were in part copied for William B. Reed, and from his copies a series of them was printed in the N. Y. Hist. Society's Collections for 1878. This includes Thomson's minutes of debates in Congress, July 22 to Sept. 20, 1782.8 It also embraces papers which show the state of affairs in Pennsylvania in 1774-1775, with a narrative by Joseph Reed (p. 269) touching John Dickinson's conduct, with Thomson's counter-statement 9 (p. 274). The earliest of these Thomson papers is of 1765, and the collection is thought "to include the most considerable part" of all his manuscripts. One of his letter-books belongs to the Hist. Soc. of Penna. 1 Cf. ante, V. 242. 2 Diary of Christopher Marshall, kept in Philadelphia and Lancaster, Penna., during the American Revolu tion, 1774-1781, first entire edition, ed. by William Duane (Albany, 1877). The original is in the Hist. Soc. of Penna. library. 3 Private Journal kept during a portion of the Revolutionary War for the amusement of a sister. Ed. by John J. Smith (privately printed, Philad., 1836; and again, 50 copies, New York, 1865). There is a copy of the Margaret Morris journal, "kept for her sister, Milcah Martha Moore, at Burlington, New Jersey, Dec. 6, 1776, to June, 1778," in the Sparks MSS. (no. xlviii.). 4 Cf. ante, III. pp. 506, 507. 5 Philad. Library Bulletin, July, 1884, p 48. Several letters of Rush are given in Lee's Life of R. H. Lee, ii. Sparks (no. Ixii.) made copies in 1828 from them, when they were in the possession of Thomson's nephew, Mr. John Thomson of Newark, Delaware, but they are said to have passed into the hands of a brother's descendant in Memphis. Thomson's private papers are said to have been burnt by him. The papers of Anthony Wayne, having been for a while in the hands of Mr. Henry B. Dawson,1 have recently been temporarily deposited with the Hist. Soc. of Penna. There are a few of the Wayne papers (copies) in the Sparks MSS. (no. xxv.) A son of Wayne, Col. Isaac Wayne, furnished the documentary and other evidence which was embodied in a biography of Wayne printed in The Casket (Philad.), which was availed of by John Armstrong in his Life of Wayne in Sparks Amer. Biog., vol. iv. The Life and Services of Gen. Anthony Wayne (Philad., 1845) professes to be founded on documentary evidence furnished by Isaac Wayne.2 A part of the papers of James Wilson, signer of the Declaration of Independence, is in the library of the Hist. Soc. of Penna. DELAWARE. — In the Sparks MSS. (no. xv.) is a selection (copies) from papers in the office of the Secretary of State in Delaware, which was made in June, 1826. They begin Oct. 14, 1777, after the battle of Brandywine. Mr. Sparks notes in connection: "When the British were in Wilmington, a short time before the battle of Brandywine, and when they carried off President McKinly, they also took away the public papers and journals belonging to the county of Newcastle, pertaining to the old government. On the 24th of Feb., 1783, the Council voted to send a person with a flag of truce to New York to solicit these papers from Sir Guy Carleton. A few of them only were found. It was said that others had been taken to Charleston. On the 3d of June following it is recorded in the journal that there was reason to suppose these papers had been removed to the island of Jamaica. The president was authorized to take measures to procure them. This seems never to have been done." These Sparks copies contain extracts from the Proceedings of the House of Representatives, 1766-1776; and an account of the single Delaware regiment of the Continental line, which was first commanded by John Haslett, who was killed at Princeton. In the Papers of the Hist. Soc. of Delaware, vol. vi., there are minutes of the Council of the Delaware State, 1776-1792 (Wilmington, 1887). The same Sparks volume has "copies of fourteen letters (1774-1779) from George Read to Cæsar Rodney, the originals whereof are in the possession of Cæsar A. Rodney, Esq.;" and also letters between George Read and others. A few of the Rodney papers are printed in Niles's Principles and Acts of the American Revolution (ed. of 1876, p. 245, etc.), and those of Capt. Thomas Rodney and Cæsar Rodney are said to be in the charge of Mr. J. M. C. Rodney of Wilmington. The papers of George Read came, in 1836, into the possession of his grandson, William Thompson Read, who had already prepared the sketch of George Read which appeared in Sanderson's Biography of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence (vol. iii.); but that memoir contained but eight of the letters which now constitute a large part of the later work of the same author, Life and Correspondence of George Read (Philadelphia, 1870). A small part of the Read papers are in the library of the Penna. Hist. Society. MARYLAND. The report of the committee of the Maryland Hist. Soc., Nov. 12, 1883, reviews the earlier reports which had been made on the Maryland records. In 1722, a commission to care for the archives, repaired, bound, and transcribed some volumes, and four of such volumes are now in the library of the Maryland Hist. Society. The Report of Nov. 12, 1883, is accompanied by a calendar of the State archives.5 This committee procured from the Public Record Office in London all papers relating to Maryland of an earlier date than 1668. The Maryland Archives, as printing, have included some of these papers already enumerated, and will include others. The committee report that beside the bound records there are from 8,000 to 10,000 loose papers, mostly relating to the Revolution.7 The Proceedings of the Conventions of the Province of Maryland, held at Annapolis, 1774, 1775 and 1776, were published at Annapolis in 1774-5-6, and were republished at Baltimore in 1836. The originals are in the library of the Maryland Hist. Society.8 The journal of the Council of Safety at Annapolis, 1775-1776, is in the library of the Maryland Hist. 1 As stated in his Assault on Stoney Point (1863). 2 Cf. Hist. Mag., vi. 336. 3 Cf a history of this regiment in the Penna. Mag. of Hist., Jan., 1886. A copy of the journal of Capt. Kirkland, of the Delaware line (1777-1782), is among the Sparks MSS. (no. xxv.) A book without contents-table or index, where they are peculiarly needed, as the author's plan is to interject numerous appendices between the chapters. It has a portrait of Geo. Read, engraved by Sartain from a picture in Independence Hall; and in an appendix, p. 572, it gives an account of two likenesses: one, painter unknown, owned by W. T. Read; and the other, by R. E. Pine, owned by a daughter of the late William Read of Philadelphia. See ante, Vol. V. 270. 6 Henry Stockbridge's paper on "The Archives of Maryland as illustrating the spirit of the times of the early colonists (Maryland Hist. Soc. Fund Publ., no. 22, Balt., 1886) is in effect a summary of the three volumes of the Maryland Archives published up to that time. Seven volumes have now been printed; and in the first volume of Assembly Proceedings, and in the first volume of Council Proceedings, there are calendars of the MS. archives in the custody of the Historical Society, but belonging to the State. 7 Cf. ante, Vol. III. 555; V. 271. 8 Lewis Mayer published in 1854 a Catal. of the MSS. in the Maryland Hist. Society. Society, as is also the correspondence of the Committee of Safety in Baltimore, with their Proceedings, 17751776, and the original rolls of the Cincinnati Society of Maryland. Mr. Rideout, the secretary of Gov. Sharpe, gave to Mr. Robert Gilmor 1 a collection of the papers now belonging to the Maryland Hist. Soc., and known as the Gilmor Maryland Papers. They contain Sharpe's instructions, some of his correspondence with officers in America, the governors of the other colonies, and the home government. Gov. Sharpe's letter-books, 1767-1771, were committed to the custody of this society by the State in 1846. In the Sparks MSS. (no. ix.) are letters of Sharpe, copied from originals in the office of the Secretary of State at Annapolis. The latest publication of the Maryland Historical Society is: Archives of Maryland. Correspondence of Governor Horatio Sharpe. Vol. i. 1753-1757. William Hand Browne, editor. (Baltimore, 1888), being the sixth volume of the series. There are also in the Sparks MSS. (xliii., vol. iii.) copies of the official correspondence of the authorities of Maryland and the home government (1763-1776). The instructions of Gov. Eden, 1769, are in Ibid. vol. iii. p. 231. In Ibid. no. xxix. are various copies from the papers then (1826) in the office of the Secretary of State. There are various documentary proofs printed in the appendix of Robert Purviance's Narrative of Events which occurred in Baltimore Town during the Revolutionary War? The military service of Maryland is commemorated in Thomas Balch's Papers relating chiefly to the Maryland line during the Revolution.3 The Peabody Index to the Maryland documents in the State Paper Office, London, was made by Henry Stevens, and the last volume (vol. xi.) covers 1754-1780, and refers to documents concerning the administrations of Governors Sharpe and Eden, the troubles of the Stamp Act period, and the subsequent movements of It is in the library of the Maryland Historical Society, which has also recently procured from England a collection of Calvert Papers, nearly a thousand documents in all, of the Colonial period. A full account of them, with copies of a few, will be published by the Society. the war. Bacon's edition of the laws (1765) gives in full only six out of the three hundred and more statutes passed prior to 1664. The Maryland Archives, printed from MS. sources in Maryland and London, are much fuller. This publication has now (1889) been brought down to 1683. The Maryland laws of the Revolutionary period are included in A. C. Hanson's edition, Laws of Maryland made since 1763 (Annapolis, 1787). For some years the Maryland Historical Society has been causing copies to be made of the parish records throughout the State. For personal or family papers we have: The journal and letters of Capt. Wm. Beatty, of the Maryland line, 1776-1781, are in the Maryland Hist. Soc. library. The papers of Charles Carroll are said to be in the charge of Ex-Gov. John Lee Carroll, but some are in the cabinet of the Maryland Historical Society. The papers of Gen. Mordecai Gist are in the Maryland Hist. Soc. library, including correspondence, orderlybooks, and other service records.+ The Clement Hill papers, relating to surveys in Prince George's and St. Mary's counties, 1660-1720, belong to the Maryland Historical Society. The papers of Dr. James McHenry, Washington's secretary, still preserved, contain 105 letters from Washington and about 800 public papers. The papers of M. Du Bois Martin, in the Maryland Hist. Soc., contain the evidences of his agency in the embarcation of Lafayette for America. The papers of Matthew Ridley of Maryland were in the possession of Theodore Sedgwick, Jr., of New York, in April, 1832, when Sparks caused copies to be made (Sparks MSS. lii.) of the "Diary and letters, 17771783, containing [adds Sparks] many errors and false suspicions respecting men and things in Paris (particularly Dr. Franklin)." The papers of Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer were destroyed at the evacuation of Richmond, Va., whither they had been sent before the civil war for editing and publication. Miss Stone, of Port Tobacco, has a few. Some part of the papers of Gen. Smallwood, as well as his portrait, are in the possession of the Maryland Hist. Society. The papers of Thomas Stone, the signer of the Declaration of Independence, are preserved, but at present inaccessible. Miss Margaret Stone of Port Tobacco, Md., has a few. The papers of Col. Tench Tilghman, one of Washington's secretaries, are in the possession of Col. Oswald Tilghman of Easton, Md. 1 Mr. Gilmor was a successful collector in Baltimore, whose private autograph collection, largely historical, became the basis of the collection now owned by Ferdinand J. Dreer of Philadelphia (Draper's Essay, 16, 66). The latter's collection includes many papers relating to the Conway Cabal, and embraces the anonymous letter written by Rush to Patrick Henry. 2 Baltimore, 1849. The originals of the papers used in this volume are in the Maryland Historical Society. Cf. Sabin, xii. 51,788. Thomas (ii. 157) gives an account of the Baltimore newspapers, 1773-1785. 3 Philad., Seventy-Six Society, 1857. Cf. Hist. Mag. xi. 79; McSherry's Maryland, ch. 9. There is a portrait of Gen. Mordecai Gist in the cabinet of the Maryland Hist. Society. 1 |