Civil Secretary's correspondence. Quebec, Lower Canada and Canada East [textual record, philatelic record]

The principal series of letters, petitions, addresses and other communications received by the Civil Secretary's office is known as the "S Series" (series A 1). Interfiled with that correspondence are documents created or accumulated by the Clerk to the Executive Council, an office held in plurality by the Secretary throughout much of the period 1764-1841. Several blocks of Executive Council records have been segregated (as series RG 4 B 13 and B 43). Other material on special topics, apparently accumulated by the Secretary, has also been segregated (as series RG 4 B 44, B 46, B 48, B 49 and B 76). The rationale for segregation of this material is unclear, particularly as other material on those topics remains in the primary series of incoming correspondence. Surviving drafts or copies of replies to incoming correspondence form series RG 4 A 2, and a specialized letterbook forms series RG 4 A 4. Two types of registers recording the reception and referral of correspondence are found in series RG 4 A 3; they illustrate the volume and variety of business handled, and can be used to determine the extent to which the records have survived, in RG 4 or elsewhere. The fonds also consists of 3867 postal covers covering the period from 1759 to 1846 which were in most cases mailed from villages in Lower Canada. There are major examples of postmarks used in Lower Canada for the period 1763 to 1841.

Quebec, Lower Canada and Canada East. Civil Secretary. Correspondence: The pre-eminent responsibility of the Civil or private Secretary to the Governor was management of correspondence: ensuring that it was duly acknowledged, referred onward or filed. Closely related were the duties of receiving and acknowledging Addresses, petitions, memorials and applications for appointments to public offices; transmitting Messages and public documents to the Legislature; and referring petitions to the appropriate public offices for opinion or advice prior to submission to the Executive Council. The responsibilities of the Civil Secretary for general correspondence were transferred to the Provincial Secretary and Registrar after the union of Upper and Lower Canada in 1841. This shift reflected the on-going transition of power away from the Governor as responsible government evolved. In managing communications for the Governor, the Civil Secretary maintained a distinction between the correspondence to which replies were made in the governor's name and that to which the Secretary responded on his behalf. Despatches to colleagues and letters to senior officials were signed by the Governor. Letters to individuals were written on the governor's behalf by the Secretary. The governor's despatches are found in RG 7; the Civil Secretary's correspondence is divided between RG 7 and RG 4. As a result of the transmission of files from one office to another for action or advice, documents relating to a case may be found with the Secretaries' correspondence (RG 4, A 1 or C 1), with submissions to the Executive Council (see RG 1) or with records retained in the governor's office (see RG 7, notably series G 14, G 18 and G 20).

RG4-A1
RG4-A3
RG4-B43
RG4-B13
RG4-A2
RG4-A4
RG4-B1
RG4-B44
RG4-B46
RG4-B48
RG4-B49
RG4-B70
RG4-B71
RG4-B76