Collection search - Office records of the Clerk of the Executive Council [textual record, cartographic material, technical drawing]

Record information – Brief
1
Office records of the Clerk of the Executive Council [textual record, cartographic material, technical drawing]

Hierarchical level:

Series

Date:

1778-1842.

Reference:

R10870-14-1-E, RG1-E14, RG1-E13, RG1-E11, RG1-E12, RG1-L7, RG1-L6B

Type of material:

Textual material

Found in:

Archives / Collections and Fonds

Item ID number:

205007

Context of this record:

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Executive Council Office of the Province of Lower Canada fonds

Office records of the Clerk of the Executive Council
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Record information – Details

Series includes:

4 lower level description(s)
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Date(s):

1778-1842.

Place of creation:

Québec (Province)

Extent:

ca. 1.605 m of textual records
17 maps on 21 sheets: chiefly ms., chiefly col.; 119 x 219 cm or smaller, on sheets 107 x 135 cm or smaller.
5 technical drawings on 9 sheets: ms., chiefly col.; sheets 86 x 219 cm or smaller.
5 cm of textual records : transcripts.

Language of material:

English

Added language of material:

English, French

Scope and content:

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Series consists of a miscellany of records attributed to the Clerk of the Executive Council and relating to both state and land activities of his office. The surviving records rarely form complete series and some bear only a tenuous association with the Clerk's stated duties. The records include: correspondence received and sent; oaths of allegiance and of office; records relating to the role of the Clerk's office in managing the leasing and sale of lands; and records, such as the Blue Books of Statistics, accumulated in the Clerk's office for reference purposes.

In the conduct of his duties, the Clerk of the Council prepared and preserved certain records on behalf of the Council and others on his own behalf. Among the latter were entry books of letters and orders sent to other government officials, correspondence received, and registers or logs of work performed and information gathered. The inventories of records preserved and the daily or weekly logs demonstrate the range of responsibilities assumed by the Clerk over time and the nature of assistance provided by his staff in performing those duties. The Clerk or his deputy served as Secretary to committees of Council and special commissions, ensuring a degree of consistency for the record-keeping associated with those bodies.

Additional information:

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Language note:

Includes some material in the French language.

Availability of other formats note:

Although none of the textual records in this series have been microfilmed, contemporary copies of some of the records in this series, found in other fonds at Library and Archives Canada, are available in microfilm format. Further details are provided in the relevant sub-series descriptive entry.

Related material:

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Record Group 4 (Records of the Civil and Provincial Secretaries, Quebec, Lower Canada and Canada East), series A1, vols. 53-622, may include records the creation and/or accumulation of which would have originally been the responsibility of the Clerk of the Executive Council. However, such records cannot now be attached to the Executive Council of the Province of Lower Canada fonds. As explained in the 1953 published inventory (Public Archives of Canada - Manuscript Division - Preliminary Inventory - Record Group 1, Executive Council, Canada, 1764-1867 ), the Council records included in those volumes were already inter-mingled at the time of acquisition by the National Archives with records of the Civil and Provincial Secretaries for Lower Canada. This inter-mingling is attributed in the 1953 inventory to the fact that for many years the offices of Clerk of Council and Civil Secretary were held in plurality by one individual who, apparently, did not keep the records separate, although there is reason to believe that the inter-mingling is attributable to interference with the records by a later custodian (the Keeper of the Records after 1867 in the Office of the Secretary of State of Canada). Regardless of the explanation, it was recognized in 1953, and is no less true today, that it is not feasible to separate out the records belonging to each office and to attach them to their respective fonds. Therefore, these records have been left described as part of RG 4 and users should consult that fonds.

Source:

Private

Former archival reference no.:

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RG1-E14
RG1-E13
RG1-E11
RG1-E12
RG1-L7
RG1-L6B
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Conditions of access:

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Textual records

[Consultation95 Open, no copying]
The restriction on copying does not apply to all records in this series. See the sub-series descriptive entries for details.

Terms of use:

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In order to protect fragile originals, consultation and copying restrictions apply to some records in this series. Further details are provided in the relevant sub-series descriptive entries.

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Date modified:: 2024-04-09