About the Book
Major source materials relating to the British colonies Originally published in print form in over 40 volumes from 1858 to 1994, the Calendar is rightly well-known as an essential source for the colonial history of North America and the West Indies. Now available for the first time in electronic form, this CD-ROM transforms the utility of the texts for study and research, and makes possible hitherto difficult and impractical analyses. What sorts of material are included? The Calendar includes documents from these years in over 40,000 transcripts and extended abstracts. This material covers a wide range of subject areas, including: correspondence to and from colonial governors; orders and grants from central government to local administration; information from the localities and information about the slave trade and piracy, and much more.
The texts include information on such things as: agriculture; boundary disputes; administration; reports of conferences with Ntaive Americans; plantations; immigration; land grants; legislation; industries such as ship building and fisheries; relations with the French, Spanish and Dutch, including intercepted letters; trade; privateerin war, and reports of court cases. Examples of texts included: Deposition of Thomas Bisse, included in despatch from the Deputy-Governor of the Leeward Islands, Nevis, 1686: On 14 April fifty armed men from a Spanish ship landed in Tortola, beset my fathers house and plundered it of everything. They stripped me and bound me, and carried me to a neighbouring plantation, where they took all the negroes they could find ...They than carried me on board their ship, where they kept me three days constantly threatening me, and threw a sixteen-pound lead at me which struck me in the back. From Captain Francis Nicholson, Boston 1688: At Marlborough and Worcester I found the people much afraid of two Indian forts, for they had noticed that the manner of the Indians towards them had changed of late, and that strange Indians had come among them this summer.
From William Penn 1697: I complain of two laws passed in Maryland in 1695, one imposing an unprecedented and unwarrantable custom of 10 pounds per cent. upon all English goods shipped on vessels bound to Maryland consigned to Pennsylvania, denying us a free highway home. The other imposes fourpence a gallon on all beer imported from Pennsylvania into Maryland and through that province, for accommodation of those that take ship there for England. Upon both these accounts travelling chests are searched and rifled and, if the key be not there, broken open; and for passing this illegal and unneighbourly search they require from half a crown to ten shillings, of all which a speedy redress is necessary and much and greatly desired. Petition of John Lucas of Antigua to Council of Trade about slavery, 1699: Some French negroes of Guadeloupe recently escaped to Antigua and I demand their restitution, as also of several free negroes taken from Guadeloupe during the war. I enclose their list of names.
You are aware that it is part of the Law of Nations that free negroes in any country must not be sold but enjoy the same prerogatives as men born free, so I do hope you will find no obstcale to prevent you from giving up those I demand and from fulfilling towards them this office of justice, charity and humanity. Council of Trade and Plantations to the King, on the state of Bermuda's defence, 1701: In the Bermudas there are five little Castles, three of which are lying at the entrance of the easiest passages, are most considerable. Many of the platforms are decay'd. There are fifty-five great guns, but most of them are unserviceable, being honey-comb'd or vented, and some of them wanting carriages. And in as much as those Islands are now unprovided of stores and ammunition, and their wants having been always supplyed by the Crown, by reason of the inability of the inhabitants, we humbly propose, that for the present your Majesty may be pleased to direct the Office of Ordnance to send thither 30 barrels of powder, 100 firelocks with musquet-ball proportionable, a quantity of match, and five flags with the Lieut. Governor Capt. Bennett, by H.M.S. Lincoln.
Notes on Boston cloth industry, 1738: Of late years some Irish families have made sailcloth in great perfection near Boston and in incredible quantities for the number of hands employed. The chief of them would undertake for any quantities and no doubt they will very soon be able to supply themselves with all they may want of that sort. As for linen it is made in great perfection. Materials relating to countries and states included: Antigua, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Canada, Carolina, Connecticut, Cuba, Delaware, Dominica, Florida, Georgia, Jamaica, Leeward Islands, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia How is the content different from the print edition? New introductions. The original introductions reflected the historiographical interests of the period when they were compiled. This new edition adds introductory material aimed at users new to the material outlining the key events, administrative history and context of creation of the documents. In addition, the introductions illustrate how the texts can be utilised for a wide range of research topics.
Includes additional new calendar material not in the print edition. Public Record Office document references have been updated to their modern form. What are the benefits of the electronic version? All the original addenda and additions have been added to their correct place in the chronological series. All the original indexes to the print edition are also included, but are merged together to form a master index. All cross references in the index are hyperlinked to the relevant document in the main text. This enables much easier consultation of the indexes than is possible in the print edition. The indexes are included because they standardise spellings of place and personal names, and enable the user to look up people by title, which may not be explicit in the actual document. Users can search by date, full text, PRO reference number, or limit their search to the description of the item. Other features Uses the same underlying software as in previous acclaimed Routledge titles, such as the Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, and the Wellesley Index to Victorian Periodicals. Boolean searching; proximity searching; search history; searches can be saved and recalled.
Sort search results by date. Comprehensive and useful Help file, including information on the content as well as the functionality of the product. You can find references to the material by volume and page number of the original print edition, allowing easy tracing of existing citations. Easily networkable. The basic price allows limited networking. You can add notes and save them (publicly or privately) as you go. Export your notes to other users who may be part of your library network. Customisable interface to suit your needs using floating toolbars. Who will want to use this? In the past the Calendar of State Papers Colonial has most often been used by scholars researching the political and administrative history of the colonies. However, by making the full text of the material fully searchable it will now be easier for people with other research interests to use.
In particular, the Calendar will be valuable for the study of the following areas: international history local history black history womens history genealogy maritime history and fisheries industrial history If you are interested in consortial [or other] pricing options or the availability of the TEI-conformant SGML data for this product, please contact Routledge at brad.scott@routledge.co.uk
Table of Contents:
Material included: Correspondence to and from colonial governors, orders and grants from central government to local administration, and information from the localities, in the following areas: Administration; agriculture; boundary disputes; immigration; industry (ship building, fisheries); land grants; legislation; plantations; piracy eg. depositions of sailors from court cases; the slave trade, relations with the French, Spanish and Dutch (including intercepted letters); reports of conferences with native Indians, and trade Countries and states included: Antigua, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Canada, Carolina, Connecticut, Cuba, Delaware, Dominica, Florida, Jamaica, Leeward Islands, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia
Review :
"Loads easily and runs quickly.... Recommended for university libraries."
-"Choice, April 2001
