New York State Education Department Division of Archives and History Transcripts of Council Minutes

Chronological by date of meeting.

These typewritten transcripts appear to have been created and edited in the 1930s by the Division of Archives and History in hopes of publishing New York Colonial Council minutes from the period after 1673. The only complete run of Council minutes previously published was a two volume set featuring supporting documents entitled, Minutes of the Executive Council of the Province of New York, Administration of Francis Lovelace, 1668-1373, edited by Victor Hugo Palsits (Albany, State of New York, 1910).

A note filed with the transcripts by historian C. H. Van Duzer indicates that copies of the duplicate original set of Council minutes on file in the Public Record Office in London (now State Archives Series A1455) were used as a starting point in creating the transcripts. These transcripts were then carefully checked against the surviving original Council minutes (Series A1895) and Council papers (Series A1894) and edited for accuracy. Despite this effort, no set of post-1673 Council minutes was ever published.

This series consists of typewritten transcripts of New York Colonial Council minutes from the period after 1673. The transcripts were created as part of an effort to follow up prior publication of Council minutes from 1668-1673 with an edition including subsequent years. The transcripts contain extensive edits and annotations in pencil, as well as handwritten comments regarding the readability of photostatic copies of duplicate original minutes on file in the Public Record Office in London. Bracketed notations of missing text are common. Each transcript page includes a reference to the volume and pages of either the original Council papers (most often) or the original Council minutes (infrequently) to which the text corresponds.

A1455Series A1455, Transcripts of Council minutes and Assembly journals transmitted to the Board of Trade (1686-1775), contains photostat and microfilm reproductions of Council minutes and Assembly proceedings acquired from the National Archives of the United Kingdom (Public Record Office)

A1895Series A1895, Council minutes (1668-1783), contains minutes of the legislative and executive sessions of the Council of the Colony of New York that were retained by the Secretary of the Province

A3271Series A3271, Transcriptions of New York Council minutes and Council papers (1683-1767), contains transcriptions of New York Council minutes and transcriptions of the New York Council Papers (also known as "Colonial Manuscripts")

A0176Series A0176, Original draft minutes (ca. 1668-1783), contains a draft version of a small amount of minutes of the legislative and executive sessions of the council.

This series was transferred to the State Archives by Cornell University Libraries, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections in 1992.

Transcripts (typewritten) were acquired at an unknown date by Edith M. Fox, Curator, Regional History Collection, Cornell University Libraries. The transcripts were made from two different series now in the State Archives: Series A1895, Council Minutes, and Series A1455, Transcripts of Council Minutes (The latter series contains photographic copies of the duplicate original set of the Council Minutes in series C.O. 5, Public Record Office, London.).

There are no restrictions regarding access to or use of this material.