New York State Legislature Assembly Files Related to Revolutionary War Claims and Other Subjects

Roughly chronological.

On April 20, 1830, the Legislative Assembly resolved that Azariah C. Flagg and others be employed to examine the assembly archives, to select from such original papers and documents as judged to be proper, and to deposit the papers in the office of the Secretary of State. In June and July, 1831, the papers selected were deposited and bound in 45 volumes designated as "Assembly Papers." In 1900, a report on the public archives of New York published by the American Historical Association described these "miscellaneous" papers as containing numerous documents of great interest and historical value.

The series consists of a variety of document types created or collected by the assembly prior to 1830 and transferred to the office of the secretary of state for preservation. Approximately half the series consists of claims of Revolutionary war soldiers for services rendered, supplies furnished, or damages incurred.

The remainder of the series consists of a wide variety of other documents related to such topics as: meetings reciting public grievances; revolutionary war claims; resolutions of the assembly for inquiring into and encouraging mechanical inventions; memorials from chambers of commerce and reports of committees upon them; reports on committees to inquire concerning canal construction; reports of canal commissioners; and petitions for compensation and transfer of property. Included is the 1816 petition from Canal Commissioner DeWitt Clinton to the State Legislature (32 pp.) to create a canal system between the Hudson River and Lake Erie, which became known as the Erie Canal. Many other subjects are difficult to discern because of the fragmented condition of the documents, due to fire damage.

Photostat use copies are available at the New York State Archives.

Scanned images of the 1816 petition of DeWitt Clinton to the State Legislature to create the Erie Canal are available at the New York State Archives.

Remnants of indexes are present for most of the series.

Container list is available at the repository.

"Revolutionary soldiers and claims" (Assembly Papers, vols 14-24), are cited in Bielinski, Stefan, ed., Guide to Revolutionary War Manuscripts in the New York State Library (Albany, 1976), item no. 1189.

These papers were originally volumes 1-24 of old collection #143, "Assembly Papers" from which several other series were created by Archives staff.

Records in this series were originally part of Assembly Papers volumes 1-13, "Miscellaneous Records," and volumes 14-24, "Revolutionary soldiers and claims." The records suffered extensive burn damage in the State Capitol fire of 1911 and were disbound. Portions of original volumes 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 13-24 survive.

Restricted in part due to severe burn damage. Use with assistance of archivist.