About This Collection
Executive correspondence of the Supreme Executive Council and petitions presented to Council. Most of the documents are dated, and mention of the recipient and sender, origin of letter or petition and occasionally the particular title or office of the recipient or sender, and the business of the correspondence. This series includes correspondence between members of the Supreme Executive Council as well as correspondence between members of Council and the Second Council of Safety, Continental Board of War, commanders of the Continental Army, the State Navy Board, and Continental Congress. Petitions reached the Council from various people around the state in various positions, tradesmen involved in providing supplies or services to the armies, soldiers away from home seeking protection of their property and families, and women on the homefront in need of aid, protection or supplies. Information found in this record includes but is not limited to, lists of British soldiers captured by capitulation, examinations of prisoners or witnesses in cases before the Council, returns and receipts of supplies and money exchanged, lists of men seeking commissions, extracts or requests for copies of minutes of meetings for Supreme Executive Council, General Assembly or Congress, resolutions of the Council, General Assembly or Congress, warrants made for arrest or seizure of goods, court martial sentences handed down by the Council, and prisoners of war, and proclamations made by the President of Council or the Council. Also of interest are a few letters or petitions in French, untranslated, to the Council members.