Research Guides: HIST 460: American Colonial History: British Colonial Records

British& Canadian Colonial Records

Some British Government colonial records are freely available online including:

Archives Ontario
Resources from multiple eras of Ontario History.
British Government Legislation
United Kingdom government site housing newly enacted legislation for the UK, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as it is published. Coverage begins in 1267.
British Customs, Excise, and Revenue
British Nationals Archives collection of Records of the Boards of Customs, Excise, and Customs and Excise, and HM Revenue and Customs CUST 17 - States of Navigation, Commerce and Revenue.
British History Online: Colonial Documents
Selected colonial documents from British History Online.
Canadian Encyclopedia
Covers topics from all periods of Canadian History.
Canadian Heritage
Canadian Government agency responsible for promoting Canadian history and managing national museums.
Colonial America 1606-1822
Purdue Users Only. Records from the British National Archives on its relationships with American colonies.
Colonial Caribbean
Documentation of British government policy in the Caribbean region from 1624-1870
Colonial Office Research Guides
Colonial research guides from the British National Archives.
Digital Bodleian
Digital collections from many periods of British History at Oxford University's Bodleian Library.
Historical Maps and Atlases-McGill University Libraries
Features maps and geospatial data on multiple periods of Canadian History.
Library & Archives Quebec Digital
Multiple digital resources on various aspects of Quebec History.
Library and Archives Canada Research Guides A-Z
Contains research guides and some full text documents from multiple periods of Canadian History. This period begins with the 1608 French settlement of Quebec.
Nova Scotia Archives
Parks Canada
Part of the Environment and Climate Change Canada, this agency administers Canada's national historic sites and parks.
Prince Edward Island Libraries & Archives
Provincial Archives of New Brunswick
The Rooms-Newfoundland and Labrador Collections and Research
The Rooms serves as a combination of Newfoundland and Labrador's provincial library, archives, and history museum.

State Papers Online
State Papers online offers original historical materials across the widest range of government concern. The correspondence, reports, memoranda, and parliamentary drafts from ambassadors, civil servants and provincial administrators, present a full picture of Tudor and Stuart Britain. State Papers online is published in six parts covering three hundred years of British and European history.
Part I. The Tudors, 1509-1603: State papers domestic;
Part II. The Tudors, 1509-1603: State papers foreign, Scotland, Borders, Ireland and registers of the Privy Council;
Part III. The Stuarts and Commonwealth, James I-Anne I, 1603-1714: State papers domestic;
Part IV. The Stuarts and Commonwealth, James I-Anne I, 1603-1714: State papers foreign, Ireland and registers of the Privy Council;
Eighteenth Century, 1714-1782, Part 1: State Papers Domestic, Military, Naval and Registers of the Privy Council;
Eighteenth Century, 1714-1782, Part 2: State Papers Foreign, Low Countries and Germany.
Eighteenth Century, 1714-1782, Part 3: State Papers Foreign, Western Europe
Eighteenth Century, 1714-1782, Part 4: State Papers Foreign, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Turkey

Coverage: 1509-1782

Virginia Company Archives
Virginia Company Archives provides a comprehensive record of the history of the Virginia Company of London, 1606-1624. Centred upon the archives of the Ferrar family who played a significant role in the Company's administration, this resource documents the founding and economic development of the Virginia colony, relations between colonists and indigenous peoples, and early trade between Britain and America. It is also a crucial source for London's economic history and the religious and social history of early modern England, with further content documenting the Ferrars' continued interest in the European colonisation of North America in the years after 1624.