Title: The Ontario Archives - Scope of its Operations
Author: Fraser, Alexander
Language: English
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               THE ONTARIO ARCHIVES: SCOPE OF ITS
                           OPERATIONS

        (Paper read at the twenty-seventh annual meeting of
           the American Historical Association, held at
               Buffalo, N. Y., December 27-30, 1911)

                               BY

                        ALEXANDER FRASER

             LL. D., LITT. D., F. S. A., SCOT. EDIN.


Reprinted from the Annual Report of the American Historical Association
                     for 1911, pages 353-362

                           WASHINGTON
                              1913



                      THE ONTARIO ARCHIVES.

           By ALEXANDER FRASER, Provincial Archivist.


The line of demarcation between the Canadian or Dominion archives and
the Ontario or other provincial archives is somewhat similar to that
between the Federal and State archives in the United States. It consists
with the scope of the jurisdiction of the Dominion or major
commonwealth, and the narrower or minor jurisdiction of the Province.
This constitutes a clearly defined boundary within which both work
without conflict or overlapping of interests. Our public charter is an
imperial statute entitled the British North America act, and to-day,
when there are nine fully constituted, autonomous Provinces within the
Dominion of Canada, it is interesting to recall that when the British
North America act became law in 1867 the subtitle set forth that it was
"An act for the union of Canada, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick, and the
government thereof; and for purposes connected therewith."

This act provides for the government of Ontario a lieutenant-governor,
who represents the Crown; an executive council of ministers of state and
a legislature composed of duly elected representatives of the people. To
this body the act secures exclusive legislative powers in Ontario and
Quebec, in the matter of Crown lands, forests and mines; education, from
the public common school to the university; municipal government,
institutions and laws; incorporation of chartered companies--commercial,
financial, professional, or social; solemnization of marriage, involving
family history, vital statistics, etc.; property and civil rights;
administration of justice, embracing both civil and criminal
jurisdiction; agriculture and immigration, under which municipal,
industrial, and agricultural statistics are collected, tabulated, and
published; the founding and maintenance of provincial institutions such
as hospitals, asylums, reformatories, prisons, and institutions for the
instruction of the deaf and dumb and the blind; offices for the local
registration of deeds, titles to land; the licensing of shops, taverns,
hotels, auctioneers, etc.; the erection of local public works; the
authorization and regulation of transportation not interprovincial.

In short the Provincial Government gets close to the life of the people
and touches its business and social sides intimately. As at present
constituted the ministry comprises the departments of: The attorney
general, dealing with the administration of law; the provincial
secretary, controlling registration, and the public institutions; the
provincial treasurer, dealing with the public accounts; agriculture;
lands, forests, and mines; public works; and education. The prime
minister is statutorily president of the council and head of the
ministry. Besides these and exercising semi-ministerial or departmental
functions are two commissions, the hydro-electric commission and the
Government railway commission. These, with the legislature itself, are
the departments of government in which our archives originate.

Archives we have defined as the records, the business papers, of the
province having a permanent value. All archives need not be of
historical value in the narrow sense. Public documents may have a
business or record value apart from history, yet it would be hard to say
that any given document might not be found useful in some way in
connection with history. The main value of a document is as an evidence
of truth. Every document does not contain truth, yet even such a
document may, in effect, be a fact in history, and training and
experience lead to a reasonably true interpretation.

The Ontario Bureau of Archives, organized in 1903, is equally related
and attached to all the Government departments, and receives all papers
and documents of record value or of historical interest, not in current
use, from all branches of the public service. When possible, these
documents are classified, calendared, and indexed.

The archives originating in the legislative assembly are: The Scroll of
Parliament--the documents known by that title being the notes and
memoranda made by the clerk, of the routine proceedings of the house
during its sessions; the original signatures of the members of the
legislative assembly subscribed to the oath of allegiance when "sworn
in" as members of the assembly, the signatures being written on
parchment; copies of the statutes in the form in which they have been
assented to and signed by His Honor the Lieutenant Governor. These
copies are printed on good paper, and after having been assented to
become the originals of the statutes in force; and the original copy
pertaining to the consolidated statutes.

Among the assembly archives are the manuscripts of all sessional papers
not printed (a sessional paper is a return called for by order of the
house, whether printed or not, and the reports of departments and all
branches of the public service presented to the house); the originals of
all petitions presented to the house (these are not printed); the
originals of bills in the form in which they are presented to the house;
and copies of bills amended during their passage through the house. The
original copy of sessional papers which are printed is returned with the
proof sheets to the department or officer issuing the same.

Naturally next in importance to the records of the legislature are those
of the executive council or Government. All matters requiring executive
action are brought before the council upon the recommendation or report
of the minister having the subject matter in charge. The recommendation
or report is addressed to His Honor the Lieutenant Governor in Council.
The reports of the committee of council are signed by the prime minister
as president, are counter-signed by the clerk and submitted to the
lieutenant governor for approval, after which the document becomes and
is known as an order of His Honor the Lieutenant Governor in Council.
Effect is given to orders in council affecting the general public by the
promulgation of them in the Ontario Gazette; otherwise by the
transmission of certified copies to the departments or persons
concerned. The original orders (together with the recommendations,
reports, and papers upon which they are based), after being registered
in special journals, become most valuable records and much in request.

Through the department of the attorney general access is obtained to the
voluminous records, rich in personal history and jurisprudence, arising
from the administration of justice, in its vast ramifications and
details, reaching from the policeman and justice of the peace to the
high courts and court of appeal; from the homely minutes of the quarter
sessions of early times, to the record of the recent cause célèbre which
influenced the legislation of the country, or settled questions of
constitutional import.

With the office of the provincial secretary the provincial archivist
necessarily has very close relations. The office of the secretary is the
medium of communication, through the lieutenant governor, between the
provincial, dominion, and imperial governments. All such correspondence
is registered and copies of the dispatches are kept. All commissions
bearing the great seal of the Province are issued by the secretary, and
are registered in his office, as are also all appointments made by his
Honor the Lieutenant Governor in Council requiring the issuance of a
commission. Charters of incorporation, licenses for extra-provincial
companies doing business in Ontario, and marriage licenses are issued
here under the direction of the secretary; here also are made records of
all Crown land patents (the earliest record being 1795), the records of
all mining leases and deeds and leases relating to the public lands,
etc. In the secretary's office are kept the vital statistics of the
Province. From the organization of the Province in 1792 until 1849
marriages were recorded in the parish and congregational registers kept
by clergymen, in the minute books of the quarter sessions of the peace,
and in the memorandum books of justices of the peace. In addition to
this, fairly complete records of births were made in the baptismal
registers, and of deaths in the journals of clergymen, who recorded the
deaths of parishioners for congregational purposes. Many of these old
books, however, have been either lost or destroyed, or their disposition
is not known. In 1849 the municipalities were enabled to make provision
by by-law for the registration of births, marriages, and deaths, and
advantage was taken of that statute to a very considerable extent. From
the passing of the law of 1849 until 1874 all records of marriages in
the Province were returned to the city and county registrars, who became
their official custodians. In 1869 the office of the registrar general
was established and compulsory registration of births, marriages, and
deaths introduced. Until 1874 the returns were still sent to the county
and city registrars, but since 1874 they have been sent direct to the
registrar general's office. The work of transcribing these returns and
preserving them in proper form has been proceeding for years; and the
documents, books, and statistical papers of the office, which are in
safe keeping, form an invaluable collection of archives.

In addition to the original vouchers of the public accounts, the
treasury department contains the papers of the succession duty office,
including affidavits made by the applicants on all applications for
letters probate or letters of administration in the Province showing the
value, as at the date of the death of a deceased person, of such
person's estate, with a general statement of the distribution thereof;
including copies of wills, affidavits of value, bonds, and other
documents which in particular cases have been furnished in order that
the amount of succession duty payable, in cases liable to payment, might
be ascertained. These documents are not generally accessible to the
public, as they relate to the private concerns not only of deceased but
of living persons, but they are a valuable addition to the surrogate
courts' records which are a mine of genealogical information.

The great staple enterprises of Ontario are agriculture, industrial
production, lumbering, mining, and in general, trade and commerce. Of
these agriculture is the greatest, and the records of its growth and
development have a special value to the student of economics. The
statistical branch, formed in 1882, issues annual reports dealing with
agricultural and municipal interests--assessment figures, population,
areas assessed, taxes imposed, annual receipts and expenditures, assets
and liabilities, chattel mortgages, proving of value to municipal
debenture holders and the public generally.

Of all our departments, the bureau of archives has drawn most largely on
the documentary treasures of the department of Crown lands. The material
of historical interest here is exceedingly varied and valuable,
embracing the records of the surveys of the Province; the original maps,
field notes, and diaries relating to the survey of all the townships
dating back to 1784, and reports of all the explorations made within the
limits of the Province since that date; reports showing the planning
out and surveys of the old military roads, such as Dundas Street, Yonge
Street, the Penetanguishene and Kingston Roads, and the papers in
connection with the surveys of the Talbot Road, the Huron Road, the
Garafraxa Road, the Toronto and Sydenham Road (Owen Sound). There's much
valuable information in the notes concerning the pioneer settlements.
This branch also contains plans of all the old Indian reserves of the
Province and reports indicating the early condition of the Indian
settlements on these reserves; also of the ordnance surveys in the
Province pertaining to land grants to old settlers; plans of the
military reserves and plans showing the location and groundwork of the
early forts. Besides these there are the original surveys of all the
lands acquired by the Canada company and of those granted to King's
College. A collection of much importance already transferred to the
archives vaults is that embracing the diaries or journals of David
Thompson, the astronomer royal, covering a period of 66 years, from 1784
to 1850, and making about 50 volumes. Thompson's famous map showing the
continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from a little south of
the Great Lakes to Hudson Bay, is carefully preserved in the collection.
Thompson's journals and map have furnished interesting material to
students of our early history. They have been used by Mr. Coues in his
work entitled "New light on the Great North-West," and have been found
useful in connection with editions of Henry's and Thompson's journals.
Competent authorities regard Thompson's work as most valuable to the
State, especially in the fixing of boundary lines; but of little less
importance are the field notes and diaries of many of the early
surveyors, not merely for topographical reasons but on account of the
detailed information given. In a separate vault are many other valuable
and interesting documents, including the United Empire Loyalists' lists,
the records of land grants to immigrants, to discharged soldiers, and
the militia grants of warrants to discharged troops, to United Empire
Loyalists, volumes of land board certificates, returns of locations
compiled for the quartermaster general, fiat and warrant books, domesday
books, containing original entries of every lot that is patented, and
extending to 26 large volumes, descriptions and terms or references on
which patents and leases are issued, patents for Crown lands, mining
lands, free grant lands, and mining leases. There are also a series of
maps of the townships of the Province as surveyed, which have the names
of the original holders and settlers entered on each lot or block of
land. These maps show among other things the grant made to King's
College, and the lands allotted to the Canada Land Co. The historical
value of these records is inestimable, for without them the settlement
of the Province could not be traced or shown.

The most interesting archives emanating from the public-works department
are the records of the early colonization roads--arteries of settlement
and trade routes and the title deeds, plans and specifications,
contracts, maps, and documents relating to Crown property, buildings,
and institutions, a finely conditioned collection.

I have thus, at considerable length, described the field in which the
archivist of Ontario labors and out of which he is gradually building up
his storehouse of archives. The main purpose of the bureau is that of a
record office of State papers, primarily for their proper preservation
and for the greater convenience of the public service. This is in the
nature of things. A central office, in which papers from all departments
of the Government are lodged after they have passed out of current use,
examined, classified, and filed by a staff familiar with their contents,
need only be brought into use to become indispensably serviceable in the
carrying on of public business; but in addition, the archivist, knowing
the contents of the documents in his custody, is able to direct and help
in a manner that can not otherwise be done, that portion of the public
interested in the information contained in the Government archives.

Notwithstanding the completeness and compactness of the field I have
briefly sketched as a logical and correct one for the purposes of a
State record office, it is nevertheless equally obvious that Government
records alone do not nor can embrace all the archives properly so called
of a State or Province. When, therefore, I was asked, eight years ago,
to organize a bureau of archives for Ontario, I laid out a much wider
plan than that I have referred to, with, however, the State record
office always as the central idea. The bureau is therefore double
barreled; it draws from the pigeonholes of the departments, and it
collects outside material that may throw light on the settlement and
development of the Province of Ontario, the source of which is often far
afield. For instance, the Province of Quebec (including Ontario), up to
1774 included all to the south and west as far as St. Louis and the
Mississippi, and of course, what became in 1791 Upper Canada. The
British régime is touched by the French and the French by the Indian.

In carrying out this plan the bureau aims at the collection of documents
having, in the widest sense, a bearing upon the political or social
history of Ontario, and upon its agricultural, industrial, commercial,
and financial development; the collection of municipal, school, and
church records; the collection and preservation of pamphlets, maps,
charts, manuscripts, papers, regimental muster rolls, etc., bearing on
its past or present history; the collection and preservation of facts
illustrative of the early settlements, pioneer experience, customs, mode
of living, prices, wages, boundaries, areas cultivated, homes, etc.; the
collection and preservation of correspondence, letters from and to
settlers, documents in private hands pertaining to public and social
affairs, etc., reports of local events and historic incidents in the
family or public life; the rescuing from oblivion of the memory of the
pioneer settlers, the obtaining and preserving narratives of their early
exploits, and of the part they took in opening up the country for
occupation; and the bureau cooperates with the historical societies of
Ontario and societies kindred to them, helping to consolidate and
classify their work, and as far as practicable to direct local effort on
given lines.

Within this scope the following plan of work has been adopted: To divide
the history of Ontario until the confederation of the Provinces in 1867
into its political periods, arranging the material secured in
chronological order, and giving each period a series of reports. Thus
the work has been carried on in all the divisions simultaneously, and
when sufficient material has accumulated in any one of them, it has been
utilized by the publication of documents without undue delay. From
confederation onward, the larger quantity of material to be dealt with,
and the probable absence of sweeping constitutional changes to mark
eras, suggested a chronological rather than a political basis of
division. The periods are:

     1. To the close of the French régime, or the period of French
            discovery, 1763.

     2. To the organization of the Province of Upper Canada, 1791.

     3. To the legislative union of Upper and Lower Canada, 1841.

     4. To confederation, 1867.

     5. To the end of the nineteenth century, 1900.

In each of these divisions there is much work to do. Each has its own
distinctive features, and there is abundance of minor incident.

Material of special interest to Ontario bearing on the French régime is
contained in the "Correspondence Générale," in the papers of the
"Collection de Moreau St. Méry," which have been transcribed from the
Paris archives for the Canadian archives, most of which has never been
published in printed form. There is also valuable Ontario material in
the "Haldimand Collection of papers," the "Bouquet Papers," and the
Colonial Office records bearing on this period. It is intended to
collect and publish these papers, accompanied by an adequate
translation, when not written in English, and adding extracts in
chronological order from the publications of Perrot, La Potherie, La
Harpe, Charlevoix, De Kalm, the Jesuit Relations, papers by Margry, and
a portion of the "Mémoire pour Messire François Bigot," which contains
what seems to be an excellent summary of the commerce and condition of
all the western trading posts at the time of the conquest. Other sources
of material for publication have also been considered in connection with
this early period.

Aboriginal or Indian history presents many interesting features to us,
and some attention has been given to the subject, including an inquiry
as to the original savage occupants of Ontario, their origin,
migrations, traffic, and intercourse; their language, topographical
nomenclature, folklore, and literature; the origin and development of
their clan, tribal, and national organization; the history and results
of European contact; their present condition, capabilities, and
tendencies.

This period of Ontario history, that of the French régime, will be our
heroic age, as "distance lends enchantment to the view." Here will be
found the adventurous coureurs de bois, many of the great routes and
trading posts, the headquarters of which in later times, was Fort
William, on Thunder Bay. Here the Huron and Iroquois met in deadly
conflict; here also the French missionaries of the Cross endured untold
sufferings with ecstatic heroism, and receiving the martyr's crown left
a record of Christian zeal and fortitude not surpassed, if at all
equaled, in the history of the world. Events which stirred the
imagination and fascinated the finely poised mind of a Parkman will yet
furnish the material for Canada's great, unwritten epic poem.

The Ontario bureau of archives has made a beginning in this field by
publishing a volume on the "Identification of the Huron Village Sites,"
where those missionaries labored and fell, prepared by the venerable and
scholarly archivist of St. Mary's College, Montreal, the Rev. Father
Jones, S. J., a contribution, I believe, of undoubted value. It may be
taken as significant of our attitude that a work of such erudite
research has been treated as a public document and issued free to the
people at the expense of the Government. It will soon be followed by the
writings of Father Potier, a work of far-reaching importance and
interest, which is in process of preparation for the press. The three
volumes of manuscript have been photographed page by page and a
zincograph facsimile of the original will be placed before scholars, a
work the casual announcement of which has already whetted the appetites
of not a few antiquarians.

Leaving this interesting period for the second I have mentioned, we
reach the coming to Ontario of the United Empire Loyalists. These form
the basis of our population and still give color to our political
thought and form and fashion to our institutions. In this period we have
published two volumes, one of about 1,500 pages, being the manuscript of
evidence laid before a royal commission reporting on the claims for
compensation for losses suffered by the United Empire Loyalists, a
document now out of print and much sought for. The other volume consists
of the minutes of the land board of the western district of Ontario,
bordering on Lake Erie and the Detroit River, containing particulars
of grants of land before 1792, schedules, regulations, description lists
of grantees, and surveys, and a mass of data connected with Indian
rights and the settlement of land generally. It has been of value in
land-title lawsuits, etc., and extends to more than 500 pages.

Combining this period with the succeeding one, we have collected the
proclamations by the Crown from 1763 to 1840 and issued them in a
volume, the necessity of which has been felt, as may be understood when
it is stated that no such collection had ever been made before, though
these proclamations are of public use in an endless variety of business.

Under our third division the narrower political history of our Province
begins, the introduction of constitutional government--the work of the
legislature, some of whose early records are lost, the outbreak of the
War of 1812, the progress of settlement, and the development of
municipal and commercial institutions, the restiveness leading to the
rising of 1837, and the concessions made to responsible government. Here
a great deal of archival work has been already accomplished. The
journals of the proceedings of the legislature of Upper Canada from 1792
to 1818, so far as we have been able to find them, have been published
and the series will be issued to the year 1824, from which year printed
copies are in existence. The journals of the legislative council
concurrent with those of the legislative assembly down to 1816 have also
been published, and one volume in each series, now in the press, will
complete the work. These journals are simply indispensable, being the
original evidence of all our legislation. Our constitutional development
and the history of our legislature can not be studied or understood
without them. I may be pardoned should I refer particularly to one of
many interesting questions dealt with in the closing years of the
eighteenth century as shown in these journals. The legislative assembly,
following the rule of the Imperial House of Commons, claimed the power
of the purse, and objected to their supply bill being amended by the
legislative council or upper house. A deadlock ensued; neither side
would budge from its position; a conference of both houses was held and
the assembly won on the understanding that the question would be
referred to the law officers of the Crown in Britain for future
guidance. This was accordingly done and the right claimed by the
assembly or lower house was conceded to it. Thus was solved amicably for
Canada at the small hamlet of Newark, on the banks of the Niagara, a
constitutional principle which recently shook the United Kingdom and
produced a serious and radical constitutional crisis, in which once more
the Commons vindicated their supremacy in questions of national
finance.

The records of the first Court of Common Pleas for Upper Canada, with
valuable annotations and historical notes, are being prepared for the
press.

In this division we have in hand among other things the preparation of a
domesday book for the Province. Our plan, which has made substantial
progress, is to cover all our settlement of Crown lands from 1783 to
1900 by townships, giving each grantee a description, and, for the
purpose of reference, a number. Succeeding volumes will furnish memoirs,
notes, and statistical data of a special character bearing on the
grantees and on their settlements. In this connection we are collecting
and rapidly accumulating local material which will be drawn upon for
this work. This I consider one of the biggest undertakings planned by
the bureau, which occupy much time to bring it to completion, but when
completed will be a work of reference of permanent use to our historical
investigators.

We are also collecting papers and documents pertaining to the political
history of Ontario that ought to be preserved in permanent form, which
will be issued in a series of four consecutive volumes. These have been
planned on lines that will bring their usefulness directly to the
growing class of students of our provincial history.

Lately a genealogical branch has been included in our program and steps
are being taken to obtain by legislation a change of official forms so
as to help in the collecting of data. The work will be conducted on the
basis of the county unit, with correspondents engaged under the
direction of the bureau.

While effort has been directed on these lines, I have paid more
attention to the collecting of much neglected material throughout the
Province--in the hands of private individuals, public bodies, or local
officials, rather than to the exact and adequate classification and
indexing of outside material as it is being received. The Province has
been so long entirely neglected that when I undertook to organize the
department I decided that the most valuable service I could render to
the public was to acquire, to collect, and safely preserve whatever
material I could find, believing the day would soon come when the value
of such material would be fully realized and the necessary office
assistance provided to enable me to make the accumulated archives
conveniently accessible to the public.



Transcriber's Notes:-

P. 355  "the Lieutanant Governor in Council." changed to "the Lieutenant
         Governor in Council."

Original spelling and punctuation retained.





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