Consists of records documenting five generations of the Miller family of Halifax and Lunenburg County and related families. The bulk contains correspondence, accounts, and bills relating to the business affairs of Jacob Miller, his son Garret, and his grandsons Garret, Jacob, and Joseph. The records also document the public offices held by the Miller men including their involvement in the Lunenburg County Court of General Sessions and militia and local church. Also contains family letters, deeds, indentures, briefs and other legal records, memo books, journals, scrapbooks and ephemera relating to various members of the Miller family and several generations of related families including Pernette, Allan, Aitkens, Hall, Godard, Mack, Owen, Erad, and Zouberbuhler. Journals kept by William D. Hall describe gold prospecting and mining activities and include mention of the Central Gold Mining Co. Also included are maps of Nova Scotia counties, Bridgewater and the Miller estate property, and Pernette property in Petite Riviere.
Miller family, 1742-Consists of portions of the Colonial Office records containing information about Nova Scotia through the British colonial period. The collection includes the original correspondence or dispatches (in-letters) of the various colonial governors of Nova Scotia or other senior officials responsible for administering the colonial government, as well as entry books (out-letters) consisting of copies of Colonial Office replies. These are supplemented with various indexes, registers, acts passed by the colonial legislature, Blue Books of Statistics, sessional papers and miscellanea.
Series forms part of the Commissioner of Public Records collection collection and consists of a 372-page index to crown land grants, 1718-1765. Index divided into five sections, each section having its own alphabetical arrangement, with names in chronological order: 1718-1749 (page 6), 1759-1760 (page 54), 1759-1763 (page 114), 1761-1763 (page 170) and 1763-1765 (page 222). Gives grantee's name, number of acres and district, date of grant and page in register.
Series forms part of Department of Lands and Forests fonds and consists of land grant registration books containing official copies of land grants given by the Government or Crown to settlers in Nova Scotia. The books were used to record Crown copies of land grants as they were issued by the Crown to applicants.
Each land grant recorded in the books identifies the individuals receiving the land and provides the boundary description of the plot as well as the amount of land granted. In many instances grants were made to a number of individuals as part of a common land grant made to a township, or to individuals with some common connection, such as disbanded soldiers. In such cases the grants may not identify the precise location or amount of land received by each person. Additionally while early grants in the 18th century may not include a map showing the location of the grant, later land grants generally include a plot plan.
Each book usually has an internal index. There is also a master index created by the Department and available on microfilm. The index is organized by name of grantee and gives the year of the grant, the acreage of the grant and a reference to the page of the land grant book. The books have been labelled in three systems during the time period from 1730 to 1958 and the time periods for each system overlap to some extent. Generally books designated as "old books" date from the 18th century (1700s); "letter books" are generally before 1847 and "new books" date from 1847 to 1958.
Series forms part of the Commissioner of Public Records collection collection and consists of original documents, copies of documents, and lists, indexes and calendars of documents. Includes a memorial (ca. 1748) on the preservation of Nova Scotia by William Bollan, agent for the province of Massachusetts Bay, addressed to Secretary of State the Duke of Bedford; a five-part catalogue of manuscript documents arranged under the direction of T.B. Akins, 1861; Akins's transcription of the "Mess Book" (passenger list of settlers who came to Chebucto with Governor Cornwalllis in June 1749); some 35 miscellaneous documents, 1744-1852, collected by Akins but never arranged or described (includes letters of General Amherst to Governor Lawrence, and of Colonel Mascarene from Annapolis Royal); a copy of Beamish Murdoch's History of Nova-Scotia, or Acadie annotated by William John Stirling; some 62 miscellaneous documents, 1751-1836, collected by Akins but never calendared (list accompanying); a collection of autographs of various Nova Scotia governors and officials; carbon copies of typewritten transcripts of mould-infested documents elsewhere in RG 1; an index to the secretary of state's dispatches, 1750-1845, prepared by T.B. Akins; a manuscript book written in Mi'kmaq; indexes to the journals of the House of Assembly, 1802-1826; rough copies of the minutes of Council, 1804-1815; and rules and orders of the House of Assembly, 1783-1821 (same book, in reverse, contains clerk and speaker's letter-book, 1819-1845).
Consists of a single volume used as a waste or note book in which Gorham recorded, for the most part, financial transactions. In places the book displays some evidence that entries were later copied to ledger books recording the accounts of his ventures and pay of his men and many entries are about payments on accounts rather than direct cash transactions. The book covers activities during the period 1747 to 1750 and includes lists of expenses for recruiting, equipping and provisioning his company of rangers, lists of expenses for the upkeep and provisioning of several ships including the sloop Diligence and the schooners Warren and Anson. For the most part the volume documents the issuance of provisions and supplies to his men recording the distribution of food, clothing and to a lesser extent equipment and goods. Some entries record in the French language transactions with Acadians at Pizaquid (now Windsor, NS) for the provision of fresh meat and goods. Entries for wages paid, sometimes with the signed or marked receipts of his men appear throughout the book.
The start of the book contains many entries related to his establishment on Sable Island, some entered retrospectively from 1747, and other island entries are scattered across the volume. Entries generally record where the activity was happening be it Annapolis Royal, Chebucto (now Halifax,NS), Minas or Boston (MA, USA).
The volume also includes copies of a few letters. One in particular to a Mr Owles, speaks to the recruitment of rangers, the size of companies, some conditions of service and what happens in a peace. Also included in the volume is a crude manuscript map showing houses and names of some families, presumably along a portion of Cape Breton Island, NS – from Cape 'Shebnacada' (Shenacadie) which is a settlement located on the south end of St. Andrew’s Channel to past 'Grand Ance' (Grande Anse) which is on the north side of Lennox Passage. The volume ends with a description by Gorham in a two page entry of a skirmish with Mi'kmaq encountered by his sloop Diligence while sailing along the coastline in August of 1748 from 'Port Mahoan'(Mahone Bay) to 'Cape Porpicom'. (Portapique, Colchester County or Pubnico have been suggested as possible contemporary locations for "Porpicom".)
Gorham, JohnSeries forms part of the Commissioner of Public Records collection collection and consists of records of the Supreme Court, Court of Chancery, County Court/Inferior Court of Common Pleas and Court of Vice-Admiralty. The Admiralty court records include letters of agency, 1776-1821; proceedings, 1749-1813; and lists of vessels captured, 1793-1818.
Series forms part of Commissioner of Public Records collection and consists of records relating to the town (1749-1841) and city (from 1841) of Halifax. Includes letters, memorials, petitions, accounts and records relating to lands, streets, public buildings, military property, companies, officials, police, bridewell and poorhouse (also Shubenacadie Canal papers, 1797-1858); the 1752 census; and reports of monthly meetings and visitations by the commissioners of the provincial penitentiary board to the Halifax city prison (Rockhead), 1844-1852.
Consists of original land transaction registers containing transcribed deeds, mortgages and other documents pertaining to land transactions as they were deposited by land grantees (buyers) and grantors (sellers) for most counties in Nova Scotia. Also includes other documents affecting title to land which were sometimes kept in separate books such as judgment books, will books and mortgage registers. Other documents which may be recorded in the registers include: quit claim deeds, wills, mechanics liens, power of attorney, right of ways, bills of sale, and assignments. Subsequent to 1851, the includes land grant records, mainly in microfilm format as these were required to be deposited with the Registry of Deeds offices under the Crown Lands Act (R.S., C.114, s.1).
Nova Scotia. Registry of Deeds, 1752-Consists of eleven series: Crown Land grants plans, surveys and other records, 1753-1864, predominant 1784-1830, Indexes to grant books and other material, [ca. 1750]-[ca. 1880], Land grant maps, Land petitions and other material, 1765-1914, Applications for Purchase and Ungranted Petitions, 1781-1910, Cape Breton land petitions and other material, 1787-1864, predominant 1787-1843, Commissioners' correspondence and other material, 1765-1905, Commissioners' letterbooks, Financial records, 1791-1925, Township records, 1759-[ca. 1847], and Journal of Titus Smith, 1801-1833.
Nova Scotia. Commissioner of Crown LandsSeries forms part of the Commissioner of Public Records collection collection and consists of records relating to the administration of Mi'kmaw affairs in Nova Scotia. Includes Joseph Howe's letter book as commissioner for Indian Affairs, 1841-1843.
Consists of a scrapbook compiled by Sydenham Howe, mostly documenting his family and his literary and artistic interests. Includes correspondence, predominantly written to and from Hon. Joseph Howe; printed and handwritten poems by Joseph Howe, Maria Morris, Mary Jane Katzman Lawson, and others; prints of engravings and lithographs, many of which depict women's fashions of the mid-19th century; newspaper clippings, several pertaining to poetry and curling; sketches and watercolours by artist Maria Morris as well as Mary Currie and S.J. Howe; visiting cards; autographs dated 1757 onwards; printed material and ephemera, including invitations, the Victoria School of Art and Design exhibition of loans catalogue, 1887, and 1889 issue of Halifax Carnival, and three Notman photographs of John Howe and John and Mary (Currie) Ross. Also contains correspondence and other items relating to the McNab family.
Howe, Sydenham, 1843-1929Series forms part of Commissioner of Public Records collection and consists of documents selected from the records of the lower house of Nova Scotia's now unicameral legislature. Includes petitions, memorials, governor's speeches and addresses in reply, messages, resolutions, protests, reports, returns, estimates etc. relating to highways, and documents sent down from the Legislative Council.
Series forms part of Commissioner of Public Records collection and consists of provincial treasurer's accounts. Includes a volume of accounts of impost, excise and lighthouse duties and fees, 1776-1780.
Forms part of Nova Scotia Commissioner of Crown Lands and consists of maps created by deputy surveyors relating to land grants in the province. Textual records accompany a few maps. Arranged alphabetically by county and chronologically within each county. Maps were created as part of the deputy surveyors' reports.