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).

Series 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.

Series 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.

Series 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.

Series forms part of Commissioner of Public Records collection and consists of records relating to the first British settlements on the Saint John River and other parts of New Brunswick; also to laying out and building the town of Saint John (formerly Parrtown), 1783-1785.

Series forms part of the Commissioner of Public Records collection collection and consists of Nova Scotia population returns (both statistical and nominal), 1767-1860; assessment rolls (poll or capitation tax), mainly 1790-1796; and returns of livestock, 1798-1817. No pre-1838 census, nor the 1851 census, survives intact. Includes, as volume 454, Report of the Secretary of the Board of Statistics on the Census of Nova Scotia, 1861 (Halifax: Queen's Printer, 1862), 298 pages.

Fonds consists of 4 Series: Postmaster General's correspondence (1825-1862); Financial records (1769-1868); Returns and other material (1846-1897, predom. 1846-1870); and Tenders (1851-1859).

Fonds consists of records arising from and documenting the functions of the lieutenant governor.

Series forms part of Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia fonds and consists of proclamations (1771, 1801-1865), printed circulars (1856-1866), telegraph book (1866-1867), Government House official visitor and guest records (1873-1968), Government House household expense records (1951-1954), and books of condolence opened on the occasion of the death of the Princess of Wales (1997).