Research

Scope and Content Note

This series consists primarily of a record of payments made by the state treasurer for the maintenance of the children of slaves. A section at the beginning of the series also contains a partial index (for which the references are unclear) and unrelated records apparently dealing with prison construction work. The state treasurer had custody of state funds and disbursed them upon warrant of the comptroller. These records were created to document the fulfillment of the treasurer's requirement under Chapter 188 of the Laws of 1801 to make periodic payments to the overseers of the abandoned children.

The records suffered severe burn damage during the 1911 fire that burned the State Library. Writing is often obscured; pages are incomplete. Fragments measure approximately 8 x 10." Page numbers are completely missing. Entries are in manuscript on paper and were apparently originally part of a bound volume. The series is mentioned in the Annual Report of the American Historical Association for The Year 1900, Volume II (Report of the Public Service Commission, Washington, Government Printing Office, 1901). That abstract identifies the series as a register of children of slaves abandoned, and mentions internal notations that did not survive the fire. The information in the abstract suggests that the building construction accounts found at the beginning of the series relate to state prison construction in the late 18th century. It is likely that empty pages of the same journal were later used to list the registry.

Initial sheets of the series are a tab index, only part of which is extant. Entries in the index are alphabetical by name of city, village, or town, but it is not clear what is being indexed.

Pages following the index list payments made, apparently through the state comptroller on behalf of an unidentified commission, for services and materials relating to construction costs for unspecified prison-related building projects. The payments are signed by Samuel Jones, Comptroller, and are dated December 22, 1797.

After a series of blank pages, Chapter 52 of the Laws of 1802 is cited (with the date of its passage, March 26, 1802). Immediately following, Chapter 51 of the Laws of 1804 is cited (with its date of passage, March 31, 1804). The citations are only partly legible.

Directly following these citations appears a list of accounts in columnar form with headings for name of account, date and place of abandonment, date account rendered, amount due, and date of warrant (occasionally a warrant number). Arrangement is apparently chronological by year, and account names are apparently those of "overseers of the poor" for the town in which the abandoned child resided.

Following this list, and approximately half way through the series, begins a separate listing by child's given name which includes date of birth, a date "chargeable" or "Start Payment," another date (of unknown reference), and amount (sometimes with warrant number and date).