I would add to Jon's excellent chronology the note that many of the
commercial records -- the port books, the naval lists (another form of
customs document) and the reports of the English customs service -- were
stored in the London Custom House before the establishment of the Public
Record Office about 1860. Unfortunately, the Plantation Wing of the London
Custom's House was gutted by fire in 1814 with the result that many colonial
and not a small number of English port records were destroyed. What
remained spent a number of years in confused piles where they had been
dumped as they were rescued from the fire. Even today the results of those
confused piles can still be seen in the haphazard arrangement of the
Virginia Naval Lists (CO5/1441-1450).
Although I have found a few fugitive naval lists scattered in collections at
the Massachusetts Historical Society, the Huntingdon Library, and even at
VSL, I have never seen any port books relating to the colonial period other
than those listed in the VCRP.
One last point -- before the establishment of the PRO most English "public
records" were actually considered to be part of the private papers of the
individual office holders and may never have come into the public domain in
the first place.
Peter V. Bergstrom, PhD
PC Services Consultant & Web Designer
and Independent Historian
336-286-8654
[log in to unmask]
-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of research and writing about Virginia history
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Jon Kukla
Sent: 29 June 2005 2:57 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: London Port Books - Colonial Records Project
Right offhand (based on some familiarity with the VCRP over the years) I'd
suggest:
One - the VCRP surveyors did a pretty thorough job in the major English
archives over the course of 50 years - I'm quite confident that they found
what was there.
Two - Notice the dates that are "missing" - they correspond with the
English Civil Wars, Commonwealth, and Protectorate - and the resumption of
record-keeping fits roughly with the Restoration of the Stuarts, passage
of the Navigation Act that created, and the Anglo-Dutch Wars that excluded
Holland from the tobacco trade - in short with creation of the
18th-century British Atlantic empire and its administrative mechanisms...
For that matter, the start date of 1639 corresponds with the first real
round of administrative mechanisms for royal colonies linked to Sir
Francis Wyatt...
Jon Kukla
> Dear readers,
>
> This is the 3rd time I have published this inquiry over the last 6
months or so and no one has replied - not even someone from the
Virginia State
> Archives/Library where these records are housed.
>
> Can/will anyone answer these question:
>
> There are large gaps in the Port Books that have been copied and placed
on microfilm at the Archives as part of the Virginia Colonial Records
Project.
>
> For instance, there are Port Book records for ca. 1639/40/41 and then in
the 1670s and 1690s.
>
> The FHC in Salt Lake City has an index of Port Books -
> the years and ports, not personal names - of English
> Port Books from well before 1600 until well after
> 1700.
>
> QUESTION: What accounts for the gaps in the Port Book
> records that have been copied for the VCRP?
>
> (1) Are the records copied for the VCRP the only ones
> that have Virginia connections from 1600-1700?
>
> - or -
>
> (2) Do the Port Books - especially London - have the
> kind of gaps suggested by my experience above?
>
> Thanks!
>
> Joe Chandler Jr
> Alexandria
>
> To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe, please see the instructions
> at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html
>
>
Dr. Jon Kukla, Executive Vice-President
Red Hill - The Patrick Henry National Memorial
1250 Red Hill Road
Brookneal, Virginia 24528
www.redhill.org
Phone 434-376-2044 or 800-514-7463
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