West Indian colonies before 1782
1. Why use this guide?
Use this guide to find out about records of the British administration in colonial West Indies.The records can tell you about:
- the earliest English settlements (rather than settlers)
- Natives and Africans
- piracy
- the slave trade
- English conflicts with the Spanish and French
- Learn about the West Indies upto the early settlement of Grenada, by the British, in 1763
2. Essential information
Britain’s colonies were founded and developed during the 17th and 18th centuries. Responsibility for colonial matters fell at various times to the:- Secretaries of State and Board of Trade (called the Lords of Trade and Plantations)
- Secretary of State for the Southern Department
- Colonial Secretary (for the period 1768-1782)
- The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA)
- Contact information for state archives (on the NARA website)
- Library of Congress
3. Using a catalogue to find records
Look for mentions in this guide of:
- department references such as CO (Colonial Office) or T (Treasury)
- record series references such as CO 1 or T 77
Our catalogue contains descriptions of our records. Some of the records described in this guide are available online (through an academic subscription) but for many that you find references for, you will need to either visit The National Archives at Kew or pay for copies to be sent to you. Alternatively, you can pay for research.
4. Key sources
4.1 Online sources
The best place to start your research is with the Colonial State Papers online collection. This is available to institutions such as universities and public libraries that have subscribed.The collection combines The National Archives record series CO 1 with the Calendar of State Papers, Colonial and some parts of CO 5 and CO 389 (see below).
4.2 Records at The National Archives
The following record series are available at The National Archives in Kew. Use the advanced search option in our catalogue to search within these series to find documents relevant to your research.- CO 1 West Indies, Colonial Papers 1574-1757
- CO 5 West Indies, Original Correspondence 1606-1822
- CO 318 West Indies, Original Correspondence 1624-1951
- CO 323 Colonies, Original Correspondence 1689-1952
- CO 389 Board of Trade, Entry books 1660-1803
- CO 390 Board of Trade, Miscellanea 1654-1799
- go to the advanced search page
- use a wildcard search within a particular record series (such as CO 5) or department reference (such as CO)
- select ‘online collections only’
4.3 Published sources
The Calendar of State Papers, Colonial; West Indies 1574-1757 is a collection of transcripts and abstracts of original documents bound together in published volumes.The Calendar brings together papers from different sources, printed in date order. The original papers are in CO1 (up to 1688) and CO 5 (1688 to 1807).
Also see the research guide on How to use the Calendar of State Papers Colonial, West Indies 1573-1739.
5. What sort of documents can I find?
For each colony there are five main types of record, explained in greater detail in the sections below. They are:- Original Correspondence with the Secretary of State
- Original Correspondence with the Board of Trade
- Entry Books of the Secretary of State
- Entry Books of the Board of Trade
- Collections of Acts and Sessional Papers of the colonial legislature
- naval officers’ returns of shipping
- military and naval despatches
- collections of land grants and other materials
6. Original correspondence
These are collections of- reports, orders and instructions from and to the officials in each colony
- correspondence with officials and other people in the United Kingdom
- correspondence between the Secretary of State and the Board of Trade
- CO 326/1-51 for 1703-1759
- CO 326/52-74 for 1759-1782
7. Entry Books
Entry Books were used to record correspondence going in and out of the Colonial Office, although from 1700 they only record items going out.They contain full copies or summarised versions of despatches, letters, reports, petitions, commissions and instructions.
Colonial Office entry books are in CO 324. Browse CO 324 in the catalogue to find relevant books or search the catalogue for ‘entry book’ and then use the filtering options on the results page.
8. Acts and sessional papers
Colonial authorities sent copies of their Acts and Proceedings to the Privy Council for approval or rejection. They were then forwarded to the Board of Trade.Search the catalogue using keyword expressions such as ‘Maryland Acts’. There will be information in PC 1 and PC 2 but this will not be picked up by a catalogue search and you will need to look speculatively within those record series.
Copies of Acts and Proceedings were kept by the colony itself and you can often find these in US state and university archives (see section 2).
9. Military and naval despatches
Read our research guides on Royal Navy operations 1660-1914 and British Army operations up to 1913 which explain how to find relevant records.The best way to identify useful records is to use the List and Index Society Volume LIII: An alphabetical guide to certain War Office and other military records, available in the reading rooms at The National Archives at Kew and in other academic libraries. This provides a comprehensive lists of subjects and names of individuals which are cross referenced to the relevant records at The National Archives.
Alternatively, use the advanced search option in our catalogue and search within the following record series for despatches:
- WO 1-5 War Office in-letters and miscellaneous papers
- CO 5 Original Correspondence 1606-1822 – contains despatches related to fighting against the French and various Native American tribes
- CO 318 Original Correspondence: West Indies – contains some military despatches
Keyword catalogue searches will only pick up records where the descriptions provide sufficient detail. Because the record series above are not described comprehensively you may not find what you need.
10. Land grants
10.1 Land grants by the Crown
In early colonial period, Britain considered land to belong to the Crown because it had been discovered and settled by its subjects.The Crown granted land to companies to organise settlements and sometimes to people as a reward for services.
Although land grants were nominally made in the name of the Crown, most were made and recorded in the colonies rather than in London and these records may be available in American state archives.
10.2 Finding records of land grants
Loyalists, whose land had been handed over to a new American government following the American revolutionary wars, tried to claim compensation from the British government.Records relating to their claims are in
- AO 10 – AO 13 – Claims Commission
- T 50, T 77, T 79 – Treasury
- CO 5 – Colonial Office
- C. M. Andrews, Guide to the Materials for History to 1783 in The Public Record Office
- Journals of the Board of Trade and Plantations
- Calendar of State Papers Colonial: West Indies
- Acts of the Privy Council, Colonial Series
You can find indexes to claimants’ names in the List of Records of the Treasury, Paymaster-General’s Office, Exchequer and Audit Department and Board of Trade and other useful material in A Bibliography of Loyalist source material in the colonies and Great Britain. Both items are available in The National Archives’ library.
11. African affairs
There is very little information on individual liberated Africans – very few vice-Admiralty Court proceedings are to be found in The National Archives (see above). Admiralty papers especially ADM 1, and CUST 34, HCA 30 and HCA 49 contain a few lists of the slaves liberated. Two Sierra Leone censuses have information relating to liberated Africans: CO 267/111 (1831) and CO 267/127 (1832-1834). Because the collectors of customs were responsible for looking after liberated Africans, information can sometimes be found in Colonial Office original correspondence series, especially in despatches from the governor, the naval office and the Board of Customs and in CUST 34. A ‘Commission of Enquiry into the state of captured Negroes in the West Indies, 1821-1830’ (CO 318/81-98) was set up to look at the treatment and conditions of liberated Africans in the West Indies and includes some lists of liberated Africans.The British Army and Royal Navy owned and hired slaves as labourers and soldiers, most of whom went to the Corps of Military Labourers and the West India Regiments. CO 318/31 describes army purchases of slaves for the West Indian Regiments including the numbers purchased. There are several files in WO 1 relating to the status of slaves in the Army, especially once they were discharged. For further information on government-owned slaves, researchers should check musters for dockyards, ships, and regiments. It is also possible that some former slaves may have discharge papers or applied for pensions so there may be papers in WO 97 and ADM 29. WO 97 for the period 1760-1854 is searchable online by country of birth and by regiment through findmypast.
12. Records covering all British colonies
The following record series relate to British colonies in general and will contain some information relating to the West Indies:- CO 323 Colonies General: Original Correspondence
- CO 324 Entry Books
- CO 388 Board of Trade: Original Correspondence
- CO 389 Board of Trade: Entry Books
- CO 390 Board of Trade: Miscellanea
- CO 391 Board of Trade: Minutes
13. Treasury and customs records
Records from the Treasury and the Board of Customs can provide useful information about the colonies. The relevant Customs records are mostly trade statistics.Use Andrews’ Guide to the Materials for American History Volume II to identify the relevant records from these departments.
14. Further reading
Some of the publications below may be available to buy from The National Archives’ bookshop. Alternatively, click on the links to view the books in The National Archives’ library catalogue and see what is available to consult at our building in Kew.- KG Davies ed, The Documents of the American Revolution
- CM Andrews, Guide to the Materials for American History to 1783 in The Public Record Office (1912) [Some of the references given are out of date and need to be converted into current references]
- BR Crick, M Alman and JW Raimo, A Guide to Manuscripts Relating to America in Great Britain and Ireland (1979)
- HC Bell, DW Parker and others, Guide to British West Indian Archive Materials, in London and in the Islands, for the History of the United States (1926)
- P Walne, ed, A Guide to Manuscript Sources for the History of Latin America and the Caribbean in the British Isles (1973)
- RB Pugh, The Records of the Colonial and Dominions Offices (1964)
- A Thurston, Sources for Colonial Studies in the Public Record Office, Volume I: Records of the Colonial Office Dominions Office, Commonwealth Relations Office and Commonwealth Office (1995)
- Alphabetical Guide to the War Office and other Series (PRO List and Index Series vol LIII, 1931; reprinted 1963)
- Journals of the Board of Trade and Plantations
- OT Barck and HT Lefler, Colonial America (1968)
Guide reference: Overseas Records Information 51
