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The ArchivesSourcesThe Colonial Office Records (TNA CO)

The Colonial Office Records (TNA CO)

The original in-letters, enclosures and Board of Trade papers of England's, then Britain's, colonial administration, held as the CO record group at The National Archives, Kew, and the manuscript body that the printed Calendar of State Papers Colonial abstracts, with the classes central to golden-age piracy running strongly across about 1690 to 1725.

Fromseventeenth centuryAlso writtenCO; TNA CO; The CO record group; Colonial Office papers, The National Archives; Original correspondence of the Board of Trade and Secretaries of State

CO is the letter code under which The National Archives at Kew holds the records of England's, then Britain's, colonial administration. It is a record group, not a book: the in-letters, enclosures and Board of Trade papers of the bodies that governed the overseas plantations, arranged into numbered classes and pieces. The Colonial Office proper dates from 1801; the papers under its label were made by the Lords of Trade and Plantations, by the Board of Trade established in 1696, and by the Secretaries of State handling colonial business. For golden-age piracy, roughly 1690 to 1725, this is the manuscript body behind the printed Calendar of State Papers Colonial.1

How the record was made

There is no single author. Governors and councils, admiralty and customs officials, naval captains, merchants and petitioners wrote in to London; the Board and the Secretaries received the letters, minuted, referred and replied. In-letters and enclosures were filed; out-letters and deliberation went into entry books and minute books. The Public Record Office later gathered the surviving papers into the group as it stands. The arrangement is archival rather than original: the structure a researcher meets reflects cataloguing practice, not any office's filing.

The classes that carry the period

CO 5 is America and West Indies, Original Correspondence, covering roughly 1606 to 1822. Around it sit the colony classes: CO 137 for Jamaica, CO 23 for the Bahamas, CO 152 for the Leeward Islands, CO 37 for Bermuda, and CO 28 for Barbados. CO 1, the earlier Colonial Papers, is the general chronological series and carries related material. The class identities are firm, but their covering dates and internal arrangement have not yet been confirmed. The administrative record runs in parallel: Board of Trade correspondence at CO 388, entry books at CO 389, minutes and journal at CO 391.2

What sits inside a piece

A piece is a bound volume or a box: a governor's letters to the Board or to a Secretary of State with whatever he sent under the same cover. The enclosures are usually the richest piracy evidence: depositions of prisoners and witnesses, minutes of councils of war, lists of ships and crews, copies of proclamations and pardons, accounts of prizes and prisoner lists. A single despatch may forward sworn evidence naming a vessel, her captain and her company that survives nowhere else.3

The Calendar and the manuscript

The Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies is a calendar, not a full transcript. It abstracts and selects, mainly from CO 1 and CO 5, so its summaries can omit the name, date or marginal note on which a close argument turns. It was edited across many volumes by W. Noel Sainsbury, then J. W. Fortescue, then Cecil Headlam and others, published by His or Her Majesty's Stationery Office across the reigns of the series; the volume for 1685 to 1688 was Fortescue's, London, 1899. It remains the standard finding aid, and the manuscript behind an entry is where the detail sits.4

Getting at it

The Calendar volumes are free in full text on British History Online, in the public domain. The manuscripts have no edition, only a catalogue: Discovery gives class descriptions, covering dates and piece-level entries. Images of part of the group sit behind subscription, Colonial State Papers reproducing CO 1 and CO 5 alongside the Calendar, and Adam Matthew's Colonial Caribbean digitising colony classes including CO 137 and CO 152; vendors and terms there are carried as probable. Some pieces are read on microfilm or surrogate, and fragile originals may be withheld.5

How the Archive uses it

CO is treated here as the manuscript foundation beneath the Calendar, and cited wherever the enclosure detail carries the weight. It is a principal documentary home for the pirate base at New Providence, for the arrival of Woodes Rogers to break it up under the act of grace, for the Jamaica and Leeward Islands naval and admiralty responses, and for papers naming and dating individual pirates, ships and prizes.

It is also official correspondence, written by men pressing cases on London. Governors wrote to justify their conduct, to ask for ships and money, to blame rivals and to show suppression working; tallies of pirates taken or killed, and charges that colonists were complicit, are advocacy as much as report. Coverage comes in bursts around crises, and London saw only what officials chose to send. The rule here is citation at class and piece level, because "the CO papers" is not a reference a reader can follow.6

What this source cannot yet give is precision at its edges: the covering dates and arrangement of the colony classes are carried as probable rather than checked, the golden-age Calendar volumes and their editors have not been confirmed volume by volume, and which pieces are damaged, filmed or restricted is stated for no named piece.

What the evidence does not settle

The exact covering dates and internal arrangement of the piracy-bearing colony classes, CO 137 for Jamaica, CO 23 for the Bahamas, CO 152 for the Leeward Islands and CO 37 for Bermuda, have not yet been confirmed against the Discovery catalogue entry for each class. The editorial sequence and full span of the Calendar of State Papers Colonial are known only in outline, and the specific volumes covering about 1690 to 1725, with their editors, need confirming volume by volume on British History Online. The publisher, platform and current name of the Colonial State Papers image database are unsettled and want checking at the point of use, as commercial platforms change hands. The extent of microfilm-only or surrogate-only access, and which particular pieces are damaged or restricted, is not known for any named piece; the Discovery record and access conditions for each piece would settle it.

Sources for this record

Every statement above that rests on a checked claim carries a small number; the numbers lead here. Each entry gives what is claimed, how far the record supports it, and where it comes from.

  1. The Colonial Office Records are a record group and not a single document, holding the original in-letters, enclosures and Board of Trade papers of the bodies that governed England's, then Britain's, overseas plantations at The National Archives, Kew, where the label Colonial Office is applied retrospectively to the Lords of Trade and Plantations, the Board of Trade established in 1696 and the Secretaries of State handling colonial business, all of which predate the Colonial Office proper of 1801. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Archive catalogue and research guide: The National Archives, Discovery catalogue description of the Colonial Office record group; The National Archives, American and West Indian colonies before 1782 research guide
  2. CO 5 is America and West Indies, Original Correspondence, a general class covering roughly 1606 to 1822, and around it sit the colony classes most used for golden-age piracy, CO 137 for Jamaica, CO 23 for the Bahamas, CO 152 for the Leeward Islands, CO 37 for Bermuda and CO 28 for Barbados, together with CO 1, the earlier Colonial Papers of 1574 to 1757, and the Board of Trade classes CO 388, CO 389 and CO 391; the colony class identities are firm but their exact covering dates and internal arrangement are probable and need checking against the catalogue. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Archive research guide and catalogue: The National Archives, American and West Indian colonies before 1782 research guide; Discovery series descriptions for CO 137, CO 23, CO 152 and CO 37
  3. A typical CO piece holds a governor's letters to the Board of Trade or a Secretary of State together with their enclosures, and it is the enclosures, depositions and examinations of prisoners and witnesses, minutes of councils of war, lists of ships and crews, copies of proclamations and pardons, accounts of prizes, muster and prisoner lists, that carry the richest piracy evidence and often survive nowhere else. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Archive research guide and piece content list: Contents list, Original Correspondence: Jamaica (CO 137), The Loyalist Collection, University of New Brunswick; The National Archives, America and the West Indies in the Calendar of State Papers Colonial 1573-1739 research guide
  4. The Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies is a calendar of transcripts and abstracts drawn mainly from CO 1 and CO 5 rather than a full transcript, edited across many volumes by W. Noel Sainsbury, then J. W. Fortescue, then Cecil Headlam and others and published by His or Her Majesty's Stationery Office across the reigns of the series, with the volume for 1685 to 1688 edited by Fortescue and published in London in 1899; it serves as the standard finding aid to the CO manuscripts and its abstracts can omit detail that a close argument requires. Confirmed Directly supported by the record. Archive research guide and printed calendar: The National Archives, America and the West Indies in the Calendar of State Papers Colonial 1573-1739 research guide; Calendar of State Papers Colonial, America and West Indies, Volume 12, 1685-1688, ed. J. W. Fortescue, London, 1899, British History Online
  5. The Calendar volumes are freely available in full text and in the public domain on British History Online, while the manuscripts themselves have no edition and are reached through the Discovery catalogue, with digital images of part of the group available only by subscription through the Colonial State Papers database for CO 1 and CO 5 and Adam Matthew's Colonial Caribbean for colony classes including CO 137 and CO 152. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Archive catalogue and digitisation platform descriptions: Calendar of State Papers Colonial digitised volumes, British History Online; Colonial Caribbean collection description, Adam Matthew Digital; Colonial State Papers database description
  6. The CO correspondence is official and self-interested, written by governors and officials pressing cases on London to justify their conduct, solicit force and funds, blame rivals and present suppression favourably, so its tallies of pirates taken or killed and its charges of colonial complicity must be weighed as advocacy as well as report, its coverage runs in bursts around crises, and it must be cited at class and piece level to be followed. Unverified Reported, not yet checked against the record. Archive research guide and modern scholarship: The National Archives, American and West Indian colonies before 1782 research guide; Pirates, markets and imperial authority: economic aspects of maritime depredations in the Atlantic World, 1716-1726, Global Crime, vol. 9 (2008)