Finding Aids and Inventories Not Available 
at the Fortress of Louisbourg

Taken from : FINDING AID FOR LOUISBOURG MATERIALS IN THE MARYLAND STATE ARCHIVES
Extracted by Eric Krause, Krause House Info-Research Solutions, February 6, 2002 Louisbourg Library Report 2002-09

The published archival records of the Maryland Government are available on line in searchable format at [http://www.mdarchives.state.md.us/megafile/msa/speccol/sc2900/sc2908/html/index.html]. A search will produce two results: A copy in OCR (Optical Character Recognition) format and a tiff image of the original published page. To consult the image, your browser may require the addition of a plug-in.

Please read "about this site," - including technical details and credits at: [http://www.mdarchives.state.md.us/megafile/msa/speccol/sc2900/sc2908/html/index.html ].

If your internet browser will not bring up the tiff image, please read "Help," - information on viewing the images at: [ http://www.mdarchives.state.md.us/megafile/msa/speccol/sc2900/sc2908/html/help.html  ] and click on "Viewing Images."

The limitations of the uncorrected OCR version require that the researcher always consult the image to ensure an accurate interpretation.

References to Louisbourg (Louisburg, Louisburgh, Lewisburg, Cape Breton, etc.) found in the OCR version have been extracted and re-formatted as below.

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©Copyright 2002, Maryland State Archives

The Maryland State Archives publication series, Archives of Maryland Online, will be providing access to over one million historical documents that form the constitutional, legal, legislative, judicial, and administrative basis of Maryland's government. Online access to this information at the Archives' web site enables users to research quickly and easily such topics as Maryland's constitutions and constitutional conventions' proceedings, session laws, proceedings of the General Assembly, governors' papers, and military records. Through this project, the Archives is making accessible in electronic form and preserving for future generations records that are scattered among a number of repositories and that often exist only on rapidly disintegrating paper.

An act of the General Assembly in 1882 directed the Maryland Historical Society to collect and prepare for publication "... all the records, archives and ancient documents of the province and State of Maryland of any date prior to the acknowledgment of the independence of the United States by Great Britain...". The legislature had two objectives: to prevent further loss of the state's historical documents and to make the records available to scholars and investigators who did not have access to the original records. The records were collected "...from various rooms of the State House, from disused offices, cupboards, underneath the staircases, from the lofts, the cellars, and even the stairway leading to the dome...". Where gaps existed, they were filled wherever possible with copies obtained from the Public Records Office in London.

The first digital edition of the Archives of Maryland series is being published by the Maryland State Archives through a grant from the Information Technology Fund of the State of Maryland. As part of an ongoing effort to provide greater access to Maryland Legal History, the Archives will be bringing the printed Archives of Maryland series online and expanding the contents with links to scans of historical documents.

Proceedings and Acts of the General Assembly,
June 3, 1752 - December 24, 1754,
Volume 50

The fiftieth volume of the Archives of Maryland series was published in 1933, with J. Hall Pleasants as the editor, under the direction of the Maryland Historical Society. This volume covers the Proceedings and Acts of the General Assembly from June 3, 1752 to December 24, 1754 as well as the Calvert Papers from this time period.
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• Assembly Proceedings, Dec. 12-24, 1754. U. H. J. Volume 50, p. 576 ... calls us together at this disagreeable Season first obliged me after my [Liber No. 34] Arrival to desire an extraordinary Meeting of the Several Branches December 12 of this Legislature; I presume there is little Occasion for me at this Time to repeat the Several Arguments which the present POsture of [p. 520] Affairs must Suggest to you, as Sufficient Motives to prompt you to exert yourselves at this Important Juncture. You are not now I con- ceive to learn that in pursuance of a Plan to Secure a Communication between their Northern & Southern Settlements and in Time render themselves Masters of all the Continent from Cape Breton to the Gulf of Mexico, that restless & ambitious People have proceeded to build Several Forts on his Majestys Lands, One especially at a small distance from the Frontiers of this Province and have Garrisoned it with a large Body of regular Troops. That they already extend their Claim to Lands far within the Limits of this Province, and are making great preparations for enlarging their Conquests; That not Satisfied with cutting us off from all Intercourse with the Indian Natives with whom We have hitherto it Seems presumed to carry on a Contraband Trade, they have employed Numbers of those Natives to depopulate and distress these Colonies and have also themselves Committed every Kind of Hostility on our fellow Subjects who have been unfortunate enough to be Exposed to their Cruelty & Insults These Gentlemen are Circumstances that present to our view no very Agreeable Prospect; and I doubt not but the Repetition of them makes every one of Us burn with Resentment and urges us to take the most Speedy and effectual Measures to prevent the dreadful Calamities that our Posterities must otherwise feel from the Vicinity of such People. What Resolutions the Virginians have hereupon taken I appre- hend you are no Strangers to, and I am encouraged to hope; that the other Neighbouring Governments whom I have Solicted will Shew an equal Zeal, and emulate their Conduct, that your Resolutions will Confirm the Opinion his Majesty has been pleased to entertain of you and Merit the Confidence that he has thought fit to Repose in the affections & Loyalty of his Maryland Subjects by distinguishing their Governor with the honour of Commanding the combined Forces that shall be Assembled to oppose the Enemys hostile Attempts, I entertain the most Sanguine hopes that you will generously concur with the Neighbouring Provinces to Enable me to Answer his Majes- tys Expectations and Royal Intention in honouring me with such a Commission, a Commission also from his Lordship the Lord Proprietary whereby his Lordship from an Earnest Desire & Solicitude to Contribute to the Restoration of Peace and Tranquillity to this and the other British Colonies has been pleased to Dispence with my Temporary Absence from his Government that I may pay the most ready & punctual Obedience to his Majestys Commands shall with the Royal Commission be laid before You: And I will assure You that ...

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