St Helena Records 1705-1706

The poor photographic quality of the images hampered transcription of this volume. A note at the end explains that the pages are reflective and were therefore difficult to photograph. This reflectiveness presumably resulted from treatment to conserve the paper. AI transcription consequently proved unacceptably inaccurate and is therefore not included on this website.

Introduction: This is the eighth volume in the series St Helena Records. The series includes the official minute books of the island’s Governor and Council, which recorded their meetings, deliberations and decisions, with abstracts of correspondence, proclamations and regulations, judicial proceedings and financial business. The volumes served as the principal administrative record of government on St Helena and were often titled “Consultations”. Its authority was derived from the EIC, with final decisions directed by instructions issued from London.

Source: Images of the original records can be viewed on the British Library’s website: https://eap.bl.uk/archive-file/EAP1364-1-1-8.

Contents: The first sixteen pages are missing. This gap is confirmed by the absence of any Council meeting records for March 1705. The previous volume, St Helena Records 1703-1704, ends with proceedings from February of that year, and this volume begins with a session held in April 1705.

From 14 January 1706 onward (from location 84/126), all entries were retrospectively signed by Thomas Goodwin, who dated his signatures as “Xbr. The 6th. 1707”, interpreted as 6 December 1707.^[1] These retrospective signatures are explained in the ninth volume of this series^[2]with a note written on 26 November 1707: “the Council books have not for some time been signed for a great while together, which is thought to have been the neglect of the clerks of the Council, so that now perusing the said books they will seem like faulties, since the late Governor's hand are not to any for above a year since.” Thomas Goodwin, who by 1707 had been selected as the new governor, retrospectively signed off every council meeting between January 1706 and November 1707.

Pagination: The first visible page number, page 17, appears at film No. 3 (3/17), showing that the first sixteen pages are missing. Pages 42-43 are also missing, the sequence running 25/39, 26/40, 27/43, 28/44 and so forth. Similarly, pages 59-60 are absent, the sequence running 41/57, 42/58, 43/61, 44/62 and so forth. Pages 81-104 are also missing, the sequence running 61/79, 62/80, 63/105, 64/106 and so forth. Pages 129-132 are also missing, the sequence running 85/127, 86/128, 87/133, 88/134 and so forth. Pages 198-201 are missing, the sequence running 151/196, 152/197, 153/202, 154/203 and so forth. Finally, pages 222-225 are absent, the sequence running 171/220, 172/221, 173/226, 174/227 and so forth through to the end of the volume.

Dates: During the period covered by this volume, England and its colonies followed the Old-Style Julian calendar, under which the legal new year began on 25 March (Lady Day). The earliest date recorded in this volume is 18 April 1705 and the last date is 8 October 1706.

The Council meetings were all held during the administration of Captain Stephen Poirier (1697-1707).

Content

Because AI transcription of this volume was abandoned, the following table contains no text other than hyperlinked film numbers and the page numbers.

1. Latin month abbreviations usually only apply to the last four months of the year, each being counted from and including March. For example, if March is included, then December is the tenth month. Dates may therefore be shown as follows: 7bris viibris or Septembris (of September); 8br 8ber or viiibr or viiiber or 8bris or viiibris or Octobris (of October); 9br or 9ber or ixbr or ixber or 9bris or ixbris or Novembris (of November); 10br or 10ber or xbr or xber or 10bris or xbris or Decembris (of December) - Kip Sperry, Abbreviations & Acronyms: A Guide for Family Historians (Ancestry Publishing, 2003), 187. ↑

2. St Helena Records 1706-1709, text location 94/86. ↑