Collection F1320 - Upper Canada Sundries collection

The pre-eminent responsibility of the Civil or private Secretary to the Lieutenant Governor was management of correspondence: ensuring that it was duly acknowledged, referred onward or filed. Closely related were the duties of receiving and acknowledging addresses, petitions, memorials and applications for office; transmitting messages and public documents to the Legislature; and referring petitions to the appropriate public offices for opinion or advice prior to submission to the Executive Council. The responsibilities of the Civil Secretary for general correspondence were transferred to the Provincial Secretary and Registar in 1839, following a study of both offices (the Report of which is published in the Journals of the Legislative Assembly, 1839, Appendix, volume 2 part 1, pages 310-321).

In managing communications for the Lieutenant Governor, the Civil Secretary maintained a distinction between the correspondence to which replies were made in the governor's name and that to which the Secretary responded on his behalf. Despatches to colleagues and letters to senior officials were signed by the governor. Letters to invididuals were written on the governor's behalf by the Secretary. The governor's despatches are found in RG 7; the Civil Secretary's correspondence is divided between RG 7 and RG 5. As a result of the transmission of files from one office to another for action or advice, documents relating to a case may be found with the Secretaries' correspondence (RG 5, A 1 or C 1), with submissions to the Executive Council (see RG 1), or with records retained in the governor's office (see RG 7, notably series G 14, G 18 and G 20).