Colonial Office 226 consists of correspondence, despatches and reports from Prince Edward Island, the first of the six classes normally assigned to a geographically defined collection, and follows the usual system of arrangement for "colony" classes. The entire class is available on microfilm reels B-1238a to B-1264, B-1283 to B-1292, B-1378 to B-1401, B-1940. Transcripts are available on microfilm reels C-13955 to C-13962.
The first two volumes include the correspondence of the Board of Trade from 1769, the date of the separation of the Island of St. John from Nova Scotia, to 1782 when the Board of Trade's colonial function was suppressed. (Note that the island was renamed Prince Edward Island in 1799.) Volumes 3-111 (1772 to 1873) contain the correspondence to the Secretary of State and office responsible for colonial affairs.
Apart from including an abnormally large number of draft out-letters, the class also houses an unusually substantial quantity of items such as copies of contemporary newspapers, minutes and journals of the legislature, shipping returns, copies of bills and acts. This is material which be expected to be encountered in other classes of Prince Edward Island records.
Beginning with volume 31 (1816), internal indexes appear regularly either at the end of the "Despatches" category, or at the end of each volumes. However, not until volume 42 (1825) do internal indexes for the "Public Offices" and "Miscellaneous" or "Individuals" categories begin to appear systematically, and the internal indexes as a whole terminate completely at volume 105 (1869) after a few years of incomplete indexing. These changes in practice probably reflect changing circumstances in the Secretary of State's office with related changes in the record keeping systems.
The land issue and related matters which permeated the social, economic and political life of the Island throughout the colonial period are reflected in the regular records and even in the special subject volumes. These latter volumes include: vol. 28 (1813), charges against Chief Justice Caesar Colclough, Assistant Judges of the Prince Edward Island Supreme Court Robert Gray and James Curtis, and John Frederick Holland, Barrack Master, Ordnance Clerk and a magistrate for Queen's County. The charges against these men involved alleged illegal nominations to offices, improper detentions, irregular legal procedures, interference in elections, and various other complaints such as public drunkenness and assault. Other special subject volumes are: vol. 33 (1817), "Mr. [James Bardin] Palmer's case", relative to his suspension from the Executive Council partly for the opinions, repugnant to Lieutenant-Governor Sir Henry Vere Huntley, which Pope had expressed in the Assembly of which he was Speaker; vol. 78 (1850), while not strictly speaking a special subject volume, is composed largely of documents relating to the introduction of responsible government and the surrender of crown revenues in exchange for a civil list; vol. 95 provides the "1861 Report of Commission on Land Tenure Disputes."
The class includes a number of peculiar items, a few random examples of which may serve to suggest the richness of the Prince Edward Island original correspondence class. Volume 18 (1802) provides an 80-page "Narrative relative to Prince Edward Island" with a table of contents to this brief historical sketch as well as numerous short biographies of some of the more prominent figures on the Island, and a printed copy of "Opinions of Several Gentlemen of the Law, on the Subject of Negro Servitude, in the Province of Nova Scotia" (St. John: King's Printer, 1802). Volume 39 (1823) includes a group of statistical reports on King's and Queen's Counties, concentrating on land, its extent, name of proprietor, quit rent, years of indulgence for quit rent, date from when quit rent will be payable and remarks concerning numbers of acres settled and cultivated. Volume 109 (1872) provides a copy of a printed "Report on the Geological Structure and Mineral Resources of Prince Edward Island" by J.W. Dawson and B.J. Harrison (Montreal: John Lovell, 1871), with illustrations.
In addition to a complete set of microfilm for CO 226, the Archives also houses a composite series of transcripts known as Prince Edward Island "A" which derives mostly from what became the original correspondence class for Prince Edward Island, although it also includes material drawn from the Dartmouth papers. The existence of such additional material in the composite series explains the presence of documents in Prince Edward Island "A" which are earlier in date than the earliest items in the microfilm copies from the class CO 226 originals at the Public Record Office. The transcripts lack marginalia, minutes and other notations on documents dated prior to 1817. By this point, the restriction against copying such notes had been rescinded.
Also includes a list of crew and passengers on board the ship Clarendon of Hull bound for Charlottetown, 1808. This item is in horizontal storage, vol. 104, pp. 153-154. Also, negative numbers C 60137 and C 60138.
