Collection search - Audit Office fonds [textual record (chiefly microform)] [Great Britain]

Record information – Brief
1
Audit Office fonds [textual record (chiefly microform)] [Great Britain]

Hierarchical level:

Fonds

Date:

1749-1841.

Reference:

R14427-0-5-E, MG14-AO

Type of material:

Textual material

Found in:

Archives / Collections and Fonds

Item ID number:

158811

Context of this record:

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Audit Office fonds
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Record information – Details
Fonds includes:

5 lower level description(s)
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Date(s):

1749-1841.

Place of creation:

No place, unknown, or undetermined

Extent:

174 microfilm reels negative & positive 35 mm.
7.46 m of textual records transcripts & photocopies.

Language of material:

English

Scope and content:

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Fonds consists of copies of whole classes or selections from classes of the Audit Office of Great Britain pertaining to British North America. In the form of microfilm, transcripts or photocopies, these records document public accounts of colonial, civil or military affairs. Included are accounts for expenses incurred for military works and fortifications and for transporting and settling emigrants; documents submitted to auditors including summary accounts presented by colonial governors; entry books, ledgers, etc., in connection with the claims of Loyalists who requested compensation for losses sustained during the American Revolution because of loyalty to the British Crown; and a few records of the Comptroller of Army accounts.

Provenance:

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Great Britain. Audit Office
Additional name(s):

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Great Britain. Audit Office

Grande-Bretagne. Audit Office
Biography/Administrative history:

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Great Britain. Audit Office : The complex processes of public accounts of the Imperial government, in civil or military affairs, at home or in colonies abroad, were altered significantly during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Principal responsibility for the final settlement of accounts lay with the Exchequer, from which the Audit Office was detached in 1785. Within the Audit Office, two of the five Commissioners were the Comptrollers of Army Accounts (first appointed in 1703). Several changes in the composition of the Audit Office and a major reform of the Exchequer were effected three decades before the two were reunited in 1866 to form the Exchequer and Audit Department.

The Exchequer and Audit Department, familiarly known as the Audit Office, the principal auditing agency of the British central government, was created in 1866 to be the modern replacement of the old Exchequer. The new Audit Office was entrusted with much greater power than its predecessors enabling the government to exercise effective control over the objects as well as over the amounts of its expenditure, by an appropriation audit which was included within its functions, and the accounts of all government departments, including the Treasury, were subjected to its scrutiny. With these innovations the machinery of modern financial control by the British Parliament was, in all essentials, complete.

The Audit Office was concerned with accounts of expenditures related to colonial administration and military and naval actions associated with the acquisition and defence of colonies, including the British North American colonies which later became Canada and the United States of America. More detailed information on the history of the Audit Office of Great Britain may be obtained in the General Inventory of MG 14, published in 1976.

Finding aid:

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(Paper) "List and Index of the Declared Accounts from the Pipe Office and the Audit Office preserved in the Public Record Office", Public Record Office Lists and Indexes no. 11 (London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1893).

(Paper) "Lists of the Records of the Treasury, the Paymaster General's Office, the Exchequer and Audit Department and the Board of Trade, to 1837, preserved in the Public Record Office" (London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 1921).

(Paper) "Guide to the Contents of the Public Record Office", volumes I and II (London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1963). While more recent, it contains less detail.

(Paper) "Guide to the Materials for American History, to 1783, in the Public Record Office of Great Britain", by Charles M. Andrews (Washington, D.C.: The Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1914). Provides more detailed listings of material of American interest.

(Paper) "Guide to the Materials in London Archives for the History of the United States since 1783", by C.O. Paullin and F.L. Paxson (Washington, D.C.: The Carnegie Institution of Washington, 1914).

Additional information:

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General note:

The microfilm reels, both "B" and "C" reels, are available for consultation through the inter-institutuional loan service offered by the National Archives of Canada. Loans must be requested by institutions participating in the loan service on behalf of their patrons and must specify the microfilm reel numbers required. Additional information about the microfilm loan service of the Archives may be found on its website.

Location of originals note:

The original documents are located in the Public Record Office, London, England.

Reproduction note:

The microfilmed originals of the Audit Office classes are available on "B" microfilm reels; the microfilmed transcripts are available on "C" microfilm reels. Microfilm reel numbers are identified in the description of specific "AO" classes or in the separate field: Control Numbers.

Dates of creation note:

Microfilmed between 1958 and 1992. Transcribed prior to introduction of microfilming.

Accruals:

Further accruals are possible.
Subject heading:

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North America 19th century

Amérique du Nord 19e siècle

North America 18th century

Amérique du Nord 18e siècle
Source:

Private

Former archival reference no.:

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MG14-AO
Ordering and viewing options

Conditions of access:

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Textual records: microform

[Consultation90 Open]

Textual records

[Consultation90 Open]

Terms of use:

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There are no restrictions on the consultation of any of the microfilmed records. Requests for copies of selected, microfilmed, original documents for research purposes will be permitted. However, requests for copies of original documents on microfilm, for publication or exhibition purposes, must be addressed to the Public Record Office, London, England. Requests to purchase copies of whole microfilm reels should also be directed to the Public Record Office.
The transcripts and photocopies are unavailable for research for conservation reasons. However, they have been microfilmed and can be consulted or copied from the microfilm.

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Date modified:: 2024-04-09