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Description found in Archives
Title
Arrangement structure
Date(s)
1808-1866
Place of creation
Ontario
Extent
Language of material
English
Scope and content
The records consist of Writs and Returns plus a variety of supporting documents: oaths of returning officers and polling clerks, proclamations of the polling date, Qualifications of canadidates, Recapitulations of votes, etc. for both general elections and by-elections, for the House of Assembly, 1808-1866, and for the Legislative Council, 1856-1864 (arranged in 21 volumes). Some correspondence of the Clerk, lists of candidates and of returning officers, and related records are included in the series, as are a few poll books.
Conditions of access
In view of their physical state, only ph
otographic copies may be made from the documents written on parchment. Pending conservation treatment, use of the documents may be retricted as a protective measure.
from 1 to 18
Finding aid
Textual records Finding Aid 1460 was designed to overcome problems arising from the unsatisfactory arrangement of the first half of the series and to provide a checklist of the Writs and Returns and other documents which survive. The nature of the records relating to each riding are not specified in the listing. Information on the reorganization of 1983, transfers to other series and sources of further information are provided in the Introduction. MSS1460 90 (Paper)
Textual records The finding aid is a brief shelf list: volume titles, dates, volumes, and page numbers. MSS2434 90 (Electronic)
Creator / Provenance
Biography / Administrative history
Responsibility for preparing the Writs of election for the Legislative Assembly, and of the Legislative Council after 1856, and preparing the Writs summoning members to the Legislative Council lay with the Clerk of the Crown in Chancery. While the Clerk was an officer of Parliament, the office was generally held in plurality.
What the Clerk chose to preserve out of what was submitted to him remains to be investigated. Poll books and other records relating to contested elections may have been forwarded to committees of Parliament for investigation and thus have suffered the same fate as the legislative records.
Additional information
Subject heading
1. Elections - Upper Canada, [1808-1866]
2. Canada. Clerk of the Crown in Chancery, [1808-1866]
3. Elections - Canada West, [1808-1866]
4. Canada. Legislature. Legislative Assembly - Elections, [1808-1866]
5. Upper Canada. Legislature. House of Assembly - Elections, [1808-1866]
6. Canada. Legislature. Legislative Council - Elections, 1856-1864.
7. Poll books, [1808-1866]
Source
Private
Other system control no.
MIKAN no.
105216
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