The Papers of Francis Bernard, Volume 1: Governor of Colonial Massachusetts, 1760-1769 (Introduction)

Abstract

Francis Bernard (1712-79), governor of colonial Massachusetts between 1760 and 1769, has left posterity one of the largest collections of manuscripts concerning Britain's North American empire. There are some four thousand source texts of one kind or another: holograph originals, letterbook copies, receiver's copies, third party copies, and printed versions. The Bernard Papers project was established under the auspices of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts with a view to publishing a comprehensive selection of all this material in five volumes to be followed by one calendar volume of the entire collection. In selecting items for publication, preference has been given to Bernard's gubernatorial correspondence and correspondence pertaining, in the main, to government, politics, and policymaking; each transcript is accompanied by critical editorial commentaries and each volume is prefaced by an introductory essay providing historical context and explaining editorial policy and method.