Catalogue description East Florida Claims Commission: Papers and Reports

Claims and reports of the East Florida Claims Commission and lists of title deeds and papers relating to the management of estates. Consists primarily of the claims, with supporting documents, of the settlers of the province of East Florida which in 1783, after twenty years of British administration, was ceded to the Crown of Spain under article 5 of the Treaty of Paris.

The series contains:

• Files 1-18 are made up by the claimants' papers, usually in the form of a memorial supported by documentation of land grants, indentures, schedules and valuations of property, and often with plats and other maps and plans.
• File 19 consists of reports on the claims of the many settlers who had taken refuge in the Bahamas.
• File 20 contains papers relating to the administration of East Florida, in particular with regard to events consequent upon the cession
• Files 21-30 are largely fragmentary and relate principally to administrative matters, although they do include as well some documentation, including land grants and plats, that has become separated from the main series of claimants' papers (files 1-18): these are not indexed .

There are further records relating to East Florida compensation claims, and into the administration and history of the province:

For documents relating to Refugees (loyalists temporary allowances and quarterly pensions lists; T 50/30 relates in particular to East Florida), see: T 50

For further American Loyalist Claims (Series II), including some East Florida claimants, see: AO 13

For records of the American Loyalists Claim Commission (various reports on claims and schedules of claims), see: T 79

For American Loyalist Claims (Series I) see: AO 12

For Colonial Office: America and West Indies: Original Correspondence (records of East Florida, 1746-1789), see CO 5/540-573: CO 5/540

For reports of the East Florida Commissioners (lists of names of claimants and amounts awarded), see: CO 5/562

Other indexes created in the course of editorial work on this series, and an article describing the documents more fully, are in: ZBOX 2/12

Several maps have been extracted to MPD 1

East Florida Claims Commission, 1783-1789

C M Andrews, 'Guide to the Materials for American History, to 1783 in the Public Record Office. Vol II Departmental and Miscellaneous Papers'. G Palmer, 'A Bibliography of Loyalist Source Material in the United States, Canada, and Great Britain. The maps from the series are fully described in the printed catalogue, 'Maps and Plans in the Public Record Office: Vol 2, America and West Indies'.