Catalogue description American Loyalists Claims, Series I

Records of the claims for compensation of American citizens who suffered property losses through loyalty to the British Crown during the war of American Independence.

The records consist of entry books and ledgers containing the evidence of witnesses, reports and other communicated documents, the examinations and decisions of the commissioners, lists of claims, etc.

For other records relating to American Loyalists see T 50

For records of the East Florida Claims Commission see T 77

For further records of the American Loyalist Claims Commission see T 79

American Loyalist Claims Commission, 1783-1790

A detailed inventory was published in 2011: An Inventory of Audit Office 12, by William Bruce Antliff (Antliff Publishers, Canada).

Researchers visiting the Public Record Office may consult an index to names in AO 12 which preceedes the printed list. In this index the person's name is followed by an abbreviation of the name of the state where the individual claimed to have suffered loss. A volume number and a further number follow these details. The volume number is the same as the piece number which can be found in the left hand column of the list. For example: Ackerly, Isaac, N.Y., V23, 21 In this entry, V23 translates into piece 23, and AO 12/23 is the reference to use when ordering the piece on the computer. The second number, 21, is an internal reference which should not be used when requesting the piece. It is the page number in the volume on which the information can be found. The page number in the document is the handwritten number; the printed numbers on the top right hand corner are the folio numbers and do not correlate to the index.