Maine Historical Society Coll. 26 Barclay, Thomas, 1753-1830 Barclay collection ca. 1764-1893 Accession: Ms00-2 Copyright: Requests for permission to publish material from this collection should be discussed with the MHS Image Services Coordinator. Size: 7 linear feet. Unbound manuscripts, bound manuscripts, correspondence, Ogilvy letter books, surveys, maps and financial data. Scope and content: This collection consists of letters, deeds, field notes, and maps between the individuals associated with determining the boundaries between British Canada and the United States, including commissioners and their agents and surveyors in the field who were mapping the areas in dispute; particularly the area of the true St. Croix River, Grand Manan and Passamaquoddy Bay, the St. John River, the northern waters of the Connecticut River, the Great Lakes west to Lake of the Woods in Ontario. Letters between the British and American commissioners, and all the others given the task of resolving the Northeast Boundary Dispute are included. Thomas Barclay's early work as an agent for the British Government prior to serving on the 'St. Croix Commission' are included. Range of dates includes 1764 to 1827 for correspondence; 1792-1893 for the maps. Biographical note: Thomas Barclay, 1753-1830, served as commissioner on behalf of the British government for the St. Croix commissions following the Treaty of Ghent, which were appointed to agree on a Canadian-American border between Passamaquoddy Bay and the Great Lakes. Thomas Barclay was assigned as Commissioner under the 4th and 5th articles of the Treaty of Ghent, the 4th Article having to do with the borders around Grand Manan Island and Passamaquoddy Bay and, in the 5th article, the line from the St. Croix River across the northern border of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York. Maps, diaries, surveyors' reports and letters between commissioners and other government officials are included with this collection. Anthony Barclay, 1792-1877, Thomas Barclay's son, took over as British Commissioner under the 6th and 7th articles of the Treaty of Ghent, after the original Commissioner, John Ogilvy, died around 1819. (John Ogilvy's letter books are included in this collection). Article 6 dealt with the boundary running across the Great Lakes to Sault St. Marie, and the 7th article dealt with the lands from Lake Superior to Lake of the Woods, Ontario. His initials (AB) and notes appear on many of the maps of the Great Lakes area, dated ca. 1820. Ward Chipman, 1754-1824, was appointed British Agent under an article under the Treaty of Washington, 1793. His task was to assist in determining the true 'St. Croix' River, which would serve as the boundary between Maine and New Brunswick. Robert Pagan was sent on a detectival mission to determine which large river had an island at its mouth, which was presumably the St. Croix meant in the original charters. Robert Pagan and others brought to the commission maps from Native American Francis Joseph Neptune of the area. In 1823 Ward Chipman was elected President of New Brunswick. The son of Ward Chipman, also named Ward Chipman, 1787-1851, assisted in working on the commissions. Robert Pagan served as a 'detective' on behalf of Ward Chipman, [Sr.] scouting around the area of Passamaquoddy Bay, interviewing the Native Americans. It was this work of Robert Pagan's that produced the Francis Joseph Neptune maps of the area. Provenance: Collection 26, the Thomas Barclay collection, includes the papers of Thomas Barclay, 1753-1830, Anthony Barclay, 1792-1877, Ward Chipman, 1748-1824, his son, Ward Chipman, 1787-1851 and the Robert Pagan papers. The Thomas Barclay and Anthony Barclay papers were given to the Maine Historical Society in 1894 by George Lockhart Rives, Thomas Barclay's grandson. The Ward Chipman papers were donated to the Maine Historical Society by William Henry Kilby, 1894. At some point the Ward Chipman papers were integrated into the Thomas Barclay Collection presumably because they were primarily concerned with the Northeast Boundary dispute between Great Britain and the United States. The Robert Pagan papers were included in one of these two gifts; see accession notes. Notes from the accession book, Ms00-2: 'Ms-002 Barclay Coll. 1731-1910 Gift, 1894 of George Lockhart Rives, [Thomas] Barclay's grandson and late Assistant Sec. of State and Ward Chipman papers, gift 1894, of William Henry Kilby of Eastport, Me. The Pagan papers were included in the gift.' Concerning the Ward Chipman collection, "In 1879 the old Chipman mansion, which stood at the head of Prince William Street, St. John, N.B., ...was dismantled and repaired, and the family papers... were gathered up and sold to a junk dealer who shipped them to Boston. ...On landing some of the packages got broken open and my attention was called to the contents...I made a partial examination and saved what is preserved here. Ward Chipman was appointed Agent of the British Government before the commission for arranging the eastern boundary line between the United States and her dependencies in 1794 and also before a subsequent commission for the same purpose after the Treaty of Ghent in 1817, and his son, the second Ward Chipman, H.C. was associated with him on the latter occasion."--Written by William Henry Kilby, Boston, January 1883 who donated these papers to the Maine Historical Society, 1894. The oversize maps were separated from the manuscript collection and housed in map drawers entitled Coll. 26 Northeast Boundary Collection. Over the years, maps having to do with the Northeast Boundary were added to these drawers, the consequence being that it is not known precisely which maps belonged to the Barclay's and Mr. Ward Chipman and which maps were added later. Maps dated after the 1894 gift date and found in these drawers were removed in 2002 and integrated into the general Map Collection of the Maine Historical Society. Dates and Treaties: Treaty of Paris, 1783 Jay's Treaty, 1794 5th Article - to determine which was the River St. Croix intended by the Treaty of Paris, 1783. Commissioners: Thomas Barclay, David Howell, and Egbert Benson. The Ward Chipmans and Robert Pagan worked under the commission. Surveyor/map maker: George Sproule. Treaty of Ghent, 1814 4th Article - to decide upon the title of Grand Manan and islands of Passamaquoddy Bay. Commissioners: John Holmes, Thomas Barclay. 5th Article - to determine a line from the source of the St. Croix round the northern frontiers of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and New York to a point o the St. Lawrence River. Commissioners: Thomas Barclay, Cornelius P. Van Ness. Surveyors: Alexander Longfellow, J.L. Tiarks, Hiram Burnham, George Partridge, Joseph Bouchette, John Johnson, William Odell, H. Hunter, Charles Loss. 6th Article - to ascertain boundary westward from the point where the 5th article commissioners left it, up the St. Lawrence, through Thousand Islands, Lake Ontario, Niagra River, Lake Erie, Detroit River, River St. Clair and so on through Lake Huron onto Sault St. Marie. Commissioners: Peter B. Porter, John Ogilvy who died and was replaced by Anthony Barclay. Surveyors: David Thompson, Samuel Thompson, William A. Bird. 7th Article - Onward through Lake Superior to Lake of the Woods, Ontario. Commissioners: Peter B. Porter, Anthony Barclay. Surveyors: David Thompson, Samuel Thompson, William A. Bird. Treaty of Washington, 1842 Also known as the Webster-Ashburton Treaty. To settle the boundary between New Brunswick and Maine. Daniel Webster and Lord Ashburton signed the treaty. Commissioners: G. Bucknell Estcourt, Albert Furth. Related Collections: University of New Brunswick It is important to note that the University of New Brunswick holds the bulk of the Ward Chipman papers and other large holdings on the Northeast Boundary dispute. See source file. Condition and conservation: In 2002 a grant was awarded to the Maine Historical Society by the Historical Collections Grant Program, funded by the New Century Community Grant Program and the National Historical Publications and Records Commission to catalog the maps of this collection at the item level. The maps have been cataloged item by item and there are bibliographic descriptions on the library's online database MINERVA at http://ursus2.ursus.maine.edu use the Dewey search: type in Coll. 26. Some digital images may be seen on the website Maine Memory Network at http://www.mainememory.net, use the search words Thomas Barclay. In 1968 the manuscript items of the collection were microfilmed by MIT Microfilm. These mss. items are presently foldered and held in nine acid-free boxes. In 2002 the maps of the collection were cleaned, put in acid-free folders and housed as a collection within the Map Collection. Inventory Box I Unbound Manuscripts Folder 1- Treaty with the Chenussio Indians, 1764 Oversized? Folder 2 - Copy of Grants of Islands under the Seal of Nova Scotia, 1765 & 1783 Folder 3 – Original Award under the 4th Article of the Treaty of Ghent, 1817 Folder 4 - Original Award under the 6th Article of the Treaty of Ghent, 1822 Folder 5 – Certified Copies of Commissions of Governors of Nova Scotia from 1720 (copied in 1816 under Seal of Cogswell) Folder 6 – Oaths and Commissions, 1796, 1798 Folder 7 – Oaths and Commissions, 1808, 1815 Folder 8 – Oaths and Commissions, 1816 Folder 9 – Oaths and Commissions, 1817 Folder 10 – Oaths and Commissions, 1818 Folder 11 – Oaths and Commissions, 1819 Folder 12 – Oaths and Commissions, 1820 Folder 13 – Oaths and Commissions, 1824, 1826,