Oud Archief Suriname: Gouvernementssecretarie
Item
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Country
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SR
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Name of institution (English)
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National Archives of Suriname
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Language of name of institution
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dut
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Contact information: postal address
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Jagernath Lachmonstraat 174, Paramaribo
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Contact information: phone number
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00597 430035
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Contact information: email
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info@nationaalarchief.sr
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Reference number
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SR-NA-1.05.10.01
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Type of reference number
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Former reference number
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Title (English)
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Old Archives of Suriname: Government Secretariat
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Title (official language of the state)
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Oud Archief Suriname: Gouvernementssecretarie
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Language of title
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dut
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Creator / accumulator
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Gouvernementssecretarie
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Date(s)
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1722/1828
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Language(s)
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dut
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Extent
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888 storage units
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Type of material
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Textual Material
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Scope and content
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This collection is divided into three parts: documents from the Government Secretariat up to 1816, documents from the period 1816-1828, and documents from the military commander's office from the period 1823-1828. The first part contains extensive correspondence from the period 1728-1816 with the directors of the Sociëteit van Suriname and, since June 1796, with the Comité tot de Zaken van de Koloniën en Bezittingen op de kust van Guinea en in Amerika (Committee for the Affairs of the Colonies and Possessions on the Coast of Guinea and in America), including registers and appendices. This archive also contains a series of government journals (1728-1816), minutes of the Hof van Politie en Criminele Justitie (Court of Police and Criminal Justice) from 1722-1812, as well as letters received by this Court from various authorities. Nos. 524-529 comprise requests received from members of the Jewish community with the decisions taken on them, together with the notices obtained on the appeals, and other records, from 1755 to 1802. These documents were digitized and are available for consultation online on the National Archief (The Hague) website.
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Archival history
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Among the regulations which the directors of the Sociëteit van Suriname laid down for an acting governor was that the governor was to take over the archives of his predecessor. Such took place in 1737 when Governor Van de Schepper was appointed. The private Instruction or Memorandum for Mauricius of May 30, 1742, contained the requirement to take over from the former governor Van de Schepper, against receipt, his papers and documents. To fulfil this order, Mauricius sent the directors an inventory of Van de Schepper's secret papers, documents and charters. In 1771, a new inventory of the Government secretariat papers was made in accordance with the assignment given to Governor Jan Nepveu by private memorandum to collect the papers of his predecessor Wigbold Wigbold Crommelin and have them arranged. The inventory of 1771 lists the different types of records and provides for each series a description, item by item, of the parts making up the series. Subsequently, although less detailed, other inventories were drawn up at each governor change. Moreover, the archives of the Raad der Amerikaansche Koloniën en Bezittingen (Council of American Colonies and Possessions) contain a copy-inventory of the Gouvernementssecretarie, composed on December 10, 1803, at the replacement of the provisional regime in Suriname, while the archives of the Departement van Koophandel en Koloniën (Department of Commerce and Colonies) contain a copy-inventory made on February 27, 1816, at the occasion of the take-over of the colony by the Dutch administration. Another list of documents belonging to the Gouvernementssecretarie can be found in an "Inventaris van alle boeken, papieren, charters en documenten, tot de Gouvernements-Archieven behorenende" (Inventory of all books, papers, charters and documents belonging to the Government Archive), drawn up circa 1839 in Paramaribo. This inventory describes, among other things, the archive of the Hof van Politie en Criminele Justitie (Court of Police and Criminal Justice), which was abolished in 1828. The archives of the Gouvernementssecretarie were last arranged after the inventory by Mr A. Telting during his visit to the colony in 1899.
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(source: Inventaris van het archief van de Gouvernementssecretarie der Kolonie Suriname, (1684) 1722-1828)
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Administrative / Biographical history
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After the patent of September 23, 1682, the States General made the colony fall into the hands of the administrators of the West India Company. The governor had supreme authority in the colony, although in matters of great importance, he had to decide together with the Raad van Politie (Police Council). As a result of the agreement on May 21, 1683, between the West India Company, the city of Amsterdam, and Cornelis van Aerssen van Sommelsdijck to establish the Sociëteit van Suriname (Society of Suriname), the governor of Suriname came to serve this Society.
The governor was also appointed military commander by the States General and the Sociëteit. The title "Gouverneur-Generaal" (Governor-General) was used as early as the governorship of Carel de Cheusses (1728-1734).
During the English occupation of Suriname from 1799 to 1802, the governor-general remained in office. When the colony was taken over by the Batavian Republic in December 1802, a provisional administration replaced the governor-general. This provisional administration was replaced by a commissioner-general in December 1803. During the English administration in 1804-1816, the office of governor remained.
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(source: Bijlsma, R. 1917 (new version 2021). Inventaris van het digitaal duplicaat van het archief van de Gouvernementssecretarie der Kolonie Suriname, (1684) 1722-1828.)
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System of arrangement
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The collection is divided into three sections: 1) Gouvernementsecretarie tot 1816 (Government Secretariat up to 1816); 2) Gouvernementsecretarie, 1816-1828 (Government Secretariat, 1816-1828); and 3) Bureau van het Militair Commandement, 1823-1828 (Office of the Military Command, 1823-1828). Records are arranged by typological and chronological criteria.
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Author of the description
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Carla Vieira, 2023
Linked resources
Items with "Collections (official language of the state): Oud Archief Suriname: Gouvernementssecretarie"
| Title |
Class |
| Nationaal Archief Suriname |
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