ERIK NORBERG                                                                                                     14 August 2006


Archives and collections concerning Saint Barthélemy during the Swedish period

This inventory includes archives and collections in Sweden concerning Saint Barthélemy during the Swedish rule. It can not be excluded that further information might be found in e.g. private archives in different institutions.

The National Archives, Stockholm

1.1   The Department for Pomerania and the Colonial Ministry (Pommerska expeditionen och kolonialdepartementet) were from about 1812 responsible for these matters concerning Saint Barthélemy which earlier had been dealt with by the Ministry of Finance and Ministry of Trade. According to a decision in 1812 for matters concerning the colony, they should be kept separate from other parts of the civil service and they should be introduced for the King. This procedure did not cease to exist until 1844, when the Colonial Ministry was organized within the Ministry of Finance. This archive includes Ministerial protocols (statsrådsprotokoll) from the period 1810-1844. It is described in the Guide (Beståndsöversikt) to the National Archives part 1, 2.3.2.

1.2   The Colonial Ministry (Kolonialdepartementet) was organized in 1844 as a department within the Ministry of Finance to deal with questions concerning Saint Barthélemy. It was not particularly active and was dissolved in 1878. Decisions concerning the colony are to be found in ministerial protocols (statsrådsprotokoll) of the Ministry of Finance, but the cabinet files related to the decisions and other correspondence and accounts are included in the Saint Barthélemy Collection. It is described in the Guide (Beståndsöversikt) to the National Archives part 1, 3.9.4.

1.3   The Foreign Ministry and the filing system of 1902 (Utrikesdepartementet och 1902 års dossiersystem), group 7, includes records concerning Swedish and Norwegian possessions, among them Saint Barthélemy.

1.4   The vice Consulate and the Consulate at Saint Barthélemy (Vicekonsulatet och konsulatet på Saint Barthélemy) include records from the period 1878/1883-1903.

1.5   The Saint Barthélemy Collection (Saint Barthélemy-samlingen) is a collection of records from different parts of the Royal Chancellery, possibly some material of private provenance but nothing with origin in the colony itself. The material is from the period 1784-1878 and amounts to seven linear meters or 75 volumes. There is a presentation in the Guide (Beståndsöversikt) to the National Archives part 2, 8.4.1. A detailed inventory exists.

This collection includes among other documents the following records: records concerning the act of taking possession of Saint Barthélemy 1784-1804; reports from commandants and governors 1784-1811; reports, correspondence, records from court proceedings 1812-1818; reports from the government of the island 1819-1849; reports and correspondence of the governor 1850-1878; applications and supplications to the King 1790-1873; agendas and reports 1817-1842; letters from the King and Government to the governor 1785-1795; memorandums concerning reports from the governors 1837-1844; customs tariffs (tullstadgor), export data, ship lists, drawings, license books (fribrevsböcker), regulations, forms, inventories, accounts 1793-1879; accounts 1845-1978; printed statutes and various later accessions.

1.6   Auditors of the accounts of Major S. Rajalin (Revisorerna över major Rajalins räkenskaper) concerning the expedition to Saint Barthélemy 1787. National Archives, Committee archives ÄK 470. 1 vol.

1.7   The chancellery of the Paymaster General’s Office (Statskontorets kansli), the main archive, includes some volumes of bill transactions for Saint Barthélemy 1845-1872.

1.8   The Wetterstedt deposition (Wetterstedtska depositionen) includes some records of economic interest concerning the colony and the period 1811-1843. There is a presentation in the Guide (Beståndsöversikt) to the National Archives part II, 6.3.3.4.

1.9   The collection of Sten Simonsson (Sten Simonssons samling) is a comprehensive collection of printed publications concerning Saint Barthélemy. It includes 20 maps and one volume maps and sea charts over Saint Barthélemy. There is a presentation in the Guide (Beståndsöversikt) to the National Archives part 2, 8.4.3 and part 6. A detailed inventory exists.

1.10  The Lamborn collection (Lamborns samling) is an exhaustive amount of copies, microfilms and transcripts of records concerning Saint Barthélemy in the National Archives, private collections in Sweden and the National Archives of England, France, Spain and USA. There is a presentation in the Guide (Beståndsöversikt) to the National Archives part 2, 8.4.4. A detailed inventory exists. The collection has also been described by Ingvar Andersson, ”Arkivalier från Saint Barthélemys svenska tid” (Records from the Swedish period of Saint Barthélemy) in Arkiv, Samhälle, Forskning (1965:8).

1.11  The Bergshammar collection (Bergshammarsamlingen) includes some maps with nautical soundings from Saint Barthélemy.

1.12  The Extranea collection (Extranea-samlingen) contains a map over Gustavia.

1.13  The collection Trade and shipping (Handel och sjöfart) of the National Archives is a collection with records concerning foreign trade, merchant companies and colonies, among them 104 volumes from the Swedish West India Company.

1.14  The archive of the Land Survey (Lantmäteristyrelsen) contains a map over Gustavia dated 1799.

1.15  The Institute of Urban History (Stadshistoriska institutet) has a comprehensive index over material of interest for urban history. This includes three micro cards concerning Gustavia 1794-1808 (S16835), 1809-1824 (S 17061) and 1793-1831 (S 17870).

1.16  Micro cards over records from the local administration of Saint Barthélemy (Mikrokort över handlingar från den lokala förvaltningen på Saint Barthélemy), now kept in Aix-en-Provence. The collection is not complete. The micro cards are kept by the SVAR department of the National Archives, Stockholm. The collection includes 118 cards with following content:
- Marriage contracts 1791-1792;
- Communions 1785-1831, born 1784-1878 (not 1785, 1790-1856), married 1785-1878 (not 1802-1856), dead 1784-1878, immigrants 1873, the inaugural of the Sofia Magdalena church and inventory of the church;
- Born 1797-1842;
- Schedules of population 1835-1846; 1847-1872;
- Applications for liberation from slavery 1802-1847;
- Records over cases and applications 1801-1836;
- Records concerning the administration of the island and its sale to France.


The Military Archives, Stockholm

2.1   The collection Foreign Maps (Utländska kartor) contains five general maps (1792-1848) and two hydrographical maps (1848) over Saint Barthélemy.

2.2   The collection Foreign City- and Fortress plans (Utländska stads- och fästningsplaner) contains six maps (1796-1800) over Gustavia.

2.3   The collection Sea Expeditions (Sjöexpeditioner) is a collection including log books from the man of war which visited the island.


The Regional Archives of Visby

3.1  The archive of Salomon Mauritz von Rajalins contains some records from the time when Rajalin was governor of the island 1784-1787.


The ”Antikvarisk-topografiska arkivet” (ATA), Stockholm

4.1  Jacob Eliasson Röhl who was mercantile agent in 1786 has left a few records.


The Bernadotte Family Archive (Bernadotteska familjearkivet), the Royal Palace

5.1   The archive of King Karl XIV Johan contains records concerning the colony in the years 1817 and 1818

5.2   The official archive of King Karl XIV Johan (Karl XIV Johans tjänstemannaarkiv/ Konungens enskilda byrå) includes records concerning the Saint Barthélemy-fund.


Archives Nationales/Aix-en-Provence

6.1  The archive from the local government of Saint Barthélemy during the Swedish period was discovered in Guadeloupe by the husband and wife Lamborn in the 1960’s. It is now kept in the institution Archives d’Outre-Mer in Aix-en-Provence. The archive includes 327 volumes. A Swedish presentation has been made by Björn Lindh, ”Det svenska Saint Barthélemy-arkivet” (The Swedish Saint Barthelémy archive) in Arkiv, Samhälle, Forskning 1974:16. According to his presentation the archive includes following records:

M:                 Shipping and freight information in Gustavia 1805-1863;
PF:                The governing board, the financial council 1812-1878;
CP:                Accounts 1790-1878;
RG:                Concepts to letters from governors, commandants etc 1816-1878
                     (not 1820-1825, 1829-1830, 1846);
PG:                Protocols of the Government council 1812-1877
                     (not 1814-1816, 1818, 1820-1832, 1836, 1858-1860);
L:                  Official announcements 1787-1878;
PJT:               Registers of the Government council 1801-1878;
PJ:                 Protocols of the court 1784-1878;
NP:                Notary public, i.a. marriage documents 1783-1855;
C:                  Correspondence 1784-1878;
AM:               Records concerning sea trade 1778-1878;
N:                  Naturalizations 1796-1875;
DT:                Defence 1815-1878;
ES:                Slavery 1802-1848;
E:                  The civil status of the population, catechism, catechetical meetings,
                     communions, birth, baptism, marriage, deceased 1754-1878;
PO:                Schedules of population 1795-1834;
R:                  Exercise of religion in the Anglican Church, the Catholic Church and the
                     Methodist Church etc. 1804-1873;
D:                  Miscellanea 1764-1878.