Appeals to the Privy Council from the American Colonies

We want to bring to your attention  a new electronic resource --  it allows a user to access materials for American appeals to the Privy Council without traveling to London!

Appeals to the Privy Council from the American Colonies:
An Annotated Digital Catalogue compiled by: Sharon Hamby O’Connor and Mary Sarah Bilder with the assistance of: Charles Donahue, Jr..

As described by the site: 


Ships, slaves, debts, widows, inheritance, bastards, privateers, treason, customs, land companies, minors, orphans, governors . . . the appeals to the Privy Council from the American colonies contain these issues.

In the century before the creation of the Supreme Court of the United States, the British Privy Council heard appeals from the 13 colonies that became the United States and from the other ‘American’ colonies in Canada and the Caribbean. This catalogue focuses on all currently known colonial cases appealed to the Privy Council from the future United States. For the appeals from the 13 colonies, the catalogue provides links to original documents in England and the United States. Most significantly, the site includes images of surviving briefs filed in 54 of these appeals.

There is also a memorandum guide to assist the user.  It provides information on the materials that may be found in this database. 


Ernster, the Virtual Library Cat