Enemies of the State: Records of Loyalist-Patriot Struggle

In 1779, a statute was passed authorizing prosecution in the Supreme Court of Judicature of “Enemies of this State” on the charge of treason.

Documents from this time contain details about the state’s vigorous proceedings against suspected Loyalists, and about the royal government’s continuing operations in New York City until the end of the war.

These archival records, located in the New York State Archives, often provide the only documentation of ordinary people, including those who were marginalized, especially in the colonial and early national periods.

The records include Supreme Court minutes for 1775-1783 (both royal and state courts) and over four hundred pages of indictments of Loyalists (American colonists who stayed loyal to the British Crown during the Revolutionary War). The collection can be found on the NYS Archives website.

Other documents that are planned to be conserved include fire-damaged minutes and papers of the royal governor and council in New York City (1776-1783), loyalty oaths to the Crown during the war, and military enlistment papers held by the New York State Library.  

In 2018, the New York State Archives and Archives Partnership Trust received a “Save America’s Treasures” grant from the Institute of Museum and Library services and the National Park Service for the conservation and digitization of historical court records and other important documents from the Revolutionary War era. The New York State Organization of the Daughters of the American Revolution and the Cromwell Foundation also provided seed funding to preserve the documents for conservation and digitization. The documents are being made accessible to students, educators, researchers, genealogists and those passionate about history via the State Archives’ Digital Collections.

Does your historic site, museum, library, or archive have a publicly accessible collection you’d like featured at New York Almanack? Send along a relevant photo, and description of the collection using the above format to nyalmanck@gmail.com.