filter_framesThomas Gage Papers, 1738-1807

This website and digital collection are under construction and will be revised and expanded throughout 2023 and 2024. The site will ultimately include the entirety of the Thomas Gage Papers of the William L. Clements Library. Currently, this digital collection includes volumes 1-17 of the English series only.

The Thomas Gage papers consist of the military and governmental correspondence and headquarters papers of General Thomas Gage, military officer in the Seven Years' War, governor of Montreal (1760-1763), commander in chief of the British Army in North America (1763-1775), and governor of Massachusetts Bay (1774-1775). The papers include incoming correspondence and retained copies of letters written by Gage, together with a large quantity of documents related to military and colonial affairs. The collection is particularly strong in documenting British administration of North America after the Seven Years' War, British interactions with Native Americans, local matters in Massachusetts while he served as governor, and the years preceding the American Revolution.

Correspondence is most prevalent in the papers, alongside addresses, speeches, and proclamations; official petitions and memorials for troop promotions and transfers; proceedings and depositions from courts martial and courts of inquiry; intelligence on military activities; reports on the condition of the army and the state of the colonies; orders, instructions, memoranda, and meeting minutes; stores and provision inventories, receipts, accounts of expenses, and other financial records; newspaper clippings and broadsides; and others.

William L. Clements acquired the Thomas Gage Papers from Henry Rainald Gage, 6th Viscount Gage, in 1930. It included seven primary groups of materials: English series, American series, Letter and Account Books series, Warrants series, Jeffrey Amherst papers, Peter Warren papers, and William Skinner papers.

The William L. Clements Library would like to express appreciation to the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) for funding the digitization of the Thomas Gage Papers through a Preservation and Access grant. Scanning, metadata collection, image post-production, and other aspects of digitization began in 2021.

The Clements Library wishes to thank the University of Michigan Library Information Technology, Digital Content and Collections unit for their vital work in making this collection digitally available.

The University of Michigan Library provides access to these materials for educational and research purposes. These materials are in the public domain in the United States.