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Letter dated January 31, 1865 from Cesar Cason to Peter O'Reilly, Magistrate and Gold Commissioner for the Cariboo Region, regarding a charter for a Bed Rock Flume in Nelson Creek.

This files includes death sentences for two Indigenous individuals accused of murder. The first document is dated 2 November 1860 for Hotch-k. The second is dated 2 December 1862 for Ja'ack, with a duplicate copy stating the execution was carried out on 6 January 1863. Both documents authorize High Sheriff Peter O'Reilly to carry out the executions and are approved by James Douglas, Governor of British Columbia.

This item is a copy of an 1825 convention between Great Britain and Russia regarding the northwest coast of British North America.

This series consists of records of the Metlakatla (Metlakahtla) Commission Inquiry, including handwritten notes of evidence taken at hearings. Vol. 2, pp. 3-265, odd numbers only, is an emendation of the original notes in Vol. 1, pp. 3-113, odd numbers only.

This series consists of correspondence, petitions, accounts, statements of population, and reports relating to land of Indigenous peoples in British Columbia from the Department of the Provincial Secretary.

This series consists of correspondence inward of the Cariboo Gold Commissioner regarding mining leases, indentures, partnerships and leaves of absence, mainly dated 1864. Records are filed alphabetically by the name of the individual or the company.

This series consists of the records of the Assistant Commissioner of Lands and Works, Yale District, 1859-1886. Records include five volumes of pre-emption records. Volume 1, nos. 1-392 (1859-1872); Volume 2, nos. 275-312 and 1-24 (1870-1871); Volume 3, nos. 25-279 (1871-1884); Volume 4, certificates of record of unsurveyed land, nos. 250-294 (1874-1885); Volume 5, certificates of record of unsurveyed land, nos. 292-295 (1883-1886). Volumes 1 and 4 have nominal indexes.

Judge's inscribed copy of Herbert Broom and Leonard Shelford, The Practice of the County Court (London, England, 1858). The volume contains inscriptions in the handwriting of P.J. O'Reilly and W.G. Cox, as well as artwork by Cox. The inscriptions say: "Government of British Columbia Magistrate at Fort Hope" and "Government of British Columbia, Cariboo East, 1863". The volume is bound with an animal skin spine.

The series consists of minutes of decision of the Joint Indian Reserve Commission (1876-1878) of governments of Canada and British Columbia and of the Indian Reserve Commission (1878-1907) of the government of Canada regarding allotment of Indian reserves in British Columbia.

Records consist of correspondence, memoranda, reports and coloured maps of the reserve allotments. Although these records are called Joint Reserve Commission records, they probably form part of the British Columbia Department of Lands and Works fonds. Most of the records are stamped with the Lands and Works Dept. stamp and also have Lands and Works file numbers assigned to each, after they were received from the Commission. Some files then had additional related records added to by Department staff, as reserves were surveyed or related issues came up. Additional records were added to several files by Department of Lands staff up to 1949.

In addition, the series includes an item level precis of each document, created by the Dept. of Lands in 1980. The precis are filed in the first file of each box.

The fonds consists of the diaries, correspondence, notebooks, survey field books, accounts, business and personal papers, photographs, watercolours, maps, and ephemera created by members of the O'Reilly family between 1830 and 1992. These records reflect the family's role as part of the inner circle of administrators during the colonial period and as part of Victoria's upper middle class, until the death of Peter O'Reilly in 1905. They also document the everyday activities and events in the life of the family. The work of Peter O'Reilly took him to most parts of the British Columbia mainland. In his roles as Stipendiary Magistrate and Gold Commissioner, he was expected to supply the Governor with information on all happenings and developments in his district and was responsible for the administration of justice, lands and mining matters, roads and trails, public works, postal service, the issuance of trade and other licences, collection of various taxes and the district accounts. As a High Sheriff from 1860-1866, he was responsible for arranging hangings in the Colony. He also served as a returning officer, in 1872 and 1874, for the electoral district of Yale, which encompassed Yale and Kootenay districts. He was also asked to report on the Chilcotin Indians in 1872. The textual records are arranged into eight sous-fonds by the creating family member and also include ten series of mixed family records, not belonging to any one individual. The sous fonds were created by: Peter O'Reilly; his wife Caroline A. (Trutch) O'Reilly; their daughters Charlotte Kathleen O'Reilly and Mary Augusta O'Reilly; their sons, Francis Joseph O'Reilly and Arthur John O'Reilly; wife of Arthur John O'Reilly, Mary Beresford (Windham) O'Reilly; and the son of Arthur and Mary, John Windham O'Reilly. The ten series of mixed family records consist of general family records such as house account books, published materials, and letters addressed to more than one person. The series are: correspondence inward; miscellaneous correspondence; bills received and paid; house account books; miscellaneous account books; school books; miscellaneous books; scrapbooks; ephemera; and miscellaneous. The non textual records are arranged by accession. The ca. 2500 photographs are in seven different accessions. The records, ca. 1860-1992, include many photographs of O'Reilly family members, relatives and other prominent Victoria families. There are also photographs of the O'Reilly home, Point Ellice house. There are postcards and photographs of Victoria, Vancouver and other parts of British Columbia and Alberta. There are four watercolours painted by Charlotte Kathleen O'Reilly and one by M.S. Townsend. One additional accession includes maps of the Oregon territory, Yukon, British Columbia and the North West Territories, ca. 1855-1890 and blueprints and sketches of claims and subdivisions in Hope, Victoria, Port Moody and New Westminster.

The fonds consists of the diaries, correspondence, notebooks, survey field books, accounts, business and personal papers, photographs, watercolours, maps, and ephemera created by members of the O'Reilly family between 1830 and 1992. These records reflect the family's role as part of the inner circle of administrators during the colonial period and as part of Victoria's upper middle class, until the death of Peter O'Reilly in 1905. They also document the everyday activities and events in the life of the family. These records were previously catalogued at the item level in the Old Catalogue, primarily using classification A/E/OR3, and as MS-0412 O'Reilly family, MS-0248 O'Reilly family and MS-2086 Caroline O'Reilly. In 2001 the records were rearranged into a single fonds in preparation for a microfilming project. Records which belonged to the Trutch family (MS-2897), Edgar Dewdney (MS-2898), Weir family (MS-2896) and the William Curtis Ward (MS-2899) were removed from these collections and described separately.

The fonds consists of Dewdney's diaries, 1880-1884 (F/5.2/D51, written while Indian Commissioner of the Northwest Territories and Manitoba, a copy of his will (1913), correspondence (1882-1896), and miscellaneous papers (1892-1916). The correspondence is arranged alphabetically by sender and covers a variety of topics including: the proposed purchase of property at Coal Harbour, Vancouver; conservative politics; purchase of land in Manitoba; Chiefs Crowfoot and Poundmaker; treatment of Indians; and danger of starvation amongst the whites. Also includes some letters from Peter O'Reilly of Victoria.

The collection consists of textual records, historical notes, newspaper clippings, and research notes. Included in the collection are miscellaneous records acquired from sources including the O'Reilly and Trutch families, Helmcken family, and the Supreme Court of British Columbia. The O'Reilly and Trutch records consist of family correspondence and records relating to Peter O'Reilly's career, particularly his work as the Commissioner of the Indian Reserve Commission. The Helmcken records include correspondence both made and received by John Sebastian Helmcken and James Douglas Helmcken, records relating to J.S. Helmcken's position in the colonial and provincial governments, and estate records. The Supreme Court records include correspondence of Sir Matthew Baillie Begbie, trial records, affidavits, bankruptcy files, estate files and other miscellaneous records. There are also miscellaneous records relating to a number of other notable personalities including the Mesher and Pauline families, J.A. McTavish, J.W. Bushby, W.R. Higgins, David McKean, William Manson, and Josephine Crease. Also includes records of organizations including the Victoria Jockey Club. Research notes consist of information relating to a paper presented by Pearce at the British Columbia Historical Society on John Sebastian Helmcken.