This series consists of correspondence concerning the Navy of the Republic of Texas, including letters and reports to and from the Presidents of the Republic; the Secretary of the Navy, or Secretary of War and Navy, or Secretary of War and Marines; the various captains, pursers, and other officers of the various ships; the officers of the Navy Yard, including the storekeeper Nathan Smith; Commander E. W. Moore; Navy Commissioner Samuel M. Williams; etc. Dates covered are 1835-1847, 1852, 1855 (bulk 1836-1846).

Also included are jacket covers to correspondence, which were created at some unknown date after the fact, probably by the Secretary of State. These jacket covers, which have been separated from the correspondence to which they related, are useful as a calendar of existing items. The Navy Papers jackets follow the following format: Republic of Texas. [Army and] Navy Affairs. No._____. File Box_____. _____to _____. Subject Matter:_____. [Date]. In addition, there are jackets to naval-related Texas Secretary of State Diplomatic, Consular, and Domestic Correspondence.

For some time the State Archives also maintained a separate set of files in the Navy Papers called Texas Naval Militia Correspondence, which consisted of Adjutant General's correspondence relating to the Texas Volunteer Guard's batteries of Coast Artillery (1891-1893); military orders issued by the Naval Militias of the states of California and Massachusetts (1891); and proposals for the establishment of a Texas Navy Militia (1903). Since this material is in no way related to the Republic of Texas Navy, it has been integrated into the Departmental Correspondence series of the Adjutant General's records.

In addition, there are two volumes. One is labelled Data Book containing the naval regulations which passed the Texas Senate on December 12, 1836.

The other is a journal kept by Midshipman Alfred Walke between 1840 and 1843, which contains lists of officers on board, and remarks and occurrences on board three vessels of the Texas Navy: Brig of War Colorado (January 21-February 22, 1840); Schooner of War San Jacinto (February 23, 1840-January 13, 1841); and Sloop of War Austin (January 19-October 20, 1841 and April 16-August 7, 1843). The end of the volume contains 43 pages of questions and answers concerning shipboard routines, procedures, and emergencies; a ration table; and rules and regulations for the internal government of the Sloop of War Austin (51 articles). This Log Book was sent to the Governor of Texas by William C. Wilson, of LaFayette, Indiana (April 24, 1883), with the request that it be placed in the Texas State Library. It was apparently transferred by the Secretary of State to the Texas State Archives of the State Library in 1903.

Most, but not all, of the items in this correspondence series were calendared, in two separate locations. A chronological list including date, author, recipient, subject matter, and a file number, is included in the accession file, 1904/003. A slightly fuller calendar, adding the place of each letter, was copied onto pre-printed index cards compiled in the first decade of the 20th century. This second calendar must be used with caution, however, since it also contains items drawn from the Diplomatic, Consular, and Domestic Correspondence of the Secretary of State. Both of these are available upon request. Notably missing from either calendar--and thus not accessioned at the same time--are letters to and from Samuel M. Williams, 1836.

This series consists of the records maintained by the Republic of Texas Navy's ships pursers, documenting supplies received and expended, and services performed, for each ship and for the naval yard. Dates covered are 1835-1846. The types of documents represented include requisitions, receipts, bills, invoices, vouchers, accounts current, surveys of damaged supplies, and returns of provisions, slops and small stores, ships equipment and furniture, etc. Among the oversized documents are two important types: transfers of men from one vessel to another, and quarterly returns of officers, seamen, and marines.

The oversized Transfers of Men [Officers, and Accounts] from ship to ship, usually on pre-printed forms, give the following information: date, names, rank, ships number (a consecutive, unique number for each man), date of enlistment, term of enlistment, expiration of enlistment, pay per month, amount due for undrawn rations, amount overpaid, amount due, receipts (signatures), and witness. These forms are signed by pursers.

The Quarterly Returns of Officers, Seamen, and Marines, also oversized and also often on pre-printed forms, include the following information: rank, names, ships number, pay per month, date of entry on board, from what vessel transferred, term of enlistment, date of enlistment, expiration of enlistment, amount overpaid/amount due as per transfer, time of service on board this vessel, hospital money, amount charged for dead men and deserters' clothes, amount of pay checked for various causes, amount received from purser in slops/in money, whole amount charged, whole amount of pay, amount due, amount overpaid, receipts (signatures), witness, and remarks.

The ships represented include the following (previous ship names are included in parentheses): Texas navy vessels Archer (Galveston), Austin (Texas), Brazos, Brutus, Independence, Invincible, Liberty (William Robbins), Louisville, Potomac, San Antonio (Asp), San Bernard, San Jacinto, Wharton (Colorado), and Zavala (Charleston); the prize schooners Abispa, Ana Maria, Correo, Doric, Dos Amigos, Mary Elizabeth, and Raphael; and the private vessels Branch T. Archer, Cayuga, Charles, Cuba, Dayton, Emblem, Empresario, Farmer's Return, Friend, Henry Clay, Lady of the Lake, Louisiana, Martha, Merchant, Neptune, New York, Oak, Ontario, Rodney, Rufus Putnam, Sam Houston (General Houston), Savannah, and others, for which there exist only one document apiece (Alamo, Belle, Cutter, Eliza Hockman, Harriet, Kingston, Meteor, Ocean, Pontchatrain, and Wasp). Also included are pursers' records for the Navy Yard at Galveston (1838-1843) and for the Navy in Ordinary, i.e., ships laid up in the Yard for repairs (1844-1846).

In addition to the loose documents, there are four ledgers which contain pursers' records for specific ships, two for the Austin (1842-1843), one for the Wharton (1839-1842), and one for several ships including the Wharton, the Zavala, and the Navy Yard (1839-1842).

One ledger, of pre-printed forms, contains 250 accounts for individual debtors aboard the Texan Ship of War Austin. The entries include dates, amounts, and totals of rations and pay for 1842 and 1843. Each account is signed by the debtor. The first pages of the ledger contain an index. A similar ledger contains 245 separate accounts on pre-printed forms of persons in account with the Austin, 1842-1843. Information for each person includes: date, articles furnished, amount of dead men's and deserters' clothes, amount of pursers stores, amount of slop clothing, amount of money, total amount of all issues by the purser, signatures, and witnesses. Both of these ledgers are probably related to 401-1124, which is a general muster book listing 250 persons assigned to the Austin between October 1, 1842 and July 26, 1843, which is described in the Military roll series.

The third ledger contains a list of personnel aboard the Texas Brig of War Wharton, plus individual accounts, slop accounts (January 1, 1841), and rations expended and issued (April 1842).

The fourth ledger is an account ledger which contains a variety of accounts--slop accounts, cash accounts, and accounts of individuals, between October 1839 and October 1842. In addition, there are muster rolls and provision and slop accounts dated 1842 for the Navy Yard, the Wharton, and the Zavala. Typical data in these accounts include date, quantity, item, price per unit, and amount credited.

A fifth volume (2-7/967), labelled Log of Ship Jacinto, 1843, actually contains records from other record groups (the 7th Congress, the State Department, the General Land Office, the War Department, the Ordnance Department, for protection of the sea coast, etc.). This volume does contain the freight book of the Steamer San Jacinto (November 27, 1838) --but is not a Navy record.

This series consists of those financial records of the Republic of Texas Navy which do not pertain--or do not clearly pertain--to a particular ship or to the Navy Yard. Dates covered are 1836-1847. They include the following types of documents: requisitions, receipts, invoices, bills, vouchers, statements of disbursements, accounts current, claims, suspended claims, receipt rolls for the payment of advances, invoices of merchandise purchased and shipped, IOUs, statements of purchases at auction, estimates of funds required, registers of Treasury Certificates issued to officers and men for services in the Navy, auditors certificates (letters of credit), abstracts of provisions and cash received, abstracts of suspended vouchers, statements of travelling expenses, abstracts of claims (1846 and 1847), etc. The officials involved in the creation of these documents include the Treasurer, the Auditor, the Comptroller, the Secretary of the Navy, the Navy Commissioners, Naval Agents, the Naval Storekeeper, and various naval pursers.

In addition, there are many wrappers, consisting of the papers which were used to enclose folded documents or bundles of documents in the original files, labelled on the outside. Many of these pertained to pursers' records, but are not so arranged.