Attorney General Records

The Attorney General Records is a massive collection housed at the Hawaiʻi State Archives. Selected portions of this collection were digitized to provide a glimpse of what is available in these records. Punawaiola presents the following curated digitized collection which contains a total of 28 files with 3,161 individual files. Volumes 1 and 2 were digitized, as well as selected Attorney General Records spanning a time period from 1844-1892. These records may be found using the Hawaiʻi State Archives’ Attorney General Finding Aid (Series 510 Opinions vol. 1-2; Series 505, Box 1, Folders 1-26).

Series 505 contains correspondence (mostly incoming letters, including telegrams) of the Attorney General, the Marshal and the island sheriffs; commissions and oaths of office of deputy attorneys general, police constables and deputy sheriffs; reports of inquests and other investigations by coroners, district magistrates, tax assessors and school agents; leases, deeds and mortgages; statements of witnesses, etc. to police; oaths and bonds sworn before police constables; maps of parcels of lands; financial records, including such things as account balance sheets and cash receipts; and a wedding announcement. Records address a variety of issues such as citizen complaints against police, pending cases, employee wages, and government policy toward royalists following the overthrow.

[With regard to Series 510] [t]he earliest volume, dated 1844, contains comments of the Attorney General, sometimes formally titled as opinions, on such things as a complaint by the French consul about the treatment of Catholic clergy and a letter from the Earl of Aberdeen stating the position of the British Government with respect to several issues, including the Charlton land claim. The later volumes contain formal opinions of the Attorney General, issues in response to requests from government officials, including legislators. Opinions are the Attorney General's interpretation of the law relative to issues raised in the requests. There are additional 19th century opinions in the general records (Series 505).

Please click on the following links to access this digitized collection.

  • Attorney General 1844 Vol. 1, Complaints and Opinions
  • Attorney General Opinions Vol. 2. November 29, 1892 - June 1, 1900
  • Attorney General Records n.d., 1844-1846
  • Attorney General Records 1847, 1849
  • Attorney General Records 1852 - 1858
  • Attorney General Records 1859 - 1878
  • Attorney General Records 1880 - 1883
  • Attorney General Records 1884, January - April
  • Attorney General Records 1884, May - December
  • Attorney General Records 1885, January - April
  • Attorney General Records 1885, May - June
  • Attorney General Records 1885, July - December
  • Attorney General Records 1886, January - June
  • Attorney General Records 1886, July - December
  • Attorney General Records 1887, January - February
  • Attorney General Records 1887, March - July
  • Attorney General Records 1887, August
  • Attorney General Records 1887, September
  • Attorney General Records 1887, October
  • Attorney General Records 1887, November - December
  • Attorney General Records 1888, January
  • Attorney General Records 1888, February
  • Attorney General Records 1888, March - December
  • Attorney General Records 1889 - 1890
  • Attorney General Records 1891
  • Attorney General Records 1892
  • Attorney General Records n.d., 1893 January
  • Attorney General Records 1893, February