The first mention of the Seychelles National Archives is to be found in the instrument of capitulation of Seychelles that was executed by the French Commandant, Chevalier Quéau de Quincy, and the British, Captain Henry Newcome of H.M.S. Orpheus on 17 May 1794. Article 6 provides for the protection of archives. However, no action was taken to implement the above and 10 years later when Mr. Lablache, an individual who understood the urgency to protect and classify the country’s archives, requested the post of archivist to do just that, he was refused.
Under the colonial rule of the British, some sporadic efforts were made to create an inventory of the Seychelles archives. It was noticed then that most records under the French rule had been transferred to France. There is reference to fire and the great landslide of 1862 destroying a lot of archives. However, the number one reason for destruction of archives was the blatant negligence of administrators.
It can be argued that the official act of birth of the Seychelles National Archives was the Ordinance 27 of the 7th November 1964, but this legislative Act was only to make official a situation that existed about 3 years before: On September 1961, the first Seychelles archivist was named and a temporary depot was instituted. Captain William Tindall Wilfred Webb, retired officer of the Army of India and the Political Services of Bombay, was Seychelles' first archivist.
He occupied that post for seven years until his death on July 1968 at the age of 78 years old. He accomplished the important tasks of selecting, classifying and identifying document for Archives. A detailed inventory carried by Mr. Webb was published by l’OSTOM (Office pour la Recherche scientifique et technique Outre-Mer) in 1982, with some addition by his successor, Mr. Henri Mac Gaw. The latter joined the National Archives as Assistant Archivist in 1964 and assumed the direction of the National Archives from 1968 to 1987 when he was succeeded by Mr. Alain Lucas. In 2002, Mr. Peter Lalande took over until January 2008 and Mr. Alain Lucas once again took up the post of director.
After being housed in two rooms on the ground floor of the Carnegie Library (now the Natural History Museum building) in Victoria, the National Archives was transferred in 1982 to the La Bastille at Union Vale. The building, which is a national monument, was a private home until it was acquired by the Government. It once housed the Ministry of Plans and Public Works and its following occupant was the Ministry of Education, the latter left, it allowed the National Archives to also occupy the prefabricated annex that permitted the storage of about 30 linear meters of records.
In 1991, with the construction of the new Library building in town, the National Archives vacated most of the space that it was occupying at La Bastille and moved in one wing of the National Library, now called the National Cultural Centre.