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Dorchester [MA] Town RecordsDorchester [Massachusetts] Town Records. Record Commissioners of the City of Boston. Softcover, (1880), repr. 1999, New, Index, 329 pp.
In 1879, the City Council of Boston, Massachusetts, moved in favor of a resolution to reprint a deteriorating collection of historical documents pertaining to several towns then incorporated into the city. Out of print for more than 100 years, this new edition makes the revised fourth report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston on the preservation of ancient records once again available to researchers and historians. This text comprises the first volume of public records for the town of Dorchester, transcribed from a decaying folio of handwritten documents dated in some cases as early as the 1630s and extending to the end of the 17th century. The deliberations of the Record Commission regarding the extent of the reprinting as well as responses to proposals for the project from members of the research community are included in the introductory material. The documents themselves cover a wide variety of public concerns but focus primarily on property disputes, civil and criminal law, the establishment of weights and measures for use in commerce, and the workings of the town government. As with other volumes of this type the text is dense with the names of original settlers, early inhabitants and estates of the region, making it an excellent addition to any genealogical research collection. The original index to the revised edition including surnames and subjects have been retained. #R111 ISBN 0-7884-1138-1 |