INDEX
Vital Records Of Boxford Massachusetts
To The End Of The Year 1849
Published By The Topsfield Historical Society,
Topsfield, Mass. 1905
[Transcribed by Dave Swerdfeger]
BOXFORD
The territory now included within the limits of Boxford was originally a part of Rowley and was known as "Rowley Village" before its incorporation as a town. The General Court at a session held August 12, 16851eceived the following agreement: "The inhabitants of Rowley Village desiring to be a tounship, wee, whose names are underwritten, being a comittee chosen by ye Toune of Rowley, have consented that they should be a touneship, provided the honord Court see cause to grant their request. Wee, desiring also, that the honnored Gennerall Court would be pleased to confirme the lyne wee haue agreed upon betwixt the toune of Rowley & the village; and so your humble servants remajne," etc., etc. and on the same day," The Court, on the certifficat of the comittee and the bounds, agree for the ljne betweene Rowley and the village under their hands, judge meet to grant the peticoners request, provided the bounds thereof intrench not on other tounes or former grants."
The town is supposed to have been named for Boxford, County of Berkshire, England, the birthplace of Rev. Samuel Phillips, the minister at Rowley.
June 20, 1728, part of the town was included within the limits of the new town of Middleton.
June 10, 1808, part of Rowley was annexed.
March 7, 1846, part of Ipswich was annexed.
March 21, 1856, part of the town was annexed to Groveland.
April 15, 1897, part of the town was annexed to Georg town.
The population of Boxford at different periods was as follows:
ABBREVIATIONS
EXPLANATIONS
The following records of births, marriages and deaths include all entries to be found in the books of record kept by the town clerics; in the church records; in the returns made to the Salem Quarterly Court; in the cemetery inscriptions; and in private records found in family Bibles, etc. These records are printed in a condensed form in which every essential particular has been preserved. All duplication of the town clerks record has been eliminated, but differences in entry and other explanatory matter appear in brackets. Parentheses are used when they occur in the original record; also, to show the difference in the spelling of a name in the same entry, and to indicate the maiden name of a married woman.
When places other than Boxford and Massachusetts are named in the original records, they are given in the printed copy. Marriages and intentions of marriage are printed under the names of both parties. Double-dating is used in the months of January, February and March, prior to 1752, whenever it appears in the original and also, whenever from the sequence of entry in the original the date may be easily determined. In all records the original spelling of names is followed, and in the alphabetical arrangement the various forms should be examined, as items about the same family may be found under different spellings.