Puritan Village: The Formation of a New England Town

Preface

Prefacee T HIS book is the culmination of a six-year detective hunt among local records, archives, and private collections in England and in Massachusetts . I do not recommend a similar study to any student who has a faint heart, lack of patience, inability to travel, or poor eyesight. Such a study demands the development of various specialized skills. A knowledge of the mysteries of genealogy is essential, and these can be both complex and frustrating. One must also learn about paleography and know how to decipher the different court hands, the shorthand Latin used by clerks, and seventeenth -century handwriting in general. A note of warning: many of the church documents make the formal manorial court rolls look like works of art, as they are. Single pages, or paragraphs of entries, in Church Court Deposition Books or Churchwardens' Accounts have cost me many hours of exasperation , to saynothing of long weeksat the typewriter. Another important ability which must be cultivated is the use of a portable photostat machine, such as the Centura, under every kind of difficulty, including the differences in types of electric current in foreign countries and the caution of archivists who fear any damage to their documents. In addition to the skill of handling a photostat machine, one should know about photographic processes in general and a certain amount about cartography, particularly for the period studied. Naturally, the technical legal language used by court clerks must be mastered. My original scheme —to trace all of the most important settlers of Sudbury , even though their descendants knew little or nothing about them — was a considerable gamble, and I simply had to take it. But lest this project sound as if it were a singlehanded feat, let me quickly add that no study of this type can possibly be done without the generous co-operation of the many archivists , local historians, and antiquarians who know, administer, or process the specific documents involved. I have literally hundreds of letters in my files, and I am aware that I have asked many people impossible lists of questions XIV PURITAN VILLAGE which I blush to read over, now that the work is done. But somehow I wasable to instill in these most helpful men and women the faith that I would put all the pieces together into a meaningful whole, and I hope that this book meets with their expectations. I can say truthfully that we worked rather long hours over a great deal of this. First, I wish to express my thanks for the constant co-operation and interest of the former Town Clerk of Sudbury, Massachusetts, Mr. Forrest D. Bradshaw . He made available not only the original Sudbury Town Records, but his own research as well, including his reconstructedmap and a whole store of information. I should like to think that a Sudbury student would continue the edited transcription of the Town Books which Mr. Bradshawand I started together in 1951. Next, I owe a deep debt of gratitude to Mrs. Winifred Dodge, who taught me much about genealogy and allowed me to use her own research on Edmund Rice and on other Sudbury settlers.Any young historian would do well to appreciate the precision and careful handling of documents, which are the sine qua non of any professionalgenealogist.One must learn painfully that the "John Parmenter" on an early document may not be the same "John Parmenter" whose activitiesone wants to know about. Next, I wish to thank Miss Hilda Grieve, of the Essex Record Office, for teaching me what little paleography I know at present. But more than this, her warmth of encouragement, stemming from her own dedication to careful local history, was invaluable, particularly in the early stages of the study, though she has read the final draft as well. Dr. Norman Tyack, author of an unpublished thesis for the University of London, "The Emigration from East Anglia to New England, 1630-1660," was more than generous in assisting me with the knowledge gained from his own research, and we have become good friends through this mutual interest and work. Perhaps it would be best to proceed by geographic areas in acknowledging my gratitude to the many archivists and antiquarians in the many counties, boroughs, and record offices which I visited in England. The rector of Weyhill , Cyril B. Williams, has made the first chapter possible and contributed a whole file of letters on historical details of his parish. His brother-in-law, Edward Keep, built...