Index
Vital Records Of Manchester, Massachusetts
To The End Of The Year 1849
Published By The Essex Institute Salem, Mass. 1903
Newcomb & Gauss, Printers, Salem, Massachusetts

[Transcribed by Dave Swerdfeger]








EXPLANATIONS

THE following records of births, Marriages and deaths include all entries to be found in the books of record kept by the town clerks; in the church records; in the returns made to the Salem Quarterly Court; in the cemetery inscriptions; and in several private records found in family Bibles.

These records are printed in a condensed form in which every essential particular has been preserved. All duplication of the town clerk's record has been eliminated, but differences in entry and other explanatory matter appear in brackets.

The copy of the original records made for the town in 1886, by William A. Stone, town clerk, has been used only when it has supplied entries now missing in the original. 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 wife.

When places other than Manchester 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.

MANCHESTER

THE first settlers gave the name of "Jeofferyes Creeke" to this tract of land which at that time was a part of Salem. The name Manchester appears in the Colonial Records under the date of May 14, 1645, when "It is ordered, ye Jeffryes Creeke shalbe called Manchester."

June 18, 1645, both branches of the Great and General Court concurred in the following: "att ye request of ye inhabitants of Jeofferyes Creeke, this Courte doth graunt yt ye said Jeofferyes Creeke hence forward shall be called Manchester."

THE POPULATION of Manchester at different periods was as follows:
  • 1765, 732.
  • 1776, 949.
  • 1790, 965.
  • 1800, 1082.
  • 1810, 1137.
  • 1820, 1201.
  • 1840, 1355.
  • 1830, 1236.
  • 1850, 1638.
  • 1900, 2522.
ABBREVIATIONS
  • a.----age.
  • abt.----about.
  • b.----born.
  • bef.----before.
  • bp.----baptized.
  • C.R.----church record.
  • ch.----child.
  • chn.----children.
  • Co.----county.
  • CT.R.----court record, Essex Co. Quarterly Court.
  • d.----daughter; day; died.
  • Dea.----deacon.
  • dup.----duplicate entry.
  • G.R.----gravestone record, Old Cemetery.
  • h.----husband.
  • inf.----infant.
  • int.----intention of Marriage.
  • jr.----junior.
  • m.----male; Married; month.
  • P.R.1.----Bible record, now in the possession of the Manchester Public Library and presented by Mrs. Hooper Allen.
  • P.R.2.----Bible record now in the possession of William H. Allen.
  • P.R.3.----Record furnished by Joseph A. Torrey.
  • P.R.4.----Bible record now in the possession of William J. Johnson.
  • rec.----recorded.
  • s.----son.
  • sr.----senior.
  • T.C.----town copy of records made in 1886 by William A. Stone, town clerk.
  • unm.----unmarried.
  • w.----wife,week.
  • wid.----widow.
  • widr.----widower.
  • y.----year.


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