Book Description

Excerpt from The Pioneers of Massachusetts: A Descriptive List, Drawn From Records of the Colonies, Towns and Churches, and Other Contemporaneous Documents The Pioneers of Massachusetts deserve high honor from the people of the United States of America. They composed and signed, in the cabin of the Mayflower, Nov. 11, 1620, the grand though simple "Compact," model of all our constitutions; they organized General Courts, patterns of our legislative bodies; courts of judicature and commissions for the settlement of minor cases, - "to end small causes," - types of our municipal and justices' courts; they gathered congregational bodies of worshippers, embodiments and types of our best, fraternal, religious life; they crystalized the old Saxon town idea into systematic town meetings; they first subscribed to support schools for their children, then devised the scheme of bearing the burden by general taxation, making schools by the people, for the people. And they and their descendants went forth to settle other parts of the great land, and built the foundation of new states out of granite, quarried from Massachusetts ledges. Thus it is the "Commonwealth of Massachusetts" where the largest number of American families had their first home this side of the Atlantic; and to her records and relics come yearly the largest processions of pilgrims, seeking to obtain clues to the still earlier history of their ancestry. Love of family and desire to know and preserve the memory of worthy fore-fathers lead many inquirers into this field. The admirable organizations which keep alive the memory of the Mayflower passengers, which place fresh laurels on the graves of colonial worthies and warriors, which pay honor to the guardians of a country in the face of foreign oppression, the founders of our republican institutions - these societies have deepened the interest and greatly advanced the knowledge of our ancestors. Thus an increasing amount of examination of old records is made; and the courteous town and church clerks, recorders of deeds and wills, custodians of filed documents in court houses and the office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth, have abundant opportunity for the display of that remarkable affability and helpfulness which characterize the officials of our state. Numerous family histories and sketches of the founders have appeared, some of which are models of research and honesty; what a fine list that is which Munsell's Sons present in their American Genealogist! Other books are in preparation and much investigation and compilation is being done for simple, private satisfaction. But the work of historical research is an art; records, ever so accessible, need skilled readers and interpreters. Apparatus is demanded for the work; charts are needed for the chart-makers. John Farmer, M.A., having explored to the best of his ability a part of the early records, published in 1628 "A Genealogical Register of the First Settlers of New England," which had great value, and marked him as a benefactor of American students of history. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.