Excerpt from First Report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston, 1876

In regard to the following list of tax-payers in the town of Boston, it is proper to say that it has been the intent of the editors to make a careful transcription of the names without emendation. The lists are in various handwritings and of very widely differing degrees of accuracy. Some of them are the revised lists prepared by practised clerks, and others are the hasty transcripts of less accomplished Officials. Some of the writers used the modern forms of letters, and others retained the earlier style in vogue in the generation of the emigrants to New England. Every one who has had occasion to examine manuscripts is aware of the difficulty in discriminating between certain letters, and this difficulty is greatly increased by any lack of scholarship on the part of the writer. Again, a list of names is especially difficult of transcription, because there is no repetition of words or letters to assist the copyist in reading doubtful portions. There is no guide to the intent of the writer, since, when we feel sure of the name intended, we are not certain of the method of spelling followed by the writer. Again, the transcriber has not felt at liberty to seek other sources of information to learn the names of the inhabitants of Boston at the period, because there is no certainty that persons of names resembling those of well-known citizens did not also reside here for a Short time.

In most cases the industry of genealogists will hereafter succeed in identifying the names here given; but as these lists are meant to be the sources of information, no attempt has been made to annotate the record. The sole object of the transcript is to give an exact copy of the words written on each paper, so far as they can be made out from a careful study thereof.

The original papers will all be carefully preserved in the city archives, and every one dissatisfied with the commissioners' ver sion will have an opportunity to examine the documents anew.

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