Massachusetts Colonial Records

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Colonial Records

Online Records

Many records from the colonial era in New England were kept at the town or county level. Search the catalog at the town or county level to locate those records.

History

The Plymouth Colony in 1620 and the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1630 were the first permanent European settlements. The Bay Colony originally included parts of New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Southern Maine.

Earliest Church Records	Earliest Land Records	Earliest Court Records	Earliest Newspapers
1620	1620	1620	1704

Resources

• 1622-1788, Massachusetts State Archives collection, colonial period. Digitized but not indexed. This collection includes agricultural, dispositions, ecclesiastical, estates, foreign affairs, Hutchinson's correspondence, Indian affairs, maritime, military, and other records.

Court Records

Under the Charter of 1629, all official meeting notes were listed as "courts."
General Court (1620-1684, 1692-1825).

• 1628-1777. Film 0954385. Digitized but not indexed.
  

Court of Assistants (1630-1686, 1689-1692) This was the appellate court for county and inferior courts. It also was the jurisdiction for capital crimes and divorces. For a short time in the 1680s, the Court of Assistants was under the Governor and Council appointed by the Crown.

• Records of the court of Assistants of the Colony of the Massachusetts Bay, 1630-1692. 3 Vols. (Boston: County of Suffolk, 1901-1928, film 046679).

Vice-Admiralty Court (1714-1772, 1692-1775)

• 1718-1772, Court records and account books. Film 902790. Digitized but not indexed.

Massachusetts Governor and Council

• 1760-1786, Divorce Records. Film 0946895, item 3. Digitized but not indexed.

Military Records

• 1767-1833, Muster rolls (index file cards) of the Revolutionary War, Massachusetts. Digitized and indexed.
• 1603-1779, French and Indian War muster roll index cards. Digitized but not indexed.
• Massachusetts Officers and Soldiers, 1702-1722: Queen Anne's War to Dummer's War by Mary E. Donahue. (Boston: Society of Colonial Wars, 1980).
• Massachusetts Officers and Soldiers, 1723-1743: Dummer's War to the War Jenkins' Ear by Myron O. Stachiw. (Boston: Society of Colonial Wars, 1979).
• Massachusetts Soldiers in the French and Indian Wars, 1744-1755 by David K. Goss. (Boston: Society of Colonial Wars, 1985).
• Massachusetts Officers in the French and Indian Wars, 1748-1763 by Nancy S. Voye. (Boston: Society of Colonial Wars, 1975).
• Soldiers in King Philip's War by George M. Bodge. (1906. Reprint. Baltimore: Genealogical Publishing Co., 1991).
• Massachusetts Officers and Soldiers in the Seventeenth Century Conflicts by Carole Doreski. (Boston: Society of Colonial Wars, New England Historic Genealogical Society, 1982).
• Membership Roll of Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company, 1637-1744, Massachusetts Bay Colony.
• Woburn Men in the Indian and Other Wars Previous to the Year 1754 by Arthur Greene Loring.
• Soldiers in the French War from Essex County, 1775-1800 by Eben Putnam. (Salem, MA: Historical Society of Essex, 1892).

Newspapers

• Checklist of Boston Newspapers, 1704-1780 by Mary Farwell Ayer. (Boston: Colonial Society of Massachusetts, 1907).
• Index of Obituaries in Boston Newspapers, 1704-1800. 3 Vols. (Boston: G.K. Hall, 1968).

Manuscript Collections

• Berkshire Athenaeum, Pittsfield Public Library. Massachusetts family history files, 1550-1990.
• Rollin H. Cooke Collections. A series of town records. Some of these records have been digitized on FamilySearch, and can be found by searching for the town of interest in the library catalog.
• Elmer I. Shepard Collection: Massachusetts family group records, 1550-1900. Partially digitized but not indexed.
• Walter E. Corbin Manuscript Collection at the New England Historic Genealogical Society in Boston. Digitized but not indexed.
• Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants: The Bowman Files by George Ernest Bowman. (Boston: Massachusetts Society of Mayflower Descendants, 1983).
• The Judd Manuscript Collection, 1625-1850at the Forbes Public Library in Northamption.
• The New England Historical and Genealogical Register. Partially indexed and digitized.
• Collections of the Massachusetts Historical Society.