At the April 1857 town meeting of Wayland, formally East Sudbury, voted to take measures to secure a copy of the ancient records of the town of Sudbury up to the year 1780, as it is the heritage of the town of Wayland also. The five volumes were copies by Mary A. Heard. Changing styles of handwriting, style of speech, torn paper, awkward syntax and faded ink made it difficult to decipher word for word for each and every page for Ms Heard. Volume one covers the years 1638 to 1702
Title supplied by cataloger.
Town reports records not only town officials, building of bridges, fees for offenses but the ownership and location of land, buildings, payment to individuals who did part time work for the town, poll taxes, warning out notices and other facts for the genealogist or community researcher.
The Sudbury Archives Project commenced in 1991 to create a database and index for records starting in 1639 of the original Sudbury Plantation documents. The Town Reports have been transcribed and made keyword searchable in this project. This invaluable source can be found on the Sudbury Archives on the web - https://archives.sudbury.ma.us/Presto/home/home.aspx. After locating the exact source, check out the original document for verification of spelling, transcription and interpretation.