HANOVER RECORDS

The Records of the Town of Hanover, New Hampshire, 1761-1818; Printed by Vote of the Town under the direction of Hebert Darling Foster, George Mendal Bridgman, Sidney Bradshaw Fay. Hanover, New Hampshire 1905. "The Rumford Printing-Company, Concord, N. H. Octavo, PP. VI, 336.

This attractive volume containing. the "records of the town meetings, and of the selectmen, comprising all of the first volume of records and. being volume I of the printed records of the Town," is the contribution of the Town to local history. At its March meeting 1903 the Town voted, at the suggestion of Professor Foster, one hundred dollars for copying and printing its early records, and the next year added three hundred and fifty dollars to complete the work. The execution of the task was entrusted to the three gentlemen whose names appear on the title page. A verbatim copy of the records was made by Mr. Wm. D. Walker, and this copy, which faithfully reproduces spelling, capitalization, and punctuation, was compared by the Committee word for word, and, when necessary, letter by letter with the original.

The book is a credit to the Town and to its editors. The Town has thus made available the sources of its corporate history, and has happily taken its place among the towns which have led the way in publishing their early records, while the accuracy of the copy and the appearance of the book testify to the diligence and the taste of the editors.

Such publications are of great value. They put into permanent and available form records, invaluable to the correct presentation of local and even general history, that are often in places where they are exposed to accident, mildew, and fire, and that once lost could never be recovered. These records are often difficult of access and when found- are difficult to decipher, and being usually unindexed necessitate great labor in finding what may be found in such a volume as this on inspection. The Town and editors deserve the thanks of all those who are interested in the preservation of historical records for this volume, which is rendered exceedingly serviceable by a complete and satisfactory index.

The first thing which attracts the attention on opening the book is the peculiarity of the spelling, but that ceases to attract as the matter makes itself clear. The meetings of the proprietors of the Town from 1761 to 1767 were held at Mansfield, Conn., and the first town meeting was held in Hanover, July 22, 1767. From that time on, under the ordinary election of officers and the provision for taxes for roads, etc., one sees the natural growth of a New England town, while special officers, like poundkeepers, hogreeves, and deeriffs, and regulations for the straying of hogs and cattle show the peculiar conditions of the time. The interest in higher things appears in the vote, taken at the second meeting, Oct. 26, 1767, to hire a minister for the next summer, and in the appointment of a committee in 1771 "to pitch a place for a Meeting House," while the year before the Town appointed a committee "to treat with Governor Wentworth and the Trustees of Dartmouth College, respecting setting off a part of said Town as a destrict to sd. College," to which the Town later assented.

The book is valuable to those who would study local condition and custom shown in the growth of a town from its beginnings, and it is to be hoped that it may be followed at a later time by the publication of the volume containing the list of births, marriages, and deaths of the early years of the Town.