THE COUNTY RECORDS.

     The next instalment of Concord births, etc., with similar records from other towns in Middlesex County, is found in the first volume of Middlesex Deeds.  These records were also copied in 1851 under the direction of the County Commissioners, and are included in the first volume of Middlesex County Registers of Births, Marriages, and Deaths, in the office of the Clerk of Courts, at East Cambridge.  No contemporary copy of the original exists at Concord.  The record at Cambridge is mutilated in a few places by the breaking of the edges of the leaves, so that several dates are now lost.

CONCORD BIRTHS: DELIVERED IN, 1650.

THE CONCORD REGISTERS. BOOK 1.
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     FROM the date (September 17, 1650) when Simon Willard made the foregoing return, until February, 1634, no record of Births, Marriages and Deaths in Concord is to be found either in the books of the Town or in those of the County.  It is probable, however, that such a record was made here and duly transmitted to the County Recorder, as required by law, no copy of the record being retained at home.  This had evidently been the custom up to that time, and Simon Willard, who had "delivered into court" all the foregoing records, contained in the office of Town Clerk during this period, and would hardly have been likely to neglect this duty.
     The First Book of the Town Registers was begun by Robert Meriam, Town Clerk from 1654 to 1668, and continued by John Scotchford, his successor in that office from 1668 to 1680.  Each of the Clerks made due returns to the County Recorder.  Down to and including the second entry on page 7 of the Concord original, these returns were copied into the first volume of the Probate Registry; from and after that they were copied into books kept for this special purpose, and now in the office of the Clerk of the Courts.  A great many errors occur in these copies, due partly to carelessness of the official Recorder; partly to his lack of familiarity with Concord family names, and partly to the crabbed handwriting of our earlier Town Clerks and their arbitrary and varying motions of orthography.  When the Court, Registers were recopied in 1851, into the volumes now in use, these errors were perpetuated, and a few new ones added.  Where these errors are of importance, we have noticed them in foot-notes.
     In the following pages, the marginal figures in brackets denote the pages of the original volume.

[1] here begineth ye records of mariags & berthes, & deathes from febeuery; 1654.

_ me ROBERT MERIAM recorder

Conbributed by Sharon Wick

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