Preface for "Documentary History of Suffield, by Sheldon, 1879"

PREFACE.

   Believing that no History of Suffield can be so complete or valuable to the descendants of its founders, as the records themselves, accurately transcribed, the writer has modified a first plan, and will commence this work by making a copy of the petitions, grants, and orders to and from the Massachusetts General Court; also the acts of the Committee appointed by it to settle the town.
   This plan, with explanatory notes, involves much labor and research, as well as expense.
   Many matters pertaining to the Town's History previous to A. D. 1749, can only be found in the Massachusetts Colonial Records at Boston, the Probate Records at Northampton, and the Land and Town Records at Springfield. After that date, the Connecticut Colonial Records, the Hartford Probate Records to 1821, and the Suffield Records, contain similar important matter.
   The original first volume of Suffield Town Acts is much worn, and the first sixteen pages, containing the acts of the Committee to April 1, 1677, are lost.
   Fortunately the Town, in 1771, ordered a copy to be made of that part of the old volume which related to the “Tenure of Lands."
   This copy is now Vol. 1 Suffield Land Records, and includes the entire acts of the Committee to 1682, and all grants and allotments of Land to 1724; but omits the records of the Town Meetings, which contain the only existing account of the trials and struggles of our ancestors for more than fifty years. These have been transcribed; and the ancient orthography will be preserved from and after the date April 1, 1677.
   The old volume is before me! From pure reverence the writer has, in its 206th anniversary year, procured for it a new binding, to save, if possible, what remains. No care can much longer shield it from Time's ravages--the preserving power of types and press alone can save the treasures it contains. Its dingy pages, fading ink, and crumbling leaves, make the transcription a labor.
   This work is a "labor of love" on the part of the writer and transcriber. If others shall derive the some pleasure in studying the Town's early history, or a new interest shall be awakened in perpetuating the annals and memorials of our noble ancestors, he will be amply rewarded.

HEZEKIAH S. SHELDON

Suffield, December 25, 1876.

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