Vital Records of Beverly, Massachusetts

Vital Records of Beverly, Massachusetts: To the End of the Year 1849

The following records of births, marriages and deaths include all entries to be found in the books of record kept by the town clerks; in the church records; in the returns made to the Salem Quarterly Court; in the cemetery inscriptions; and in private records found in family Bibles, etc. These records are printed in a condensed form in which every essential particular has been preserved. All duplication of the town clerks' record has been eliminated, but differences in entry and other explanatory matter appear in brackets. Parentheses are used when they occur in the original record; also to show the difference in the spelling of a name in the same entry; and to indicate the maiden name of a married woman.

When places other than Beverly and Massachusetts are named in the original records, they are given in the printed copy. Marriages and intentions of marriage are printed under the names of both parties. Double dating is used in the months of January, February, and March, prior to 1752, whenever it appears in the original and also, whenever from the sequence of entry in the original the date may be easily determined. In all records the original spelling of names is followed, and in the alphabetical arrangement the various forms should be examined, as items about the same family may be found under different spellings.

Abbreviations Found Within the Beverly, MA Vital Records

Vol. 1 - Birth Records Only

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Vol. 2 - Marriage and Death Records Only

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At a session of the General Court held May 27, 1668, a petition was received from "the inhabitants of yt part of Salem corn-only called Basse Riuer" praying for certain priviledges belonging to a town government, and the Court having heard "wt Salem deputjes sajd, judge meet to grant their request, prouided the towne of Salem doe fully concurr therewth." At a session of the General Court held November 7, 1668, the vote of the town of Salem consenting to the separation was presented and "The Court, on pervsall of this returne, judge it meete to grant that Basse Riuer be henceforth a towneship of themselues, referring it to Salem to accomodate them wth lands & bounds suitably for them, & that it be called Beverly." The name was probably derived from the borough of Beverley in Yorkshire, England, and may have been selected at the suggestion of Maj.-Gen. Robert Sedgwick who gave to the inhabitants a bell that he had captured at St. John in 1654. (See Essex Institute Bulletin, Vol. XX, p. 17)

Sept. 11, 1753, part of Salem was annexed.
April 27, 1857, part of the town was annexed to Danvers.
March 23, 1894, the town was incorporated as a city.