Relations of Faith and Confessions of Sin

The following relations and confessions are among the collections of the Westborough Center for History and Culture at the Westborough Public Library.1 A lager collection of relations and confessions is among the Parkman Family Papers (Box 2, Folder 2) at the American Antiquarian Society.2

The transcriptions follow the “expanded” method. The purpose is to make the records easier to read and to search without completely changing the document (i.e., making a “modernized” transcription).3 Abbreviations have been expanded unless commonly used today (e.g., Chh becomes Church); superscript letters have been brought down to the line and the words expanded (e.g., w^th becomes with, Sacram^t becomes Sacrament); crossed-out words are omitted unless the words suggest something of the writer’s intentions (surely a subjective judgment); punctuation, particularly commas and semicolons, has been occasionally added—or omitted—to make reading the document easier. Spelling is unchanged, and, in a few instances, [sic] is inserted to reassure the reader that what appears in the transcription is what was written in the original document. Ampersands are changed to “and” (while &c. is changed to etc.). The thorn y has been rendered as “th” (e.g., y^e, y^t, y^s become the, that, and this).

A few editorial decisions may seem arbitrary, but one hopes that such decisions are consistently used. Dates are uniform, with the months spelled out: for example, September 3, 1762 rather than Sep^t 3. 1762. Various spellings for Westborough are fully spelled out.

One exception to the expansion of abbreviations occurs in the past tense of verbs with the omission of the “e” in “ed”—or example baptizd, detaind, excusd, restord, desird, etc. In this transcription, such words remain as written.

Dates that follow the name of the person presenting the relation or confession appear as written either by the author or in the filing notation. Dates in square brackets refer to the date in the church records when an individual was admitted to the church or presented a confession.

Finally, the filing notations occasionally include more than the name and date; in such cases, the additional information is presented in a footnote.

Readers are encouraged to consult the digital images of the relations and confessions.