1685-11-30[November 30, 1685]
30: of November in the year 1685 then this book was improved for the Town of Beverly as
a Town book to record the Town Concerns by the Selectmen of said Town successively, & for
former Concerns may have recourse unto a former parchment Covered Old book Extant, and
Likewise for some ancient records of marriages, births and burials: which that year was the first year
of the reign of our Sovereign Lord King James secundus -
Truth justifies herself; when falsehood comes to not,
how some improve the first: but with the last fall fraught,
Oh thou Tyrant, Custom, what havock dost thou make,
thy Cruel, bonds, fetters, and Clogs, most men do captivate.