Antedating: "selectman", 1642, 1643 (OED 2nd ed., 1646)

[Joel S. Berson]

Second Report of the Record Commissioners of the City of Boston. 1877.
Boston: Rockwell and Churchill, 1877.
City of Boston. City Document No. 46.

page 68:
and this is to be done by the select men, chosen for the Towne's businesse.
1642 March 4

page 76:
It's agreed betweene the select men on the Townes behalfe, and Hugh
Williams and George Clifford: That Nathaniel Newgate, Apprentize ...
shall doe all Common service in drumming for the Towne on trayning
dayes and watches ... in consideration whereof the Towne will be at
the charge of their learning skill in drumming.
1643 Sept. 25
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Robert Frances Seybolt, in _The Town Officials of Colonial Boston,
1634--1775_ (Harvard Univ. Press, 1939) writes that these two are the
earliest occurrences in the Boston town records (page 3, note 1).

Joel

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