ABSTRACT 
OF THE 
RETURNS OF THE OVERSEERS OF THE POOR 
IN 
MASSACHUSETTS, 
FOR 1339: 
PREPARED BY THE 
SECRETARY OF THE COMMONWEALTH. ®utmnontoealtt) of JHaBsactjttsettB* 
Secretary’s Office, Feb. 22, 1840. 
To the Honorable Senate, and 
Honorable House of Representatives: 
In compliance with the provisions of the act of the 
18th of April, 1837, I have the honor to submit an Ab- 
stract of the Returns from the Overseers of the Poor 
from 297 cities and towns, and from the Directors of the 
House of Industry in Boston, for 1839. 
The questions proposed by the Act, refer to many 
important points connected with the pauper system, and 
are generally answered with fulness and precision. One 
of them, however, (viz: that concerning the cost of the 
Poor out of the Almshouse,) is so evidently misunder- 
stood by many of the overseers, and the answers are 
based upon such different impressions of its meaning, 
that (as was likewise the case last year), I have not 
attempted to reduce them to an average. Under all the 
other heads, aggregates are presented both for the Coun- 
ties and the whole Commonwealth. 
No returns have been received from Ashby, Buckland, 
Chilmark, Clarksburg, Dana, Lincoln, Rowe, Wenham 
and Holland. These towns, howrever, with the excep- 
tion of the last, made returns the previous year, and in 
order to present as complete a view as possible of the 
important subject to which they relate, the particulars 4 
RETURNS OF THE POOR. 
of those returns, and the return of Holland for 1837, 
are included in this Abstract, which accordingly embraces 
the most recent information concerning the state of the 
Poor in every city and town in the State. 
Very respectfully, 
Your obedient servant, 
JOHN P. BIGELOW, 
Secretary of the Commonwealth.