This collection includes listings of Southborough residents who were eligible to vote or serve on a jury from 1771-1947. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Massachusetts Law required the Selectmen in each town to prepare lists of persons who were qualified and eligible for Jury duty. In 1784 the legislature directed that these persons should be “of good moral character and qualified as the constitution directs, to vote”. In 1808 it was further stipulated that men over the age of seventy should be excluded from the lists of prospective jurors. (Acts and Resolves of Massachusetts, Ch. 7, 1784).

Beginning in 1805, more expansive annual voter lists were also created by either the Town Selectmen or Assessor. These lists provided the names of all men who were eligible to vote, not just those who were liable for jury duty in the ensuing year. These documents have strong genealogical research value because they provide a yearly listing of most male residents, and predate the first Federal Census in Massachusetts which was administered in 1790.