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History of Dedham, Massachusetts, 1635–1699

October 21, 2023

The history of Dedham, Massachusetts, 1635–1699, begins with the first settlers' arrival in 1635 and runs to the end of the 17th century. The settlers, who built their village on land the native people called Tiot, incorporated the plantation in 1636. They sought to build a community in which all would live out Christian love in their daily lives, and for a time did, but the Utopian impulse did not last. The system of government they devised was both "a peculiar oligarchy" and a "a most peculiar democracy." Most freemen could participate in Town Meeting, though they soon established a Board of Selectmen. Power and initiative ebbed and flowed between the two bodies.

The settlers then undertook the difficult task of establishing a church, drafting its doctrinal base, and selecting a minister. In early days nearly every resident was a member but, seeking a church of only "visible saints," membership declined over time. Though the "half-way covenant" was proposed in 1657 and endorsed by the minister, the congregation rejected it.

Population grew from about 200 people in early days to around 700 by 1700, with land being distributed according to rank and family size. Though it was given out sparingly in general, lands were also awarded in return for service to the church and the community. The town remained insular during the early years, with the community remaining self contained. With a small population, a simple and agrarian economy, and the free distribution of large tracts of land, there was very little disparity in wealth.

As the town grew, new towns broke off from Dedham, beginning with Medfield in 1651. With the division and subdivision of so many communities, Dedham has been called the "Mother of Towns." Of towns founded during the colonial era, Dedham is one of the few towns "that has preserved extensive records of its earliest years." This has enabled historians to date the Fairbanks House as the oldest tinder house in America and Mother Brook as the first man-made canal in Colonial America. It also established the Dedham Public Schools as the first public school in the country.

Incorporation Edit

In 1635 there were rumors in the Massachusetts Bay Colony that a war with the local native people was impending and a fear arose that the few, small, coastal communities that existed were in danger of attack.[1] This, in addition to the belief that the few towns that did exist were too close together, prompted the Massachusetts General Court to establish two new inland communities.[1][2] On May 6, 1635, the General Court granted permission to residents of Watertown to set off and establish new towns.[3] One group, led by Rev. Thomas Hooker, left and founded Hartford, Connecticut and another, led by Simon Willard, left to found Concord, Massachusetts.[1][3] Together, Dedham and Concord they helped relieve the growing population pressure and placed communities between the larger, more established coastal towns and the Indians further west.[1][4]

It was not until the following March, however, that the General Court ordered that the bounds of what would become Dedham be mapped out.[5] The committee appointed to do so reported back in April, but the date the grant was awarded to the original proprietors has been lost to history.[5] The original grant was for about 3.5 square miles (9.1 km2) on the northeast side of the Charles River, including what is today Newton and land on the other shore the makes up roughly half of present day Dedham, Needham, Westwood, and Dover.[6] The order came after twelve men[a] petitioned the General Court for a tract of land south of the Charles River.[8]

Those men, plus seven others, made a second petition on August 29, 1636 for additional land on both sides of the river.[8][9] One of the additional men was Robert Feake, the husband of Elizabeth Fones, the widow of John Winthrop's son, Henry.[9] Feake only ever attended three meetings, all of them in Watertown, and there is no record that he ever set foot in Dedham.[9][10] He was presumably recruited for his political influence and has granted a farm lot in addition to his house lot in return.[9]

Neither the settlers nor the General Court knew exactly how much land they were requesting, or granting.[9] The petition was for all the land south of the Charles River, but maps from the early 1630s show the river ending somewhere near modern day Dedham.[9] It had never been explored by colonial settlers beyond that point.[9] Instead, the colony gave them over "two hundred square miles of virgin wilderness, complete with lakes, hills, forests, meadows, Indians, and a seemingly endless supply of rocks and wolves."[1][11][12][9] There were a number of surveys undertaken over the years, beginning with one in 1638 undertaken by John Rogers and Jonathan Fairbanks, but the issue was not settled until the United States Supreme Court took up a case in 1846 that involved a dispute between the border of Massachusetts and Rhode Island.[9]

In the second petition, the settlers asked the General Court to incorporate the plantation into a town, and to free the town from all "Countrey Charges," or taxes, for four years and from all military exercises unless "extraordinary occasion require it."[13][14] The General Court granted only a three-year reprieve from taxes.[15]

They also asked to "distinguish our town by the name of Contentment"[13] but when the "prosaic minds" in the Court granted the petition on September 7, 1636 they decreed that the "towne shall beare the name of Dedham."[11][16][17][15] The earliest records of the settlement, before the General Court settled on Dedham, all use the name Contentment.[8] Tradition holds that John Rogers or John Dwight, both signers of the petition seeking the establishment of the town, asked the Court to name it after their hometown in England of Dedham, Essex.[18][19][8] "Contentment" eventually became the motto of the town. Many of the other yeomen settling the new Dedham in the Massachusetts Bay Colony came from Suffolk, in eastern England.[20]

The original grant stretched from the southwestern border of what is today Boston but was then Roxbury and Dorchester to the Rhode Island and Plymouth Colony borders.[11][18] To the west were ungranted lands.[18] The less than 100 Indians who lived on the land sold it for a small sum.[11] Early settlers gave places names such as Dismal Swamp, Purgatory Brook, Satan's Kingdom, and Devil's Oven.[21]

Landing and first settlement Edit

The Algonquians living in the area called the place Tiot, which means "land surrounded by water."[22][b]

Dedham was settled in the summer of 1636 by "about thirty families excised from the broad ranks of the English middle classes," largely from Yorkshire and East Anglia.[11] Only five signers of the covenant were university graduates, but many more would be called upon to serve the town, the church, and the colony.[24][c] As Puritans, they came to Massachusetts in order to live and worship as they pleased.[24]

They traveled up the Charles River from Roxbury and Watertown in rough canoes carved from felled trees.[19] These original settlers, including Edward Alleyn, John Everard, John Gay and John Ellis "paddled up the narrow, deeply flowing stream impatiently turning curve after curve around Nonantum until, emerging from the tall forest into the open, they saw in the sunset glow a golden river twisting back and forth through broad, rich meadows."[19] In search of the best land available to them they continued on but

The river took many turns, so that it was a burden the continual turning about. ... West, east, and north we turned on that same meadow and progressed none, so that I, rising in the boat, saw the river flowing just across a bit of grass, in a place where I knew we had passed through nigh an hour before. "Moore," said Miles then to me, "the river is like its Master, our good King Charles, of sainted memory, it promises overmuch, but gets you nowhere."[19]

They first landed where the river makes its "great bend,"[19] near what is today Ames Street, and close by the Dedham Community House and the Allin Congregational Church in Dedham Square. The site is known as "the Keye," and in 1927 a stone bench and memorial plaque were installed on the site.[25]

By March 1637, with homes built and fields planted, the settlers moved to their new village.[26] The first town meeting held in Dedham was on March 23, 1636–37 and was attended by 15 men.[27]

Utopian commune Edit

Like its surrounding communities, Dedham's early culture was much like the English villages where its original settlers were born and small agricultural communities all over Europe.[28] A number of the customs and institutions in the town were direct transplants from contemporary English villages.[29] However, as a settlement of English Puritans who escaped oppression to settle in the wilderness, "Dedham was peculiarly American."[30]

It was originally intended to be a Utopian society along the lines of the later Amana Colonies, Oneida Community, and Brook Farm.[31][32] In "its first years, the town was more than a place to live; it was a spiritual community."[33] Its distinctive characteristics created what has been described as a "Christian Utopian Closed Corporate Community":

Christian because they saw Christian love as the force which would most completely unite their community. Utopian because theirs was a highly conscious attempt to build the most prefect possible community, as perfectly united, perfectly at peace, and perfectly ordered as man could arrange. Closed because its membership was selected while outsiders were treated with suspicion or rejected altogether. And Corporate because the commune demanded the loyalty of its members, offering in exchange privileges which could be obtained only through membership, not the least of which were peace and good order.[34]

Each of the original settlers pledged to live out Christian love in their daily lives.[35] Each was also expected to be united in this love as it was designed to bring about a deep and abiding peace throughout the whole community.[35] Inquiries could also be made into the private lives of townsmen, and adjustments ordered when a resident's life was not as virtuous as the community felt it should be.[36]

None who were not committed to this ideal were to be admitted as townsmen and, if the need arose, they were to be expelled.[37] The commitment in the Covenant to allow only like-minded individuals to live within the town explains why "church records show no instances of dissension, Quaker or Baptist expulsions, or witchcraft persecutions."[1][38][d] The Covenant was intended to extend beyond the lifetimes if those who wrote it and to be binding upon all residents in perpetuity.[32]

The poor would be helped if they were residents of Dedham, but sent away if they were not.[36] In addition to paying taxes, each man was expected to labor on communal projects several days each month.[29] Every year, six days were set aside to work on roads and each man was expected to work four of them.[17] Townsmen also took turns serving in a variety of low level offices, including constable, hog reeve, or fence viewer.[29]

This did not mean communism as the settlers subscribed to the Puritan belief of a natural inequality among men as being divine providence.[40] Still, the relative economic equality kept social rank to a minimum and helped maintain social harmony.[41] Men could live their entire lives in this community among their equals and on their own land.[42] This was, according to one commentator, the "plan of the society [John] Winthrop hoped to construct in Massachusetts was the plan of Dedham writ large."[29]

Decline Edit

The Utopian impulse did not last, however, and "the policies of perfection" no longer dominated just 50 years after the establishment of the community.[43] By the 1640s the town began permitting residents to fence in their strips of land in the common field and, presumably, to grow whatever crop they wanted in it.[44] By reducing and eventually eliminating the common field system, it reduced the number of interactions each farmer had with his neighbors and made one less decision they had to make and employ in common.[45]

By about 1660, not every newcomer to town was invited to sign the Covenant making them "by implication second class citizens."[44] Laws that restricted the presence of strangers were rarely enforced after 1675.[46][e] Eventually, as some men grew richer, they were able to hire substitutes to serve in their place on communal projects or to serve in office for them.[17]

Also around this time evidence of the "loving spirit" proclaimed in the Covenant "came to be conspicuous by [its] absence."[48][49] Records of open dissent began appearing, first about seating placements in the meetinghouse.[48][50] In 1674, people began sitting in places other than those assigned for them.[51] This growing sense of egalitarianism did not sit well with some, and a committee was appointed to deal with those who sat in the seats assigned to others.[52]

Some refused to meet with the committee and others were not happy with the decisions they made.[53] With discontent lingering, Ruling Elder John Hunting was asked to speak to those involved.[53] Hunting was not successful either, so the selectmen imposed a fine of five shillings on those who did not sit in their assigned seats with one-third of the fine going to those who reported an offender and the remainder going to the town.[53] After Nathanial Bullard informed on a number of his fellow townsmen, he apparently appeared so obnoxious and greedy that the fine was repealed.[54]

The number of yea and nay votes also began being recorded[48][55] where previously decisions were made by consensus.[56][57] As the century progressed, residents were also more likely to use the court system to settle disputes, which was previously unheard of, than they were to go use the arbitration method laid out in the covenant.[58][46][49]

While Dedham was insulated to a great degree from the outside world in its early years, as time went on it was dragged into the greater society. One result was that, as residents began to see them as parts of a larger society, less emphasis was placed on the local community.[59] In 1661, Richard Ellis refused to serve as Town Clerk, an action that would have been unthinkable just a decade before.[60] When a committee dispatched to evaluate land granted in return for 2,000 acres given to the "praying Indians" of Natick submitted a bill for their expenses in 1663, it was a sign that the days of performing community service without expectation of financial reward were over.[61]

By 1686, much of the overt Utopian spirit the founders had instilled 50 years prior had been destroyed.[48] By the end of the first century, public disagreements seemed to be the rule rather than the exception[55] and decisions were made by majority, not consensus.[62] The Covenant was no longer enforced nor served as the guide for every decision by the time the town reached its 50th anniversary.[63] That it lasted well into the second generation was, according to one commentator, "longer than anyone had a right to expect."[64] Still, the town remained small and slow growing, with little change to institutional structures or traditional views.[63][65]

By 1675, taxpayers paid more the county and colony than they did to the town, reflecting a growing importance of the regional bodies and the cost of the colony expanding westward.[62] After 1691, as the county grew more powerful, the town began more closely following the law lest they get fined.[62]

Government Edit

Main article: Early government of Dedham, Massachusetts

The colonial settlers met for the first time on August 18, 1636 in Watertown.[66] By September 5, 1636, their number grew from 18 at the first meeting to 25 proprietors willing to set out for the new community.[67] By November 25, however, so few people had actually moved to Dedham that the proprietors voted to require every man to move to Dedham permanently by the first day of the following November or they would lose the land they had been granted.[68] A few young men without families set off to spend the winter there, including Nicholas Phillips, Ezekiel Holliman, and likely Ralph Shepard, John Rogers, Lambert Genere, Joseph Shaw, and the Morses.[69]

The first town meeting held in Dedham was on March 23, 1637.[69] Most of the proprietors were present, and it is believed that most of them must have been living in Dedham by then.[69]

For the first fifty years of Dedham's existence, it enjoyed a stable, tranquil government.[70] The town elected a group of wealthy, experienced friends as Selectmen and then heeded their judgement.[71] It also adopted a clause in the covenant that mandated mediation, which supported stability of the society.[70] There was not so much a system of checks and balances so much as there was system where each individual voluntarily restrained himself.[72][73]

Due to its unique features it was both "a peculiar oligarchy"[73] in that only a few men were chosen for political office and "a most peculiar democracy"[70] in that laws of suffrage changed frequently both to restrict and to expand the franchise.

Covenant Edit

Main article: Dedham Covenant

While the first settlers were subject to the General Court, they had wide latitude to establish a local government as they saw fit.[11] The first public meeting of the plantation was held on August 18, 1636.[74][f] A total of 18 men were present, and the town covenant was signed.[8][67][g] It was a diverse group and included husbandmen, wool-combers, farriers, millers, linen weavers, and butchers.[67]

The covenant outlined both the social ideal they hoped to achieve and the policies and procedures they would use to reach it.[35] They swore they would "in the fear and reverence of our Almighty God, mutually and severally promise amongst ourselves and each to profess and practice one truth according to that most perfect rule, the foundation whereof is ever lasting love."[76] Intended to be perpetual and binding on future generations, it prohibited those who were "contrary minded" and those who didn't share their religious beliefs,[77] but it was not a theocracy.[78] Before a man could join the community he underwent a public inquisition to determine his suitability.[77]

While great effort was taken to ensure disagreements were resolved before they grew into disputes,[79] the covenant also stipulated that differences would be submitted to between one and four other members of the town for resolution.[76][80] This arbitration system was so successful there was no need for courts.[81][h]

It was also expected that once a decision was made that all would abide by it with no further dissent or debate.[32] For the first fifty years of Dedham's existence, there were no prolonged disputes that were common in other communities.[36]

Town Meeting Edit

The town meeting "was the original and protean vessel of local authority. The founders of Dedham had met to discuss the policies of their new community even before the General Court had defined the nature of town government."[82][83] The early meetings were informal, with all men in town likely participating.[84] Attendance at Meetings was considered vital for the life of the community. The meeting operated on a basis of consensus.[56][57] Even when it did not fully exercise them, "the power of the town meeting knew no limit."[85][86]

The more wealthy a voter was, the more likely he would attend the meeting. However, "even though no more than 58 men were eligible to come to the Dedham town meeting and to make the decisions for the town, even though the decisions to which they addressed themselves were vital to their existence, even though every inhabitant was required to live within one mile (1.6 km) of the meeting place, even though each absence from the meeting brought a fine, and even though the town crier personally visited the house of every latecomer half an hour after the meeting had begun, only 74 percent of those eligible actually showed up at the typical town meeting between 1636 and 1644."[87]

A colony law required all voters to be Church members until 1647, though it may not have been enforced.[85] Even if it were, 70% of the men in town would have been eligible to participate.[85] The law changed in 1647 and, as it was interpreted in Dedham, all men over 24 were eligible to vote.[88] The colony changed the requirements periodically, though occasionally with a grandfather clause.[89][90] In provincial elections, only church members could vote.[70] Regardless of whether or not they were able to vote, records indicate that all men were able to attend and speak.[91]

Selectmen Edit

The whole town would gather regularly to conduct public affairs, but it was "found by long experience that the general meeting of so many men ... has wasted much time to no small damage and business is thereby nothing furthered."[82][86][92] In response, on May 3, 1639, seven selectmen were chosen "by general consent" and given "full power to contrive, execute and perform all the business and affairs of this whole town."[82][8][86] The leaders they chose "were men of proven ability who were known to hold the same values and to be seeking the same goals as their neighbors" and they were "invested with great authority."[93] If a man served three terms and met with the satisfaction of the community, he tended to stay on the board for many years following.[94]

Soon the selectmen "enjoyed almost complete control over every aspect of local administration."[95] Almost all townsmen would have to appear before them at one point or another during the year to ask for a swap of land, to ask to remove firewood from the common lands, or for some other purpose.[95] The selectmen wrote most of the laws in the town and they levied taxes on their fellow townsmen.[96][86] They could also approve expenditures.[86] They also served as a court, determining who had broken by-laws and issuing fines.[95][86] As the selectmen became more active, the Town Meeting became essentially passive.[88]

Selectmen were "the most powerful men in town. As men, they were few in number, old, and relatively rich and saints of the church."[97] It was not required that a man be wealthy to serve, but it improved his chances of getting elected.[98] Men who were not members of the church were still allowed to hold town office.[99] The burdens of office could take up to a third of their time during busy seasons.[73] They served without salary and came up through the ranks of lower offices.[73] In return they became "men of immense prestige" and were frequently selected to serve in other high posts.[73]

Relationship between Town Meeting and Selectmen Edit

Metric[100] 1636 to 1686 1687 to 1736
Average turnover 1.88 of 7 (27%) 2 of 5 (40%)
Average recruitment of new selectmen .7 of 7 (10%) 1.1 of 5 (22%)
New men recruited 35 55
Average terms served 7.6 4.8
Percent who serve more than 10 terms 35% 7%
Average cumulative experience of the board 55 years 25 years

After creation of the Board of Selectmen, Town Meetings were generally called only twice a year and usually did not stray far from the agenda prepared for them by the selectmen.[88][101] In fact, the Meeting would often refer issues to the Selectmen to act upon[88] or to "prepare and ripen the answer" to a difficult question.[101] Town Meeting typically took on only routine business, such as the election of officers or setting the minister's salary, and left other business to the selectmen.[101]

In the late 1600s and early 1700s, Town Meeting began to assert more authority and fewer decisions were left to the judgment of the selectmen.[93][102][55] Over the course of 30–40 years, small innovations brought the initiative back to the meeting and away from the board.[91] It brought back a balance of power between the two bodies which, in theory, had always existed, but which in practice had been tilted to the selectmen.[103]

One of the most prominent ways they did so was by calling for more meetings.[91] In the first 50 years of existence, town meetings were held on average about twice a year but by 1700 it was held four or five times each year.[91] The agenda also grew longer and included an open ended item that allowed them to discuss any item they liked, and not just the topics the selectmen placed upon the warrant.[104]

Other Edit

For 45 of the first 50 years of Dedham's existence, one of the 10 selectmen who served most often also served in "the one superior [the town] recognized, the General Court."[105] In colonial Massachusetts, each town sent two deputies to the General Court each year. Three men, Joshua Fisher, Daniel Fisher, and Eleazer Lusher, virtually monopolized the post between 1650 and 1685.[105]

The first Town Clerk was elected on May 17, 1639.[106]

Forming a church Edit

Main article: First Church and Parish in Dedham § History
See also: Allin Congregational Church

On July 18, 1637, the Town voted to admit a group of very religious men that would radically change the course of the town's history.[107] Led by John Allin, they included Michael Metcalf, Thomas Wight,[i] Robert Hinsdale, Eleazer Lusher, Timothy Dalton, and Allin's brother-in-law, Thomas Fisher.[108] Dalton was invited to settle in "civil condition," but it was made clear he was not going to be made the town's minister over Allin.[109] He and Thomas Carter quickly sold their land holdings and left town, Dalton to become a teaching officer in the church of what is today Hampton, New Hampshire, and Carter to the pulpit in Woburn, Massachusetts.[109] Ezekiel Holliman, on the other hand, recognized that as a religious liberal that he was not going to be welcome in town and so moved to Rhode Island with Roger Williams.[109][92]

Establishment Edit

Main article: First Church and Parish in Dedham § Establishment

While it was of the utmost importance, "founding a church was more difficult than founding a town."[110] Meetings were held late in 1637 and were open to "all the inhabitants who affected church communion ... lovingly to discourse and consult together [on] such questions as might further tend to establish a peaceable and comfortable civil society ad prepare for spiritual communion."[111] On the fifth day of every week they would meet in a different home and would discuss any issues "as he felt the need, all 'humbly and with a teachable heart not with any mind of cavilling or contradicting.'"[111][77][112]

After they became acquainted with one another, they asked if "they, as a collection of Christian strangers in the wilderness, have any right to assemble with the intention of establishing a church?"[113] Their understanding of the Bible led them to believe that they did, and so they continued to establish a church based on Christian love, but also one that had requirements for membership.[113]

It took months of discussions before a church covenant could be agreed upon and drafted.[111] The group established thirteen principles, written in a question and answer format, that established the doctrine of the church.[114] Once the doctrinal base was agreed upon, 10 men were selected by John Allin, assisted by Ralph Wheelock, to seek out the "pillars"[115] or "living stones"[116] upon which the congregation would be based.

They began to meet separately and decided six of their own number—Allin, Wheelock, John Luson, John Frary, Eleazer Lusher, and Robert Hinsdale—were suitable to form the church.[116][j] The men found worthy submitted themselves to a conference of the entire community.[116]

Finally, on November 8, 1638, two years after the incorporation of the town and one year after the first church meetings were held, the covenant was signed and the church was gathered.[117][77] Guests from other towns were invited for the event as they sought the "advice and counsel of the churches" and the "countenance and encouragement of the magistrates."[117][77]

Membership Edit

Main article: First Church and Parish in Dedham § Membership

Only "visible saints" were pure enough to become members.[77][118] A public confession of faith was required, as was a life of holiness.[119][77] It was not good enough just to have been baptized, because then "papists, heretics, and many visible atheists that are baptized must be received."[120] A group of the most pious men interviewed all who sought admission to the church.[77] To become a member, a candidate must "pour out heart and soul in public confession" and subject every innermost desire to the scrutiny of their peers.[92] All others would be required to attend the sermons at the meeting house, but could not join the church, nor receive communion, be baptized, or become an officer of the church.[119]

Once the church was established, residents, whether or not they were members,[24] would gather several times a week to hear sermons and lectures in practical piety.[110] Between the years of 1644 and 1653, 80% of children born in town were baptized, indicating that at least one parent was a member of the church. Servants and masters, young and old, rich and poor alike all joined the church.[121] Non-members were not discriminated against as seen by several men being elected Selectmen before they were accepted as members of the church.[122]

By 1663, nearly half the men in town were not members, and this number grew as more second generation Dedhamites came of age.[123] The decline was so apparent across the colony by 1660 that a future could be seen when a minority of residents were members,[56] as happened in Dedham by 1670.[17] It was worried that the third generation, if they were born without a single parent who was a member, could not even be baptized.[124]

To resolve the problem, an assembly of ministers from throughout Massachusetts endorsed a "half-way covenant" in 1657 and then again at a church synod in 1662.[56][125] It allowed parents who were baptized but not members of the church to present their own children for baptism; however, they were denied the other privileges of church membership, including communion.[56][123][125] Allin endorsed the measure but the congregation rejected it, striving for a pure church of saints.[123][126]

Ministers Edit

Main article: First Church and Parish in Dedham § Ministers

Though Allin's salary was donated freely by members and non-members alike his salary was never in arrears, showing the esteem in which the other members of the community held him.[99] In the 1670s, as the Utopian spirit of the community waned, it became necessary to impose a tax to ensure the minister was paid.[127][128]

Just before Allin's death, it was decided to continue to pay the salary by voluntary contributions of an assessed amount.[128] Several other votes followed in the next 16 months after it was determined that the system no longer worked.[128] No solution was found, however, and the church was constantly behind in paying William Adams' salary.

Minister Years of service
John Allin 1638[129][130]–1639[130]
John Phillips 1639[130]-1641[130]
John Allin 1641[130]–1671[19][48]
Vacant 1671–1673
William Adams 1673[131]–1685[132]
Vacant[132][133] 1685–1693
Joseph Belcher 1693[132][134][135]–1723[132][k]

John Allin and John Phillips Edit

Main articles: First Church and Parish in Dedham § John Allin, and First Church and Parish in Dedham § John Phillips

John Phillips, though he was "respected and learned," was "unable to join the church as its first minister."[17] He twice refused calls to settle in Dedham and instead went to the Cambridge church where Harvard College had recently been established.[17][136][137][138] A "tender" search for a minister took an additional several months, and finally John Allin, who was the leader of the small group of church members, was ordained as pastor.[1][139][130] John Hunting was selected as Ruling Elder over Ralph Wheelock, who also wanted the position.[1][139][130] They were ordained on April 24, 1639.[130]

Phillips left Cambridge at the end of 1639, however, and decided to come to Dedham after all.[130] He quickly became unsatisfied in his new pulpit, however, and returned to his old church in England in October 1641.[130]

As in England, Puritan ministers in the American colonies were usually appointed to the pulpits for life[140] and Allin served for 32 years.[19] He received a salary of between 60 and 80 pounds a year.[99] When land was divided, his name was always at the top of the list and he received the largest plot.[99]

William Adams Edit

Main article: First Church and Parish in Dedham § William Adams

After Allin's death the pulpit went without a settled minister for a long stretch.[141] William Adams, who was graduated from Harvard College two weeks prior to Allin's August 1671 death, had several connections to the town and attended Allin's funeral.[142] By December he had already been approached several times to preach in Dedham.[142]

He finally accepted an offer to preach in Dedham and did so on February 17, 1672.[142] He rejected the call several times,[143][144] before agreeing to preach on a trial basis in September 1673.[145][144] He moved to Dedham on May 27, 1673 and was ordained on December 3, 1673.[146][145] Adams served until his death in 1685.[145][146] Aside from a few minor squabbles, his time in Dedham was mostly peaceful.[147]

Given the church's rejection of the Half-Way Covenant, which the colony's clergy had endorsed, Adams may have been a last choice option.[142] Eventually the church would recant and accept the Half-Way Covenant [148]

Joseph Belcher Edit

Main article: First Church and Parish in Dedham § Joseph Belcher

After Adams died, the church was without a minister from 1685 to 1692.[133][149] Following his death, the congregation again rejected the Half-Way Covenant.[147] As a result, though a large number of preachers came on a guest basis, and even though several young men were offered the pulpit, the church could not find a minister to settle with them permanently.[133][149]

At the end of 1691, the congregation voted again to accept the half-way covenant and declared that Allin was right to have tried to get them to accept it.[150][147] A new minister, Joseph Belcher, began preaching in March 1692 and was installed on November 29, 1693.[134][135][151] He remained in the pulpit until the autumn of 1721 until illness prevented him from preaching.[134]

Meetinghouses Edit

Almost immediately after arriving, the group began holding prayer meetings and worship services under various trees around town.[152] On January 1, 1638, the Town voted to construct a meetinghouse.[152] It was originally planned to be constructed on High Street, near the present day border with Westwood, but those who lived on East Street argued that it should be built more centrally.[153] It is unclear when the building was finished, but presumably was not complete before November 1638.[154] An addition was ordered to be built in 1646,[155] but the plastering was not completed until 1657.[156]

A vote to purchase a bell was made in 1648,[155] but a bell was not hung until February 1652.[157] As a result of the bell being hung, the Town no longer needed to pay Ralph Day to beat a drum announcing the start of meetings.[157] The bell was rung not only to announce the start of public meetings, but also to alert residents of a fire, to announce a death, and to signal the start of church services.[60]

Until a separate schoolhouse was completed, the meetinghouse also served as a classroom.[155] The roof of the east gallery also served as a storehouse for the town's supply of gunpowder following a 1653 vote.[158]

A referendum to build a new meetinghouse, held on February 3, 1673, was conducted with voters casting a piece of white corn if they were in favor and a piece of red corn if they were opposed.[51] The vote was nearly unanimous in favor.[51] The new meetinghouse was erected on June 16, 1673.[156][51]

Population Edit

Year Population
1637 31 men, plus their families[159]
1640 >200[93]
1648 ~400[160]
1651 ~100 families[161]
Late 1650s 150+ men, plus others[162]
1686 >600[12]
1700 700[93]–<750[160]

On June 3, 1637, Ruth Morse was the first child born to white parents, John and Annis, in Dedham.[163]

The average population during the 1600s was about 500 people making slightly larger than the average English village during the same time period.[160] With people moving either in or out of town, nearly all growth came from births and all declines through deaths.[164] The average age for first marriages was 25 for men and 23 for women, in contrast to the European average of 27 for men and 25 for women.[165] Younger marriages resulted in more births.[166] There were fewer deaths as well, partially due to Dedham being spared disease, famine, and extreme climate events that ravaged parts of Europe during this time.[167]

By the 1650s, a variety of types of men were living in Dedham, including bachelors, family men, the well-to-do, and servants.[162] Some bought land in town but never settled there, some left soon after arriving, either to other towns or back to England, and a few died before they could do much of anything.[162]

Lifestyles of early settlers Edit

Main article: Lifestyles of early settlers of Dedham, Massachusetts

Land distribution Edit

Each man received tiny houselots in the village with additional strips of arable land, meadow, and woods.[81] Each strip was located in a common field and the community decided which crop to grow and how to care for and harvest it.[81] The common field method brought men into regular contact with one another and prevented farms from being established far from the village center.[81] As there is no record of clearing the land, it was probably used previously by the native population.[168] Each man was also assigned a plot of land within the field to cultivate.[169] Residents grew corn, beans, peas, and pumpkin.[169] Later residents who acquired larger plots of land planted wheat, rye, barley, and oats.[169]

The land was given sparingly, with no family given land than they could currently improve.[77][170] Married men received 12 acres, four of which were swamp, while single men received eight, with three acres being swampland.[169][171][8][81][172] Lands were also awarded in return for service to the church and the community,[8][170][81] a practice that had long been established by the General Court.[173]

Land was distributed according to several criteria.[168] The first was the number of persons in the household.[168] Servants were considered a part of a freeman's estate.[168] Land was also given according to the "rank, quality, desert and usefulness, either in church of commonwealth" of the proprietor.[168][81] Finally, it was thought that men who were engaged in a trade other than farming should have the materials needed to work and those who were able to improve more land should have that fact taken into account.[168]

Insularity Edit

Most of the original settlers and early arrivals made Dedham their home for the rest of their days.[174] Less than two percent of men in the town arrived in any given year and less than one percent left.[175] Because of the low geographic mobility, the town became "a self-contained social unit, almost hermetically sealed off from the rest of the world."[175] This stability was a "typical, persistent, and highly important feature of Dedham's history."[175] A century after settlement, immigration and emigration were still rare.[176] Of every 10 men born in Dedham between 1680 and 1700, eight would die there.[177][178]

From its earliest days, Dedham was closed off to all unless the current residents explicitly welcomed someone in.[34][66] Shortly after the town was incorporated, in November 1636, Town Meeting voted not to allow any land sales unless the buyer was already a resident of the town, or was approved by a majority of the other voters.[74] On August 11, 1637, a total of 46 house lots had been laid out and it was voted to stop admitting new residents.[179][159][74][168]

Two decades after the plantation was begun, those who had done the hard work of first settling the land were worried that, as the town's population grew, their dividends of land would be diluted.[180][181] On January 23, 1657, the growth of the town was further limited to descendants of those living there at the time.[56][180] Newcomers could settle there, so long as they were like-minded, but they would have to buy their way into the community.[56][44] Land was no longer freely available for those who wished to join.[56]

Wealth Edit

With a small population, a simple and agrarian economy, and the free distribution of large tracts of land, there was very little disparity in wealth.[94][182] In the early days anyone who might be considered poor was likely to be a sick widow, an orphan, or "an improvident half-wit."[182] In 1690, the poorest 20% of the population owned about 10% of the property.[183]

At least 85% of the population were farmers or, as they called themselves, "yeoman" or "husbandman."[184] There were also those who served the farmers, including millers, blacksmiths, or cordwainers.[184] Like in the English countryside, they were largely subsistence farmers who grew enough for their families[184] but did not specialize in any cash crops or particular animals.[185] The first homes were all fairly similar, built with boards and stone fireplaces and chimneys.[169] The hip roofs were covered with thatch.[169] The first floor would have a living room and kitchen, and sleeping quarters could be reached by ladder in the garret above.[169]

Each person may own two changes of clothes plus a good suit or cloak, and a family may have a little silver or pewter.[186] They typically would own a Bible, pots, pans, bowls, and bins.[186] Outside of the house, in the barn or lean-to, would be agricultural tools and a few bushels of crops.[186] For animals, one or two horses along with several cattle, pigs, and sheep were common.[186]

Labor Edit

Single people, including adult children of residents, were not allowed to live alone unless they had sufficient resources to set up their own household with servants.[187] Each year, one day was set aside to assign young adult to other households as subordinates.[187] The practice was intended to both keep up the family labor system that underpinned the local economy, and was to prevent the "sin and iniquity ... [that] are the companions and consequences of a solitary life."[187] Selectmen also had the authority to take children out of homes and put them to work in other households.[187] If a household did not pay their full taxes, or if a household was not deemed efficient enough, children could be removed and placed in the homes of richer men.[188]

In 1681, there were 28 servants serving in 22 of the 112 households in town.[189] Of them, all but four were children and 20 of the servants were white.[189] There were ten boys, eight girls, two "Negro boys," two "Indian boys," one "lad," and one "English girl."[189] There was also one man, one "Negro man," and two "maids."[189] The servants in town, while they served in 20% of the households,[189] made up only 5% of the population.[190] Most of them soon became independent yeomen.[190]

Many of the children who lived in Dedham as servants may have been taken in partly out of charity.[189] After King Phillip's War, there were a large number of orphaned children.[189] With Dedham's strong ties to Deerfield, it is presumed that some of the children—white and Indian—were casualties of the war.[189]

Relationship with native peoples Edit

In April 1637, the Town voted to begin keeping watch to prevent Indian attacks.[191] By May, however, they were lamenting the time and resources they were spending on patrols.[191] A delegation was sent to Watertown to ask Thomas Cakebread to move`to Dedham "upon good consideration of his knowledge of martial affairs."[191] Just a year later, however, the new town of Sudbury enticed him to move there by granting him a monopoly on the milling business in town.[191]

New settlements, which grew into separately incorporated towns, were established for several reasons, including to serve as a buffer between the native peoples and the village of Dedham.[192] Medfield and Wrentham, which broke away from Dedham, each suffered at least one Indian raid during the 17th century that would have otherwise struck the mother town.[192] Dedham itself had served as a buffer in its own time between native peoples and the population centers along the coast, as well as against the freethinking followers of Roger Williams.[4]

In the 1680s, the Town fathers sought out and purchased the rights to the land from every native person who claimed to own land or hold title.[193]

Sarah David, the wife of Alexander Quapish, was known as the "last Indian" in Dedham.[194] When Sarah died in 1774, she was buried at the ancient Indian burial ground near Wigwam Pond.[194] She was said to be the last person buried there.[194][l]

King Phillip's War Edit

Main article: King Phillip's War

During King Phillip's War, men from Dedham went off to fight and several died.[195] More former Dedhamites who had moved on to other towns died than men who were still living in the community, however.[196] They included Robert Hinsdale, his four sons, and Jonathan Plympton who died at the Battle of Bloody Brook.[197][198] John Plympton was burned at the stake after being marched to Canada with Quentin Stockwell.[199]

Zachariah Smith was passing through Dedham on April 12, 1671 when he stopped at the home of Caleb Church in the "sawmill settlement" on the banks of the Neponset River.[200] The next morning he was found dead, having been shot.[200] A group of praying Indians found him and suspicion fell on a group on non-Christian Nipmucs who were also heading south to Providence.[200] This was the "first actual outrage of King Phillip's War."[201] One of the Nipmucs, a son of Matoonas, was found guilty and hanged on Boston Common.[202] For the next six years his head would be impaled on a pike at the end of the gallows as a warning to other native peoples.[202] Dedham then readied its cannon, which had been issued by the colony in 1650, in preparation for an attack that never came.[202]

After the raid on Swansea, the colony ordered the militias of several towns, including Dedham, to have 100 soldiers ready to march out of town on an hour's notice.[203] Captain Daniel Henchmen took command of the men and left Boston on June 26, 1675.[203] They arrived in Dedham by nightfall and the troops became worried by an eclipse of the moon, which they took as a bad omen.[203] Some claimed to see native scalplocks and bows in the moon.[203] Dedham was largely spared from the fighting and was not attacked, but they did build a fortification and offered tax cuts to men who joined the cavalry.[203]

Plymouth Colony governor Josiah Winslow and Captain Benjamin Church rode from Boston to Dedham to take charge of the 465 soldiers and 275 cavalry assembling there and together departed on December 8, 1675 for the Great Swamp Fight.[204][197][m] When the commanders arrived, they also found "a vast assortment of teamsters, volunteers, servants, service personnel, and hangers-on."[197] Dedham's John Bacon died in the battle.[205]

During the battle in Lancaster in February 1676, Jonas Fairbanks and his son Joshua both died.[206] Richard Wheeler, whose son Joseph was killed in battle the previous August, also died that day.[206] When the town of Medfield was attacked, they fired a cannon as a warning to Dedham.[207] Residents of nearby Wrentham abandoned their community and fled for the safety of Dedham and Boston.[208]

Pumham, one of Phillip's chief advisors, was captured in Dedham on July 25, 1676.[201][209] Several Christian Indians had seen his band in the woods, nearly starved to death.[209] Captain Samuel Hunting led 36 men from Dedham and Medfield and joined 90 Indians on a hunt to find them.[209] A total of 15 of the enemy were killed and 35 were captured.[209] Pumham, though he was so wounded he could not stand, grabbed hold of an English soldier and would have killed him had one of the settler's compatriots not come to his rescue.[209]

John Plympton and Quentin Stockwell were captured in Deerfield in September 1677 and marched to Canada.[199] Stockell was eventually ransomed and wrote an account of his ordeal, but Plympton was burned at the stake.[199]

Praying Indians Edit

In the middle of the 17th century the Reverend John Eliot converted many of the native people in the area to Christianity and taught them how to live a stable, agrarian life.[210] He converted so many that the group needed a large portion of land on which they could grow their own crops.[210] John Allin assisted Elliot in his work, and it is probably through his influence that Dedham agreed to give up 2,000 acres (8.1 km2) of what is today Natick to the "praying Indians in 1650."[210][211]

In return, Dedham expected the Indians to settle only on the northern bank of the Charles River, not to set any traps outside their grant, and give up all claims to any land elsewhere in Dedham.[211] The natives, who did not hold the same notions of private property as the English colonizers, settled on the south side of the river and set traps within the bounds of Dedham.[211] Disputes began arising in 1653, and compromise, arbitration, and negotiation were all attempted.[211]

In 1661, Dedham gave up attempts at friendly solutions and took their indigenous neighbors to court, suing for title to the land the Indians were inhabiting.[211][1] The case centered around the Indians' use of a tract of land along the Charles River.[210] The native people claimed they had an agreement to use the land for farming with the Town Fathers, but Dedham officials objected.[210] While the law was on the side of the town,[212] Elliot made a moral argument that the group had a need for land of their own.[210]

The case eventually went before the General Court who granted the land in question to the Indians and, in compensation for the land lost, gave another 8,000 acres (32 km2) in what is today Deerfield, Massachusetts to the Dedham settlers.[212][211] The town's actions in the case were characterized by "deceptions, retaliations, and lasting bitterness," and they harassed their native neighbors with petty accusations event after the matter was settled.[213]

Parishes, precincts, and new towns Edit

See also: History of Dedham, Massachusetts, 1700-1799 § Parishes, precincts, and new towns; History of Dedham, Massachusetts, 1800–1899 § Parishes, precincts, and new towns; and History of Dedham, Massachusetts, 1900–1999 § New towns and subdivisions


As the town's population grew greater and greater, residents began moving further away from the center of town. Within a quarter century of the first settlement, an expansionist philosophy had developed within Dedham.[214] In the 1670s, with each new dividend of land, farmers began taking shares close to their existing plots.[45] This, along with special "convenience grants" close by their existing fields, allowed townsmen to consolidate their holdings.[45] A market for buying and selling land also emerged by which farmers would sell parcels further away from their main plots and buy land closer to them.[45]

When this began happening, residents first started moving their barns closer to their fields and then their homes as well.[45] By 1686, homes coalesced in several outlying areas, pulling their owners away from the day-to-day life of the village center.[12][215] As the numbers further away grew they began to break off and form new towns beginning with Medfield in 1651.

Until 1682 all Dedhamites had lived within 1.5 miles (2.4 km) of the meetinghouse.[93] After Walpole left, Dedham had just 25% of its original land area.[216] Dedham residents also became, in substantial numbers, early settlers of Lancaster, Hadley, and Sherborn, Massachusetts.[215]

Community Year incorporated as a town[217] Notes
Medfield 1651 The first town to leave Dedham.
Natick 1659 Established as a community for Christian Indians.
Wrentham 1673 Southeast corner of town was part of the Dorchester New Grant of 1637.
Deerfield 1673 Land was granted to Dedham in return for giving up Natick.[218]

Medfield Edit

The majority of present-day Medfield had been granted to Dedham in 1636, but the lands on the western bank of the Charles River had been meted out by the General Court to individuals.[219] Edward Alleyn, for example, had been granted 300 acres in 1642.[219] Dedham asked the General Court for some of those lands and, on October 23, 1649, the Court granted the request so long as they established a separate village there within one year.[219]

Dedham sent Eleazer Lusher, Joshua Fisher, Henry Phillips, John Dwight, and Daniel Fisher to map out an area three miles by four miles and the colony sent representatives to set the boundaries on the opposite side of the river.[219] The land that Dedham contributed to the new village became Medfield, and the land the colony contributed eventually broke away to become Medway.[219]

The separations were not without difficulty, however.[192] When Medfield left there were disagreements about the responsibility for public debts and about land use.[192] There were some residents who did not move to the new village who wanted rights to the meadows while others thought that the land should be given freely to those who would settle them.[219] A compromise was reached where those moving to the new village would pay £100 to those who remained in lieu of rights to the meadows.[219] It was later reduced to £60, if paid over three years, or £50 if paid in one year.[220]

Tax records show that those who chose to move to the new village came from the middle class of Dedham residents.[219] Among the first 20 men to make the move were Ralph Wheelock, Thomas Mason, Thomas Wright, John Samuel Morse and his son Daniel, John Frary Sr., Joseph Clark Sr., John Ellis, Thomas Ellis, Henry Smith, Robert Hinsdale, Timothy Dwight, James Allen, Henry Glover, Isaac Genere, and Samuel Bullen.[221] By 1664, several of their sons would join them, as would Joshua Fisher[n] and his son John, and several other Dedhamites.[221] Those who moved there often moved with family members, and many would move on from their to other inland communities.[222] It is also possible that those who left Dedham for Medfield were those most disaffected by the political or social climate within the town.[222]

Town Meeting voted to release Medfield on January 11, 1651 and the General Court agreed the following May.[223]

Wretham Edit

In 1660, after the dust had settled on the Medfield separation, five men were sent to explore the lakes near George Indian's wigwam and to report back to the selectmen what they found.[214] The report of those men, Daniel Fisher, Joshua Fisher, Sgt. Fuller, Richard Ellis, and Richard Wheeler, was received with such enthusiasm that in March 1661 it was voted to start a new settlement there.[224] The Town then voted to send Ellis and Timothy Dwight to go negotiate with King Phillip to purchase the title to the area known as Wollomonopoag.[225][226]

They purchased 600 acres[o] of land for £24, 6s.[226][224] The money was paid out of pocket by Captain Thomas Willett, who accompanied Ellis and Dwight.[224] The Town voted to assess a tax upon the cow commons to repay him, but some thought the money should be paid by those who would be moving to the new village.[224] The dispute resulted in Willet not being paid back for several years.[224]

After the boundaries of the new community were set, the Town voted to give up all rights to the land in return for the proprietors paying Dedham £160 over four years, beginning in 1661.[224] By January 1663, however, little progress had been made towards establishing a new village.[224] A meeting was called, and the 10 men[p] who volunteered to go raised several concerns about their ability to move forward.[224]

After much discussion, it was decided not to give the 600 acres to the group of pre-selected men, but rather to lay out lots and then award them by lottery.[227] Those who already began to improve their lots were allowed to keep them,[q] and land for a church, burial ground, training ground, roads, and officer lots were not included.[227] All were free to buy and sell their lots.[227]

Not much happened at Wollomonopoag until 1668, at which time a report arrived of native peoples planting corn and cutting down trees on the land that Dedham had purchased.[227] Eleazer Lusher was charged with sending the illiterate Indians a letter warning them to "depart from that place and trespass no further."[227] Samuel Fisher then took it to them and read it aloud, at which point they replied that they had every intention of remaining on the land.[227] Though they had still not paid him back for the land in question, the Town then asked Willett to speak with King Phillip and ask that he intervene.[228]

There is no record of Phillip's response to that entreaty but, in August 1669,[r] the Town Fathers received an odd letter from him offering to negotiate for more land if they would quickly send him a "holland shirt."[229] Dwight and four others were appointed to negotiate with him again, provided Phillip could prove he, and not another sachem, had the rights to the land.[226] In November, an agreement was reached to clear the title for £17 0s 8d.[229] There is no record of whether a shirt was traded.[229]

Samuel Sheares lived alone at Wollomonopoag for some time before a new attempt at a settlement was undertaken in 1671.[229] Five men, John Thurston, Thomas Thurston, Robert Weare, John Weare, and Joseph Cheeney moved there with him, followed the next year by Rev. Samuel Man, a one-time teacher in the Dedham Public Schools.[229] Robert Crossman was employed at the same time to construct a corn mill.[229] Man would be selected by the residents of the new village to be their minister, and their decision was ratified by a committee of John Allin, John Hunting, and Eleazer Lusher.[230]

Those who moved there were drawn from the middle class of Dedham.[61] They were primarily people from outside of Dedham who had purchased land there, and second generation Dedhamites who moved without their parents.[61] Without the outsiders, it is questionable whether the new community would have survived.[222]

Soon, however, the Wollomonopoag settlers complained that those in the village center were keeping them in a state of colonial dependency.[192] They were upset about absentee landlords whose land values were going up thanks to the labor of the inhabitants and who refused to pay taxes to support the community.[229] They also complained that with the seat of the town government being so far away that they were disenfranchised and best by a lack of capital.[229] Constables refused to travel to Wollomonopoag to make collections, assessments, and social judgement.[229]

With the blessing of Dedham's Board of Selectmen, the General Court separated the new town of Wrentham, Massachusetts on October 16, 1673.[231]

Deerfield Edit

After the "Praying Indians" were given 8,000 acres (32 km2) in what is today Natick, the General Court gave the Dedham proprietors 8,000 acres (32 km2) in compensation.[212][211][19] The question of how to handle the additional grant puzzled the town for some time.[232] There were those who wanted to sell the rights to the land and take the money, while others wanted to find a suitable location and take possession.[232]

The Town sent Anthony Fisher Jr., Nathaniel Fisher, and Sgt. Fuller to explore an area known as "Chestnut Country" in 1863.[61] They reported back two weeks later that the area was hilly, with few meadows, and was generally unsuitable for their purposes.[61] After a potential location was claimed by others before Dedham could do so, a report was received about land at a place known as Pocomtuck, about 12 or 14 miles from Hadley.[232] It was decided to claim the land before others could do so.[232]

Joshua Fisher, Ensign John Euerard, and Jonathan Danforth were assigned by the selectmen to go and map the land in return for 150 acres.[232][233] Two weeks later Fisher appeared before the board, demanding 300 acres instead.[232] The selectmen agreed, provided that he provide a plot map of the land.[232] Fisher's map and report were submitted to the General Court, and they agreed to give the land to Dedham provided that they settle the land and "maintain the ordinances of Christ there" within five years.[232][212][211] Fisher was the first in the region to use a compass while surveying.[234]

Daniel Fisher and Eleazer Lusher were sent to purchase the land from the Pocomtuc Indians who lived there.[232][19] They contracted with John Pynchon, who had a relationship with the native peoples there, and he obtained a quitclaim deed from them.[232] Pynchon submitted a bill for £40 in 1666 but a tax on the cow commons to pay it was not imposed until 1669.[235] By that time the bill had risen to over £96, and he was not paid in full until 1674.[236]

The drawing of lots took place on May 23, 1670, by which time many rights had been sold to people from outside of Dedham or one of her daughter towns.[236] Before that even happen, Robert Hinsdale's son Samuel moved into the area and began squatting on the land.[236] He was eventually joined by his father and brothers.[237]

Hard feelings arose at the distance of the new settlement from Dedham and the fact that the proprietors were not strictly "a Dedham company."[236] On May 7, 1673 the General Court separated the town of Deerfield, with additional lands, provided they establish a church and settle a minister within three years.[236]

Natural resources Edit

Mother Brook Edit

Main article: Mother Brook

While both the Charles River and the Neponset River ran through Dedham and close by to one another, both were slow-moving and could not power a mill. With an elevation difference of 40 feet (12 m) between the two, however, a canal connecting them would be swift-moving. In 1639 the town ordered that a 4000-foot ditch be dug between the two so that one third of the Charles' water would flow down what would become known as Mother Brook and into the Neponset. Abraham Shaw would begin construction of the first dam and mill on the Brook in 1641 and it would be completed by John Elderkin, who later built the first church in New London, Connecticut.[19] A fulling mill would be established in 1682.[151][238][239]

Trees Edit

It is estimated that each family would burn enough wood in a year to clear cut four acres of land.[240] With the memory of the social unrest that happened in Boston when they cleared nearly every tree in that town within three years of its founding, restrictions upon cutting trees on public and unallotted lands were strictly enforced.[240] Preserving these trees became "one of the first conservation projects in New England.[173]

The Old Avery Oak Tree, named for Dr. William Avery, stood on East Street for several centuries. The builders of the USS Constitution once offered $70 to buy the tree, but the owner would not sell.[241] The Avery Oak, which was over 16' in circumference, survived the New England Hurricane of 1938 to be toppled by a violent thunderstorm in 1973; the Town Meeting Moderator's gavel was carved out of it.

Swamps, bogs, and meadows Edit

Owners of swampland were required to drain them.[172] Doing so served several purposes. First, it deprived dangerous wild animals of a habitat.[240] Secondly, it made it easier to cut down the trees on the land at a time when lumber was in high demand for building projects and for burning.[242] Clearing the swamp turns it into a bog, and draining a bog turns it into a meadow.[242] Meadowland was in high demand to raise cattle, and the rich meadows along the Charles River were a major factor in choosing the location to settle in the first place.[173]

The General Court had awarded 300 acres to Samuel Dudley along the northeast border of town, between East Street (which was part of an ancient Indian trail[240]) and the river.[173] Four men, Samuel Morse, Philemon Dalton, Lambert Genere, and John Dwight, purchased the meadowland from Dudley for £20.[173] With an immediate need for more meadows, the Town purchased it from them for £40, doubling their initial investment.[173] The land came to be known as Purchase Meadows and was divided into herdwalks for use by the residents of the various districts.[173]

A road, today known as Needham Street, was laid out along the banks of the Charles River in 1645, but was frequently washed out or flooded.[156] The road brought farmers from their homes in the village to the planting field at Great Plain, in what is today Needham.[243] In addition to washing out the road, the waters would also frequently would flood the "broad meadow," further limiting needed pasture.[156][25]

It was discovered that the river, which runs due east for many miles, suddenly took a turn southeast, then north, and then northwest, at which point it flowed close by to where it originally turned.[156] Despite a run of seven or eight miles, it only fell three feet, accounting for much of the flooding.[156] In January 1652, Town Meeting voted to dig a 4000-foot ditch connecting the Charles River at either end of its great loop.[157][25] It was not completed for nearly two years, but once it was it began channeling the water directly from the high side to the low side.[243] Doing so also created an island, today the neighborhood of Riverdale.[25]

Animals Edit

Wild animals were an issue, and the town placed a bounty on several of them. Upon producing an inch and a half of a rattlesnake, plus the rattle, the killer was entitled to six pence.[244] A ten shilling bounty was placed on wolves, and was frequently paid, in addition to a bounty on wildcats.[240][244] In 1638, seven-year-old John Dwight disappeared in the woods near Wigwam Pond, an area known to be particularly infested with wolves.[240][s] Between 1650 and 1672, more than 70 wolves were killed in Dedham.[245]

For a short period of time, the Town employed professional hunters and a pack of dogs.[240] Dogs could also be a problem, though. In 1651, the Town deputized Joshua Fisher to keep them from disturbing people in the meetinghouse.[246] On May 27, 2647, Daniel Fisher gave a parcel of land to the Town for use as an animal pound but reserved the right to cut the trees on it.[247]

A great black boar, eight feet long, walked into town in November 1677.[248] Nearly every man in town was assembled around it with his musket before they could subdue it.[248] Eventually it would take 13 bullets before it was killed.[248]

Mines and minerals Edit

By 1647, residents had discovered "plenty of iron and some lead" in the wilderness.[246] All were encouraged to seek out more and the following year John Dwight and Francis Chickering thought they had discovered a mine in present day Wrentham.[246] A decade later, in 1658, a committee was appointed to look into setting up an ironworks within the town.[246] Neither the mine nor the ironwork would pan out, however.[246]

Other Edit

Cemetery Edit

The first portion of the Old Village Cemetery was set apart at the first recorded meeting of the settlers of Dedham on August 18, 1636, with land taken from Nicholas Phillips and Joseph Kingsbury.[249] The original boundaries were roughly Village Avenue on the north, St. Paul's Church in the east, land later added by Dr. Edward Stimson in the south, and the main driveway off Village Avenue in the west.[250] It remained the only cemetery in Dedham for nearly 250 years until Brookdale Cemetery was established.[251]

Early records Edit

Of towns founded during the colonial era, Dedham is one of the few towns "that has preserved extensive records of its earliest years."[33] They have been described as "very full and perfect."[22] So detailed were the records that a map of the home lots of the first settlers can be drawn using only the descriptions in the book of grants.[169] Many of the records come from Timothy Dwight, who served as town clerk for 10 years and selectman for 25.[252]

In 1681, the town voted to collect all deeds and other writings and store them in a box kept by Deacon John Aldis in order to better preserve them.[226] The records included four deeds from Indians at Petumtuck, one from Chief Nehoiden, one from Magus, and one deed and one receipt from King Phillip.[226][t]

Jonathan Fairbanks Edit

Main articles: Jonathan Fairbanks and Fairbanks House (Dedham, Massachusetts)
 
The Fairbanks House is the oldest timber frame house in North America.

In 1637 Jonathan Fairbanks signed the town Covenant and was allotted 12 acres (49,000 m2) of land to build his home, which today is the oldest house in North America. In 1640 "the selectmen provided that Jonathan Fairbanks 'may have one cedar tree set out unto him to dispose of where he will: In consideration of some special service he hath done for the towne.'"[253] He had "long stood off from the church upon some scruples about public profession of faith and the covenant, yet after divers loving conferences ... he made such a declaration of his faith and conversion to God and profession of subjection to the ordinances of Christ in the church that he was readily and gladly received by the whole church."[121]

The house is still owned by the Fairbanks family and today stands at 511 East Street, on the corner of Whiting Ave. Jonathan Fairbanks would have a number of notable descendants including murderer Jason Fairbanks of the famous Fairbanks case, as well as Presidents William H. Taft,[254] George H. W. Bush,[255] George W. Bush[256] and Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks.[257] He is also an ancestor of the father and son Governors of Vermont Erastus Fairbanks and Horace Fairbanks,[258] the poet Emily Dickinson,[259] and the anthropologist Margaret Mead.[260]

Early laws Edit

In early years each resident was cautioned to keep a ladder handy in case he may need to put out a fire on his thatched roof or climb out of harm's way should there be an attack from the Indians. It was also decreed that if any man should tie his horse to the ladder against the meetinghouse then he would be fined sixpence.[19] The Town occasionally "found it necessary to institute fines against those caught borrowing another's canoe without permission or cutting down trees on the common land."[261] A one shilling fine was imposed in 1651 for taking a canoe without permission.[246]

First public school Edit

Main article: Dedham Public Schools
 
The first taxpayer-funded public school in the United States was in Dedham.

On January 1, 1644, by unanimous vote, Dedham authorized the first U.S. taxpayer-funded public school; "the seed of American education."[262] Its first teacher, Rev. Ralph Wheelock, was paid 20 pounds annually to instruct the youth of the community.[263] Descendants of these students would become presidents of Dartmouth College, Yale University and Harvard University. Another early teacher, Michael Metcalf, was one of the town's first residents and a signer of the Covenant.[264][265] At the age of 70 he began teaching reading in the school.[265]

John Thurston was commission by the town to build the first schoolhouse in 1648 for which he received a partial payment of £11.0.3 on December 2, 1650. The details in the contract require him to construct floorboards, doors, and "fitting the interior with 'featheredged and rabbited' boarding" similar to that found in the Fairbanks House.[20]

The early residents of Dedham were so committed to education that they donated £4.6.6 to Harvard College during its first eight years of existence, a sum greater than many other towns, including Cambridge itself.[266] By the later part of the century, however, a sentiment of anti-intellectualism had pervaded the town.[267] Residents were content to allow the minister to be the local intellectual and did not establish a grammar school as required by law.[267] As a result, the town was called into court in 1675 and then again in 1691.[267]

Colonial politics Edit

When King Charles II threatened to revoke the charter of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, Dedham went firmly on the record as opposing any such action.[268] Town meeting requested that Governor Simon Bradstreet protect the rights and interests of the colonists.[268] In a unanimous vote, they also rejected a motion to completely subjugate themselves to the king and accept his decision to revoke the charter.[268]

Daniel Fisher and his sister Lydia helped to hide William Goffe and Edward Whalley after they sought asylum in American.[200] During the 1689 Boston revolt, Fisher grabbed Governor Edmund Andros by the collar and placed him under arrest, both to protect him from a mob and to ensure that he stood trial.[248]

A group of notable clergy from around the colony, including Dedham's John Allin, wrote a petition to the General Court in 1671 complaining that the lawmakers were contributing to anti-clerical sentiment.[126] They asked for the General Court to endorse the authority of the clergy in spiritual matters, which by implication included the half-way covenant.[126] The General Court complied but 15 members, including Joshua Fisher and Daniel Fisher, dissented.[126][133]

Notes Edit

  1. ^ Including John Kingsbury.[7]
  2. ^ Tiot was later used to describe the village of South Dedham, today the separate town of Norwood.[23]
  3. ^ Those five were John Allen, Thomas Carter, Timothy Dalton, Samuel Morse, and Ralph Wheelock.[24]
  4. ^ While there were no Quakers who lived in Dedham, there were others who were arrested while traveling through town and persecuted for their religious beliefs. They include Richard Dowdney and Elizabeth Hooten.[39]
  5. ^ During the early days of the settlement, the Selectmen voted to ask an Irishman and his wife, who were visiting friends, to leave town as soon as possible, presumably because they were Catholic.[47]
  6. ^ Barber has the date as August 15, 1636[8]
  7. ^ In 1636, there were 30 signers. In 1637, there were 46. By 1656, 79 men put their names on the document.[75]
  8. ^ The third paragraph of the Town Covenant stated "that if at any time differences shall rise between parties of our said town, that then such party or parties shall presently refer all such differences unto some one, two or three others of our said society to be fully accorded and determined without any further delay, if it possibly may be."[76][56]
  9. ^ Wight came from the same town in England as Ann Hutchinson and was a parishioner of John Cotton with her. He may have chosen to move to Dedham to avoid the controversy she was stirring up in Boston.[107]
  10. ^ Luson, Hinsdale, and Lusher all arrived in Dedham with Allin, and Frary was from the same town in England as Michael Metcalf.[115]
  11. ^ Belcher continued to preach until 1721 when illness prevented him.[134]
  12. ^ The area has since been converted into athletic fields and a commercial shopping space.[194]
  13. ^ Hanson has the date as December 9th.[197]
  14. ^ The father of Joshua Fisher, the politician.
  15. ^ Dwight has the figure as six square miles.[226]
  16. ^ It is not known who all 10 were, but they included Anthony Fisher, Richard Ellis, Robert Weare, and Isaac Bullard.[224]
  17. ^ Those granted a dispensation included Richard Ellis, Anthony Fisher Jr., Robert Weare, Isaac Bullard, James Thorpe, Samuel Fisher, Samuel Parker, Joshua Kent and John Farrington . Ralph Freeman, Daniel Makiak, and Sgt. Stearnes did not have pre-selected lots of land, but were among the first settlers.[227]
  18. ^ Hanson has the letter dated 25 May 1669.[229] Dwight has the date of offer to be in November.[226]
  19. ^ Parr has the date as March 1639, and Dwight's age as 17, not seven.[244]
  20. ^ These deeds have since been lost.[226]

References Edit

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  7. ^ Kingsbury, Frederick John (1905). The Genealogy of the Descendants of Henry Kingsbury, of Ipswich and Haverhill, Mass. Hartford Press. p. 82. Retrieved 13 November 2019.
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  254. ^ Lineage as follows: Jonathan[permanent dead link] (b. 1595) to his son George (b. 1619) to his daughter Mary who married Joseph Daniels and together they had a son Eleazer (b. 1681). It continues through his son David March 22, 2007, at the Wayback Machine to his daughter Cloe who married Seth Davenport and together had a child Anna. Anna married William Torrey whose son Samuel had a daughter Louisa. Louisa married Alphonso Taft and together they had President William Howard Taft.
  255. ^ Lineage as follows: Jonathan[permanent dead link] (b. 1595) to his son Jonathan[permanent dead link] (b. 1628) to his son Jeremiah (b. 1674) to his daughter Mary who married Richard Bush and together had Timothy Bush (b. 1728). The lineage continues with Timothy's son Timothy Bush Jr. (b. 1761) to his son Obadiah Newcomb Bush(b. 1791) to his son James Smith Bush (b. 1825) to his son Samuel P. Bush (b. 1863) to his son Senator Prescott Bush who was George Bush's father.
  256. ^ Lineage as follows: Jonathan[permanent dead link] (b. 1595) to his son Jonathan[permanent dead link] (b. 1628) to his son Jeremiah (b. 1674) to his daughter Mary who married Richard Bush and together had Timothy Bush (b. 1728). The lineage continues with Timothy's son Timothy Bush Jr. (b. 1761) to his son Obadiah Newcomb Bush(b. 1791) to his son James Smith Bush (b. 1825) to his son Samuel P. Bush (b. 1863) to his son Senator Prescott Bush to his son President George H. W. Bush who was George W. Bush's father.
  257. ^ Lineage as follows: Jonathan[permanent dead link] to his son Jonas[permanent dead link] to his son Jabez to his son Joshua to his son Luther to his son Luther to his son Loriston Monroe who was the father of Vice President Charles Warren Fairbanks.
  258. ^ Lineage as follows: Jonathan[permanent dead link] to his son John to his son Joseph to his son Joseph to his son Ebenezer to his son Joseph to his son Governor Erastus Fairbanks to his son Governor Horace Fairbanks.
  259. ^ Lineage as follows: Jonathan[permanent dead link] to his son George to his son Eliesur to his son Eliesur to his son Eleazer to his daughter Sarah who married Jude Fay to their daughter Betsey who married Joel Norcross to their daughter Emily who married Edward Dickinson and their child was Emily Dickinson.
  260. ^ Lineage as follows: Jonathan[permanent dead link] to his son George to his son Eliesur to his daughter Martha who married Ebenezer Leland, and together they had a child Caleb whose daughter Hannah married John Ware. Their son Orlando had a daughter Emily who married James Pecker Fogg, who had a son James Leland Fogg. He married Elizabeth Bogart Lockwood and they had a daughter Emily Fogg who married Edward Sherwood Mead. Together their child was Margaret Mead.
  261. ^ Mansbridge 1980, p. 134.
  262. ^ Maria Sacchetti (November 27, 2005). "Schools vie for honor of being the oldest". The Boston Globe. Retrieved November 26, 2006.
  263. ^ Hanson 1976, p. 46.
  264. ^ Lockridge 1985, p. 57.
  265. ^ a b Jennifer Monaghan. . University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. Archived from the original on September 11, 2006. Retrieved December 10, 2006.
  266. ^ Hanson 1976, p. 45-46.
  267. ^ a b c Hanson 1976, p. 103.
  268. ^ a b c Hanson 1976, p. 99.

Works cited Edit

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  • Barber, John Warner (1848). Historical Collections: Being a General Collection of Interesting Facts, Traditions, Biographical Sketches, Anecdotes, &c., Relating to the History and Antiquities of Every Town in Massachusetts, with Geographical Descriptions. Lazell. pp. 455–463. Retrieved October 1, 2018.
  • Blake, Mortimer (1879). A History of the Town of Franklin, Mass: From Its Settlement to the Completion of Its First Century, 2d March, 1878 : with Genealogical Notices of Its Earliest Families, Sketches of Its Professional Men, and a Report of the Centennial Celebration. Higginson Book Company. Retrieved April 25, 2021.
  • Brown, Richard D.; Tager, Jack (2000). Massachusetts: A concise history. University of Massachusetts Press. ISBN 978-1558492493.
  • Carter, Jane Greenough Avery; Holmes, Susie Perry (1893). Genealogical Record of the Dedham Branch of the Avery Family in America. Press of Avery & Doten. pp. 19–34. Retrieved 8 November 2019.
  • Dwight, Benjamin Woodbridge (1874). The History of the Descendants of John Dwight, of Dedham, Mass. J. F. Trow & son, printers and bookbinders. Retrieved September 9, 2019.
  • Fisher, Phillip A. (1898). The Fisher Genealogy: A Record of the Descendants of Joshua, Anthony, and Cornelius Fisher, of Dedham, Mass., 1630-1640. Massachusetts Publishing Company. ISBN 978-0-608-32125-7. Retrieved April 18, 2021.
  • Goodwin, Nathaniel (1982). Genealogical Notes Or Contributions to the Family History of Some of the First Settlers of Connecticut and Massachusetts. Genealogical Publishing Com. ISBN 978-0-8063-0159-4. Retrieved 31 August 2019.
  • Hanson, Robert Brand (1976). Dedham, Massachusetts, 1635-1890. Dedham Historical Society.
  • Jordan, John Woolf (2004). Colonial And Revolutionary Families Of Pennsylvania. Genealogical Publishing Com. ISBN 978-0-8063-5239-8. Retrieved 18 November 2019.
  • Levy, Barry (1997). "Girls and Boys: Poor Children and the Labor Market in Colonial Massachusetts". Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies. 64: 287–307. JSTOR 27774064.
  • Lockridge, Kenneth (1985). A New England Town. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-95459-3.
  • Lockridge, Kenneth A.; Kreider, Alan (1966). "The Evolution of Massachusetts Town Government, 1640 to 1740". The William and Mary Quarterly. 23 (4): 549–574. doi:10.2307/1919125. JSTOR 1919125.
  • Mansbridge, Jane J. (1980). Beyond Adversary Democracy. New York: Basic Books.
  • Parr, James L. (2009). Dedham: Historic and Heroic Tales From Shiretown. The History Press. ISBN 978-1-59629-750-0.
  • Smith, Frank (1936). A History of Dedham, Massachusetts. Transcript Press, Incorporated. Retrieved 21 July 2019.
  • Whittemore, Henry (1967). Genealogical Guide to the Early Settlers of America: With a Brief History of Those of the First Generation and References to the Various Local Histories, and Other Sources of Information where Additional Data May be Found. Genealogical Publishing Com. ISBN 978-0-8063-0378-9. Retrieved 17 November 2019.
  • Worthington, Erastus (1827). The history of Dedham: from the beginning of its settlement, in September 1635, to May 1827. Dutton and Wentworth. Retrieved November 8, 2019.
  • Worthington, Erastus (1900). Historical sketch of Mother Brook, Dedham, Mass: compiled from various records and papers, showing the diversion of a portion of the Charles River into the Neponset River and the manufactures on the stream, from 1639 to 1900. Dedham, MA: C.G. Wheeler.

October 21, 2023
history, dedham, massachusetts, 1635, 1699, history, dedham, massachusetts, 1635, 1699, begins, with, first, settlers, arrival, 1635, runs, 17th, century, settlers, built, their, village, land, native, people, called, tiot, incorporated, plantation, 1636, they. The history of Dedham Massachusetts 1635 1699 begins with the first settlers arrival in 1635 and runs to the end of the 17th century The settlers who built their village on land the native people called Tiot incorporated the plantation in 1636 They sought to build a community in which all would live out Christian love in their daily lives and for a time did but the Utopian impulse did not last The system of government they devised was both a peculiar oligarchy and a a most peculiar democracy Most freemen could participate in Town Meeting though they soon established a Board of Selectmen Power and initiative ebbed and flowed between the two bodies The settlers then undertook the difficult task of establishing a church drafting its doctrinal base and selecting a minister In early days nearly every resident was a member but seeking a church of only visible saints membership declined over time Though the half way covenant was proposed in 1657 and endorsed by the minister the congregation rejected it Population grew from about 200 people in early days to around 700 by 1700 with land being distributed according to rank and family size Though it was given out sparingly in general lands were also awarded in return for service to the church and the community The town remained insular during the early years with the community remaining self contained With a small population a simple and agrarian economy and the free distribution of large tracts of land there was very little disparity in wealth As the town grew new towns broke off from Dedham beginning with Medfield in 1651 With the division and subdivision of so many communities Dedham has been called the Mother of Towns Of towns founded during the colonial era Dedham is one of the few towns that has preserved extensive records of its earliest years This has enabled historians to date the Fairbanks House as the oldest tinder house in America and Mother Brook as the first man made canal in Colonial America It also established the Dedham Public Schools as the first public school in the country Contents 1 Incorporation 2 Landing and first settlement 3 Utopian commune 3 1 Decline 4 Government 4 1 Covenant 4 2 Town Meeting 4 3 Selectmen 4 4 Relationship between Town Meeting and Selectmen 4 5 Other 5 Forming a church 5 1 Establishment 5 2 Membership 5 3 Ministers 5 3 1 John Allin and John Phillips 5 3 2 William Adams 5 3 3 Joseph Belcher 5 4 Meetinghouses 6 Population 7 Lifestyles of early settlers 7 1 Land distribution 7 2 Insularity 7 3 Wealth 7 4 Labor 8 Relationship with native peoples 8 1 King Phillip s War 8 2 Praying Indians 9 Parishes precincts and new towns 9 1 Medfield 9 2 Wretham 9 3 Deerfield 10 Natural resources 10 1 Mother Brook 10 2 Trees 10 3 Swamps bogs and meadows 10 4 Animals 10 5 Mines and minerals 11 Other 11 1 Cemetery 11 2 Early records 11 3 Jonathan Fairbanks 11 4 Early laws 11 5 First public school 11 6 Colonial politics 12 Notes 13 References 14 Works citedIncorporation EditIn 1635 there were rumors in the Massachusetts Bay Colony that a war with the local native people was impending and a fear arose that the few small coastal communities that existed were in danger of attack 1 This in addition to the belief that the few towns that did exist were too close together prompted the Massachusetts General Court to establish two new inland communities 1 2 On May 6 1635 the General Court granted permission to residents of Watertown to set off and establish new towns 3 One group led by Rev Thomas Hooker left and founded Hartford Connecticut and another led by Simon Willard left to found Concord Massachusetts 1 3 Together Dedham and Concord they helped relieve the growing population pressure and placed communities between the larger more established coastal towns and the Indians further west 1 4 It was not until the following March however that the General Court ordered that the bounds of what would become Dedham be mapped out 5 The committee appointed to do so reported back in April but the date the grant was awarded to the original proprietors has been lost to history 5 The original grant was for about 3 5 square miles 9 1 km2 on the northeast side of the Charles River including what is today Newton and land on the other shore the makes up roughly half of present day Dedham Needham Westwood and Dover 6 The order came after twelve men a petitioned the General Court for a tract of land south of the Charles River 8 Those men plus seven others made a second petition on August 29 1636 for additional land on both sides of the river 8 9 One of the additional men was Robert Feake the husband of Elizabeth Fones the widow of John Winthrop s son Henry 9 Feake only ever attended three meetings all of them in Watertown and there is no record that he ever set foot in Dedham 9 10 He was presumably recruited for his political influence and has granted a farm lot in addition to his house lot in return 9 Neither the settlers nor the General Court knew exactly how much land they were requesting or granting 9 The petition was for all the land south of the Charles River but maps from the early 1630s show the river ending somewhere near modern day Dedham 9 It had never been explored by colonial settlers beyond that point 9 Instead the colony gave them over two hundred square miles of virgin wilderness complete with lakes hills forests meadows Indians and a seemingly endless supply of rocks and wolves 1 11 12 9 There were a number of surveys undertaken over the years beginning with one in 1638 undertaken by John Rogers and Jonathan Fairbanks but the issue was not settled until the United States Supreme Court took up a case in 1846 that involved a dispute between the border of Massachusetts and Rhode Island 9 In the second petition the settlers asked the General Court to incorporate the plantation into a town and to free the town from all Countrey Charges or taxes for four years and from all military exercises unless extraordinary occasion require it 13 14 The General Court granted only a three year reprieve from taxes 15 They also asked to distinguish our town by the name of Contentment 13 but when the prosaic minds in the Court granted the petition on September 7 1636 they decreed that the towne shall beare the name of Dedham 11 16 17 15 The earliest records of the settlement before the General Court settled on Dedham all use the name Contentment 8 Tradition holds that John Rogers or John Dwight both signers of the petition seeking the establishment of the town asked the Court to name it after their hometown in England of Dedham Essex 18 19 8 Contentment eventually became the motto of the town Many of the other yeomen settling the new Dedham in the Massachusetts Bay Colony came from Suffolk in eastern England 20 The original grant stretched from the southwestern border of what is today Boston but was then Roxbury and Dorchester to the Rhode Island and Plymouth Colony borders 11 18 To the west were ungranted lands 18 The less than 100 Indians who lived on the land sold it for a small sum 11 Early settlers gave places names such as Dismal Swamp Purgatory Brook Satan s Kingdom and Devil s Oven 21 Landing and first settlement EditThe Algonquians living in the area called the place Tiot which means land surrounded by water 22 b Dedham was settled in the summer of 1636 by about thirty families excised from the broad ranks of the English middle classes largely from Yorkshire and East Anglia 11 Only five signers of the covenant were university graduates but many more would be called upon to serve the town the church and the colony 24 c As Puritans they came to Massachusetts in order to live and worship as they pleased 24 They traveled up the Charles River from Roxbury and Watertown in rough canoes carved from felled trees 19 These original settlers including Edward Alleyn John Everard John Gay and John Ellis paddled up the narrow deeply flowing stream impatiently turning curve after curve around Nonantum until emerging from the tall forest into the open they saw in the sunset glow a golden river twisting back and forth through broad rich meadows 19 In search of the best land available to them they continued on but The river took many turns so that it was a burden the continual turning about West east and north we turned on that same meadow and progressed none so that I rising in the boat saw the river flowing just across a bit of grass in a place where I knew we had passed through nigh an hour before Moore said Miles then to me the river is like its Master our good King Charles of sainted memory it promises overmuch but gets you nowhere 19 They first landed where the river makes its great bend 19 near what is today Ames Street and close by the Dedham Community House and the Allin Congregational Church in Dedham Square The site is known as the Keye and in 1927 a stone bench and memorial plaque were installed on the site 25 By March 1637 with homes built and fields planted the settlers moved to their new village 26 The first town meeting held in Dedham was on March 23 1636 37 and was attended by 15 men 27 Utopian commune EditLike its surrounding communities Dedham s early culture was much like the English villages where its original settlers were born and small agricultural communities all over Europe 28 A number of the customs and institutions in the town were direct transplants from contemporary English villages 29 However as a settlement of English Puritans who escaped oppression to settle in the wilderness Dedham was peculiarly American 30 It was originally intended to be a Utopian society along the lines of the later Amana Colonies Oneida Community and Brook Farm 31 32 In its first years the town was more than a place to live it was a spiritual community 33 Its distinctive characteristics created what has been described as a Christian Utopian Closed Corporate Community Christian because they saw Christian love as the force which would most completely unite their community Utopian because theirs was a highly conscious attempt to build the most prefect possible community as perfectly united perfectly at peace and perfectly ordered as man could arrange Closed because its membership was selected while outsiders were treated with suspicion or rejected altogether And Corporate because the commune demanded the loyalty of its members offering in exchange privileges which could be obtained only through membership not the least of which were peace and good order 34 Each of the original settlers pledged to live out Christian love in their daily lives 35 Each was also expected to be united in this love as it was designed to bring about a deep and abiding peace throughout the whole community 35 Inquiries could also be made into the private lives of townsmen and adjustments ordered when a resident s life was not as virtuous as the community felt it should be 36 None who were not committed to this ideal were to be admitted as townsmen and if the need arose they were to be expelled 37 The commitment in the Covenant to allow only like minded individuals to live within the town explains why church records show no instances of dissension Quaker or Baptist expulsions or witchcraft persecutions 1 38 d The Covenant was intended to extend beyond the lifetimes if those who wrote it and to be binding upon all residents in perpetuity 32 The poor would be helped if they were residents of Dedham but sent away if they were not 36 In addition to paying taxes each man was expected to labor on communal projects several days each month 29 Every year six days were set aside to work on roads and each man was expected to work four of them 17 Townsmen also took turns serving in a variety of low level offices including constable hog reeve or fence viewer 29 This did not mean communism as the settlers subscribed to the Puritan belief of a natural inequality among men as being divine providence 40 Still the relative economic equality kept social rank to a minimum and helped maintain social harmony 41 Men could live their entire lives in this community among their equals and on their own land 42 This was according to one commentator the plan of the society John Winthrop hoped to construct in Massachusetts was the plan of Dedham writ large 29 Decline Edit The Utopian impulse did not last however and the policies of perfection no longer dominated just 50 years after the establishment of the community 43 By the 1640s the town began permitting residents to fence in their strips of land in the common field and presumably to grow whatever crop they wanted in it 44 By reducing and eventually eliminating the common field system it reduced the number of interactions each farmer had with his neighbors and made one less decision they had to make and employ in common 45 By about 1660 not every newcomer to town was invited to sign the Covenant making them by implication second class citizens 44 Laws that restricted the presence of strangers were rarely enforced after 1675 46 e Eventually as some men grew richer they were able to hire substitutes to serve in their place on communal projects or to serve in office for them 17 Also around this time evidence of the loving spirit proclaimed in the Covenant came to be conspicuous by its absence 48 49 Records of open dissent began appearing first about seating placements in the meetinghouse 48 50 In 1674 people began sitting in places other than those assigned for them 51 This growing sense of egalitarianism did not sit well with some and a committee was appointed to deal with those who sat in the seats assigned to others 52 Some refused to meet with the committee and others were not happy with the decisions they made 53 With discontent lingering Ruling Elder John Hunting was asked to speak to those involved 53 Hunting was not successful either so the selectmen imposed a fine of five shillings on those who did not sit in their assigned seats with one third of the fine going to those who reported an offender and the remainder going to the town 53 After Nathanial Bullard informed on a number of his fellow townsmen he apparently appeared so obnoxious and greedy that the fine was repealed 54 The number of yea and nay votes also began being recorded 48 55 where previously decisions were made by consensus 56 57 As the century progressed residents were also more likely to use the court system to settle disputes which was previously unheard of than they were to go use the arbitration method laid out in the covenant 58 46 49 While Dedham was insulated to a great degree from the outside world in its early years as time went on it was dragged into the greater society One result was that as residents began to see them as parts of a larger society less emphasis was placed on the local community 59 In 1661 Richard Ellis refused to serve as Town Clerk an action that would have been unthinkable just a decade before 60 When a committee dispatched to evaluate land granted in return for 2 000 acres given to the praying Indians of Natick submitted a bill for their expenses in 1663 it was a sign that the days of performing community service without expectation of financial reward were over 61 By 1686 much of the overt Utopian spirit the founders had instilled 50 years prior had been destroyed 48 By the end of the first century public disagreements seemed to be the rule rather than the exception 55 and decisions were made by majority not consensus 62 The Covenant was no longer enforced nor served as the guide for every decision by the time the town reached its 50th anniversary 63 That it lasted well into the second generation was according to one commentator longer than anyone had a right to expect 64 Still the town remained small and slow growing with little change to institutional structures or traditional views 63 65 By 1675 taxpayers paid more the county and colony than they did to the town reflecting a growing importance of the regional bodies and the cost of the colony expanding westward 62 After 1691 as the county grew more powerful the town began more closely following the law lest they get fined 62 Government EditMain article Early government of Dedham Massachusetts The colonial settlers met for the first time on August 18 1636 in Watertown 66 By September 5 1636 their number grew from 18 at the first meeting to 25 proprietors willing to set out for the new community 67 By November 25 however so few people had actually moved to Dedham that the proprietors voted to require every man to move to Dedham permanently by the first day of the following November or they would lose the land they had been granted 68 A few young men without families set off to spend the winter there including Nicholas Phillips Ezekiel Holliman and likely Ralph Shepard John Rogers Lambert Genere Joseph Shaw and the Morses 69 The first town meeting held in Dedham was on March 23 1637 69 Most of the proprietors were present and it is believed that most of them must have been living in Dedham by then 69 For the first fifty years of Dedham s existence it enjoyed a stable tranquil government 70 The town elected a group of wealthy experienced friends as Selectmen and then heeded their judgement 71 It also adopted a clause in the covenant that mandated mediation which supported stability of the society 70 There was not so much a system of checks and balances so much as there was system where each individual voluntarily restrained himself 72 73 Due to its unique features it was both a peculiar oligarchy 73 in that only a few men were chosen for political office and a most peculiar democracy 70 in that laws of suffrage changed frequently both to restrict and to expand the franchise Covenant Edit Main article Dedham Covenant While the first settlers were subject to the General Court they had wide latitude to establish a local government as they saw fit 11 The first public meeting of the plantation was held on August 18 1636 74 f A total of 18 men were present and the town covenant was signed 8 67 g It was a diverse group and included husbandmen wool combers farriers millers linen weavers and butchers 67 The covenant outlined both the social ideal they hoped to achieve and the policies and procedures they would use to reach it 35 They swore they would in the fear and reverence of our Almighty God mutually and severally promise amongst ourselves and each to profess and practice one truth according to that most perfect rule the foundation whereof is ever lasting love 76 Intended to be perpetual and binding on future generations it prohibited those who were contrary minded and those who didn t share their religious beliefs 77 but it was not a theocracy 78 Before a man could join the community he underwent a public inquisition to determine his suitability 77 While great effort was taken to ensure disagreements were resolved before they grew into disputes 79 the covenant also stipulated that differences would be submitted to between one and four other members of the town for resolution 76 80 This arbitration system was so successful there was no need for courts 81 h It was also expected that once a decision was made that all would abide by it with no further dissent or debate 32 For the first fifty years of Dedham s existence there were no prolonged disputes that were common in other communities 36 Town Meeting Edit The town meeting was the original and protean vessel of local authority The founders of Dedham had met to discuss the policies of their new community even before the General Court had defined the nature of town government 82 83 The early meetings were informal with all men in town likely participating 84 Attendance at Meetings was considered vital for the life of the community The meeting operated on a basis of consensus 56 57 Even when it did not fully exercise them the power of the town meeting knew no limit 85 86 The more wealthy a voter was the more likely he would attend the meeting However even though no more than 58 men were eligible to come to the Dedham town meeting and to make the decisions for the town even though the decisions to which they addressed themselves were vital to their existence even though every inhabitant was required to live within one mile 1 6 km of the meeting place even though each absence from the meeting brought a fine and even though the town crier personally visited the house of every latecomer half an hour after the meeting had begun only 74 percent of those eligible actually showed up at the typical town meeting between 1636 and 1644 87 A colony law required all voters to be Church members until 1647 though it may not have been enforced 85 Even if it were 70 of the men in town would have been eligible to participate 85 The law changed in 1647 and as it was interpreted in Dedham all men over 24 were eligible to vote 88 The colony changed the requirements periodically though occasionally with a grandfather clause 89 90 In provincial elections only church members could vote 70 Regardless of whether or not they were able to vote records indicate that all men were able to attend and speak 91 Selectmen Edit The whole town would gather regularly to conduct public affairs but it was found by long experience that the general meeting of so many men has wasted much time to no small damage and business is thereby nothing furthered 82 86 92 In response on May 3 1639 seven selectmen were chosen by general consent and given full power to contrive execute and perform all the business and affairs of this whole town 82 8 86 The leaders they chose were men of proven ability who were known to hold the same values and to be seeking the same goals as their neighbors and they were invested with great authority 93 If a man served three terms and met with the satisfaction of the community he tended to stay on the board for many years following 94 Soon the selectmen enjoyed almost complete control over every aspect of local administration 95 Almost all townsmen would have to appear before them at one point or another during the year to ask for a swap of land to ask to remove firewood from the common lands or for some other purpose 95 The selectmen wrote most of the laws in the town and they levied taxes on their fellow townsmen 96 86 They could also approve expenditures 86 They also served as a court determining who had broken by laws and issuing fines 95 86 As the selectmen became more active the Town Meeting became essentially passive 88 Selectmen were the most powerful men in town As men they were few in number old and relatively rich and saints of the church 97 It was not required that a man be wealthy to serve but it improved his chances of getting elected 98 Men who were not members of the church were still allowed to hold town office 99 The burdens of office could take up to a third of their time during busy seasons 73 They served without salary and came up through the ranks of lower offices 73 In return they became men of immense prestige and were frequently selected to serve in other high posts 73 Relationship between Town Meeting and Selectmen Edit Metric 100 1636 to 1686 1687 to 1736Average turnover 1 88 of 7 27 2 of 5 40 Average recruitment of new selectmen 7 of 7 10 1 1 of 5 22 New men recruited 35 55Average terms served 7 6 4 8Percent who serve more than 10 terms 35 7 Average cumulative experience of the board 55 years 25 yearsAfter creation of the Board of Selectmen Town Meetings were generally called only twice a year and usually did not stray far from the agenda prepared for them by the selectmen 88 101 In fact the Meeting would often refer issues to the Selectmen to act upon 88 or to prepare and ripen the answer to a difficult question 101 Town Meeting typically took on only routine business such as the election of officers or setting the minister s salary and left other business to the selectmen 101 In the late 1600s and early 1700s Town Meeting began to assert more authority and fewer decisions were left to the judgment of the selectmen 93 102 55 Over the course of 30 40 years small innovations brought the initiative back to the meeting and away from the board 91 It brought back a balance of power between the two bodies which in theory had always existed but which in practice had been tilted to the selectmen 103 One of the most prominent ways they did so was by calling for more meetings 91 In the first 50 years of existence town meetings were held on average about twice a year but by 1700 it was held four or five times each year 91 The agenda also grew longer and included an open ended item that allowed them to discuss any item they liked and not just the topics the selectmen placed upon the warrant 104 Other Edit For 45 of the first 50 years of Dedham s existence one of the 10 selectmen who served most often also served in the one superior the town recognized the General Court 105 In colonial Massachusetts each town sent two deputies to the General Court each year Three men Joshua Fisher Daniel Fisher and Eleazer Lusher virtually monopolized the post between 1650 and 1685 105 The first Town Clerk was elected on May 17 1639 106 Forming a church EditMain article First Church and Parish in Dedham History See also Allin Congregational Church On July 18 1637 the Town voted to admit a group of very religious men that would radically change the course of the town s history 107 Led by John Allin they included Michael Metcalf Thomas Wight i Robert Hinsdale Eleazer Lusher Timothy Dalton and Allin s brother in law Thomas Fisher 108 Dalton was invited to settle in civil condition but it was made clear he was not going to be made the town s minister over Allin 109 He and Thomas Carter quickly sold their land holdings and left town Dalton to become a teaching officer in the church of what is today Hampton New Hampshire and Carter to the pulpit in Woburn Massachusetts 109 Ezekiel Holliman on the other hand recognized that as a religious liberal that he was not going to be welcome in town and so moved to Rhode Island with Roger Williams 109 92 Establishment Edit Main article First Church and Parish in Dedham Establishment While it was of the utmost importance founding a church was more difficult than founding a town 110 Meetings were held late in 1637 and were open to all the inhabitants who affected church communion lovingly to discourse and consult together on such questions as might further tend to establish a peaceable and comfortable civil society ad prepare for spiritual communion 111 On the fifth day of every week they would meet in a different home and would discuss any issues as he felt the need all humbly and with a teachable heart not with any mind of cavilling or contradicting 111 77 112 After they became acquainted with one another they asked if they as a collection of Christian strangers in the wilderness have any right to assemble with the intention of establishing a church 113 Their understanding of the Bible led them to believe that they did and so they continued to establish a church based on Christian love but also one that had requirements for membership 113 It took months of discussions before a church covenant could be agreed upon and drafted 111 The group established thirteen principles written in a question and answer format that established the doctrine of the church 114 Once the doctrinal base was agreed upon 10 men were selected by John Allin assisted by Ralph Wheelock to seek out the pillars 115 or living stones 116 upon which the congregation would be based They began to meet separately and decided six of their own number Allin Wheelock John Luson John Frary Eleazer Lusher and Robert Hinsdale were suitable to form the church 116 j The men found worthy submitted themselves to a conference of the entire community 116 Finally on November 8 1638 two years after the incorporation of the town and one year after the first church meetings were held the covenant was signed and the church was gathered 117 77 Guests from other towns were invited for the event as they sought the advice and counsel of the churches and the countenance and encouragement of the magistrates 117 77 Membership Edit Main article First Church and Parish in Dedham Membership Only visible saints were pure enough to become members 77 118 A public confession of faith was required as was a life of holiness 119 77 It was not good enough just to have been baptized because then papists heretics and many visible atheists that are baptized must be received 120 A group of the most pious men interviewed all who sought admission to the church 77 To become a member a candidate must pour out heart and soul in public confession and subject every innermost desire to the scrutiny of their peers 92 All others would be required to attend the sermons at the meeting house but could not join the church nor receive communion be baptized or become an officer of the church 119 Once the church was established residents whether or not they were members 24 would gather several times a week to hear sermons and lectures in practical piety 110 Between the years of 1644 and 1653 80 of children born in town were baptized indicating that at least one parent was a member of the church Servants and masters young and old rich and poor alike all joined the church 121 Non members were not discriminated against as seen by several men being elected Selectmen before they were accepted as members of the church 122 By 1663 nearly half the men in town were not members and this number grew as more second generation Dedhamites came of age 123 The decline was so apparent across the colony by 1660 that a future could be seen when a minority of residents were members 56 as happened in Dedham by 1670 17 It was worried that the third generation if they were born without a single parent who was a member could not even be baptized 124 To resolve the problem an assembly of ministers from throughout Massachusetts endorsed a half way covenant in 1657 and then again at a church synod in 1662 56 125 It allowed parents who were baptized but not members of the church to present their own children for baptism however they were denied the other privileges of church membership including communion 56 123 125 Allin endorsed the measure but the congregation rejected it striving for a pure church of saints 123 126 Ministers Edit Main article First Church and Parish in Dedham Ministers Though Allin s salary was donated freely by members and non members alike his salary was never in arrears showing the esteem in which the other members of the community held him 99 In the 1670s as the Utopian spirit of the community waned it became necessary to impose a tax to ensure the minister was paid 127 128 Just before Allin s death it was decided to continue to pay the salary by voluntary contributions of an assessed amount 128 Several other votes followed in the next 16 months after it was determined that the system no longer worked 128 No solution was found however and the church was constantly behind in paying William Adams salary Minister Years of serviceJohn Allin 1638 129 130 1639 130 John Phillips 1639 130 1641 130 John Allin 1641 130 1671 19 48 Vacant 1671 1673William Adams 1673 131 1685 132 Vacant 132 133 1685 1693Joseph Belcher 1693 132 134 135 1723 132 k John Allin and John Phillips Edit Main articles First Church and Parish in Dedham John Allin and First Church and Parish in Dedham John Phillips John Phillips though he was respected and learned was unable to join the church as its first minister 17 He twice refused calls to settle in Dedham and instead went to the Cambridge church where Harvard College had recently been established 17 136 137 138 A tender search for a minister took an additional several months and finally John Allin who was the leader of the small group of church members was ordained as pastor 1 139 130 John Hunting was selected as Ruling Elder over Ralph Wheelock who also wanted the position 1 139 130 They were ordained on April 24 1639 130 Phillips left Cambridge at the end of 1639 however and decided to come to Dedham after all 130 He quickly became unsatisfied in his new pulpit however and returned to his old church in England in October 1641 130 As in England Puritan ministers in the American colonies were usually appointed to the pulpits for life 140 and Allin served for 32 years 19 He received a salary of between 60 and 80 pounds a year 99 When land was divided his name was always at the top of the list and he received the largest plot 99 William Adams Edit Main article First Church and Parish in Dedham William Adams After Allin s death the pulpit went without a settled minister for a long stretch 141 William Adams who was graduated from Harvard College two weeks prior to Allin s August 1671 death had several connections to the town and attended Allin s funeral 142 By December he had already been approached several times to preach in Dedham 142 He finally accepted an offer to preach in Dedham and did so on February 17 1672 142 He rejected the call several times 143 144 before agreeing to preach on a trial basis in September 1673 145 144 He moved to Dedham on May 27 1673 and was ordained on December 3 1673 146 145 Adams served until his death in 1685 145 146 Aside from a few minor squabbles his time in Dedham was mostly peaceful 147 Given the church s rejection of the Half Way Covenant which the colony s clergy had endorsed Adams may have been a last choice option 142 Eventually the church would recant and accept the Half Way Covenant 148 Joseph Belcher Edit Main article First Church and Parish in Dedham Joseph Belcher After Adams died the church was without a minister from 1685 to 1692 133 149 Following his death the congregation again rejected the Half Way Covenant 147 As a result though a large number of preachers came on a guest basis and even though several young men were offered the pulpit the church could not find a minister to settle with them permanently 133 149 At the end of 1691 the congregation voted again to accept the half way covenant and declared that Allin was right to have tried to get them to accept it 150 147 A new minister Joseph Belcher began preaching in March 1692 and was installed on November 29 1693 134 135 151 He remained in the pulpit until the autumn of 1721 until illness prevented him from preaching 134 Meetinghouses Edit Almost immediately after arriving the group began holding prayer meetings and worship services under various trees around town 152 On January 1 1638 the Town voted to construct a meetinghouse 152 It was originally planned to be constructed on High Street near the present day border with Westwood but those who lived on East Street argued that it should be built more centrally 153 It is unclear when the building was finished but presumably was not complete before November 1638 154 An addition was ordered to be built in 1646 155 but the plastering was not completed until 1657 156 A vote to purchase a bell was made in 1648 155 but a bell was not hung until February 1652 157 As a result of the bell being hung the Town no longer needed to pay Ralph Day to beat a drum announcing the start of meetings 157 The bell was rung not only to announce the start of public meetings but also to alert residents of a fire to announce a death and to signal the start of church services 60 Until a separate schoolhouse was completed the meetinghouse also served as a classroom 155 The roof of the east gallery also served as a storehouse for the town s supply of gunpowder following a 1653 vote 158 A referendum to build a new meetinghouse held on February 3 1673 was conducted with voters casting a piece of white corn if they were in favor and a piece of red corn if they were opposed 51 The vote was nearly unanimous in favor 51 The new meetinghouse was erected on June 16 1673 156 51 Population EditYear Population1637 31 men plus their families 159 1640 gt 200 93 1648 400 160 1651 100 families 161 Late 1650s 150 men plus others 162 1686 gt 600 12 1700 700 93 lt 750 160 On June 3 1637 Ruth Morse was the first child born to white parents John and Annis in Dedham 163 The average population during the 1600s was about 500 people making slightly larger than the average English village during the same time period 160 With people moving either in or out of town nearly all growth came from births and all declines through deaths 164 The average age for first marriages was 25 for men and 23 for women in contrast to the European average of 27 for men and 25 for women 165 Younger marriages resulted in more births 166 There were fewer deaths as well partially due to Dedham being spared disease famine and extreme climate events that ravaged parts of Europe during this time 167 By the 1650s a variety of types of men were living in Dedham including bachelors family men the well to do and servants 162 Some bought land in town but never settled there some left soon after arriving either to other towns or back to England and a few died before they could do much of anything 162 Lifestyles of early settlers EditMain article Lifestyles of early settlers of Dedham Massachusetts Land distribution Edit Each man received tiny houselots in the village with additional strips of arable land meadow and woods 81 Each strip was located in a common field and the community decided which crop to grow and how to care for and harvest it 81 The common field method brought men into regular contact with one another and prevented farms from being established far from the village center 81 As there is no record of clearing the land it was probably used previously by the native population 168 Each man was also assigned a plot of land within the field to cultivate 169 Residents grew corn beans peas and pumpkin 169 Later residents who acquired larger plots of land planted wheat rye barley and oats 169 The land was given sparingly with no family given land than they could currently improve 77 170 Married men received 12 acres four of which were swamp while single men received eight with three acres being swampland 169 171 8 81 172 Lands were also awarded in return for service to the church and the community 8 170 81 a practice that had long been established by the General Court 173 Land was distributed according to several criteria 168 The first was the number of persons in the household 168 Servants were considered a part of a freeman s estate 168 Land was also given according to the rank quality desert and usefulness either in church of commonwealth of the proprietor 168 81 Finally it was thought that men who were engaged in a trade other than farming should have the materials needed to work and those who were able to improve more land should have that fact taken into account 168 Insularity Edit Most of the original settlers and early arrivals made Dedham their home for the rest of their days 174 Less than two percent of men in the town arrived in any given year and less than one percent left 175 Because of the low geographic mobility the town became a self contained social unit almost hermetically sealed off from the rest of the world 175 This stability was a typical persistent and highly important feature of Dedham s history 175 A century after settlement immigration and emigration were still rare 176 Of every 10 men born in Dedham between 1680 and 1700 eight would die there 177 178 From its earliest days Dedham was closed off to all unless the current residents explicitly welcomed someone in 34 66 Shortly after the town was incorporated in November 1636 Town Meeting voted not to allow any land sales unless the buyer was already a resident of the town or was approved by a majority of the other voters 74 On August 11 1637 a total of 46 house lots had been laid out and it was voted to stop admitting new residents 179 159 74 168 Two decades after the plantation was begun those who had done the hard work of first settling the land were worried that as the town s population grew their dividends of land would be diluted 180 181 On January 23 1657 the growth of the town was further limited to descendants of those living there at the time 56 180 Newcomers could settle there so long as they were like minded but they would have to buy their way into the community 56 44 Land was no longer freely available for those who wished to join 56 Wealth Edit With a small population a simple and agrarian economy and the free distribution of large tracts of land there was very little disparity in wealth 94 182 In the early days anyone who might be considered poor was likely to be a sick widow an orphan or an improvident half wit 182 In 1690 the poorest 20 of the population owned about 10 of the property 183 At least 85 of the population were farmers or as they called themselves yeoman or husbandman 184 There were also those who served the farmers including millers blacksmiths or cordwainers 184 Like in the English countryside they were largely subsistence farmers who grew enough for their families 184 but did not specialize in any cash crops or particular animals 185 The first homes were all fairly similar built with boards and stone fireplaces and chimneys 169 The hip roofs were covered with thatch 169 The first floor would have a living room and kitchen and sleeping quarters could be reached by ladder in the garret above 169 Each person may own two changes of clothes plus a good suit or cloak and a family may have a little silver or pewter 186 They typically would own a Bible pots pans bowls and bins 186 Outside of the house in the barn or lean to would be agricultural tools and a few bushels of crops 186 For animals one or two horses along with several cattle pigs and sheep were common 186 Labor Edit Single people including adult children of residents were not allowed to live alone unless they had sufficient resources to set up their own household with servants 187 Each year one day was set aside to assign young adult to other households as subordinates 187 The practice was intended to both keep up the family labor system that underpinned the local economy and was to prevent the sin and iniquity that are the companions and consequences of a solitary life 187 Selectmen also had the authority to take children out of homes and put them to work in other households 187 If a household did not pay their full taxes or if a household was not deemed efficient enough children could be removed and placed in the homes of richer men 188 In 1681 there were 28 servants serving in 22 of the 112 households in town 189 Of them all but four were children and 20 of the servants were white 189 There were ten boys eight girls two Negro boys two Indian boys one lad and one English girl 189 There was also one man one Negro man and two maids 189 The servants in town while they served in 20 of the households 189 made up only 5 of the population 190 Most of them soon became independent yeomen 190 Many of the children who lived in Dedham as servants may have been taken in partly out of charity 189 After King Phillip s War there were a large number of orphaned children 189 With Dedham s strong ties to Deerfield it is presumed that some of the children white and Indian were casualties of the war 189 Relationship with native peoples EditIn April 1637 the Town voted to begin keeping watch to prevent Indian attacks 191 By May however they were lamenting the time and resources they were spending on patrols 191 A delegation was sent to Watertown to ask Thomas Cakebread to move to Dedham upon good consideration of his knowledge of martial affairs 191 Just a year later however the new town of Sudbury enticed him to move there by granting him a monopoly on the milling business in town 191 New settlements which grew into separately incorporated towns were established for several reasons including to serve as a buffer between the native peoples and the village of Dedham 192 Medfield and Wrentham which broke away from Dedham each suffered at least one Indian raid during the 17th century that would have otherwise struck the mother town 192 Dedham itself had served as a buffer in its own time between native peoples and the population centers along the coast as well as against the freethinking followers of Roger Williams 4 In the 1680s the Town fathers sought out and purchased the rights to the land from every native person who claimed to own land or hold title 193 Sarah David the wife of Alexander Quapish was known as the last Indian in Dedham 194 When Sarah died in 1774 she was buried at the ancient Indian burial ground near Wigwam Pond 194 She was said to be the last person buried there 194 l King Phillip s War Edit Main article King Phillip s War During King Phillip s War men from Dedham went off to fight and several died 195 More former Dedhamites who had moved on to other towns died than men who were still living in the community however 196 They included Robert Hinsdale his four sons and Jonathan Plympton who died at the Battle of Bloody Brook 197 198 John Plympton was burned at the stake after being marched to Canada with Quentin Stockwell 199 Zachariah Smith was passing through Dedham on April 12 1671 when he stopped at the home of Caleb Church in the sawmill settlement on the banks of the Neponset River 200 The next morning he was found dead having been shot 200 A group of praying Indians found him and suspicion fell on a group on non Christian Nipmucs who were also heading south to Providence 200 This was the first actual outrage of King Phillip s War 201 One of the Nipmucs a son of Matoonas was found guilty and hanged on Boston Common 202 For the next six years his head would be impaled on a pike at the end of the gallows as a warning to other native peoples 202 Dedham then readied its cannon which had been issued by the colony in 1650 in preparation for an attack that never came 202 After the raid on Swansea the colony ordered the militias of several towns including Dedham to have 100 soldiers ready to march out of town on an hour s notice 203 Captain Daniel Henchmen took command of the men and left Boston on June 26 1675 203 They arrived in Dedham by nightfall and the troops became worried by an eclipse of the moon which they took as a bad omen 203 Some claimed to see native scalplocks and bows in the moon 203 Dedham was largely spared from the fighting and was not attacked but they did build a fortification and offered tax cuts to men who joined the cavalry 203 Plymouth Colony governor Josiah Winslow and Captain Benjamin Church rode from Boston to Dedham to take charge of the 465 soldiers and 275 cavalry assembling there and together departed on December 8 1675 for the Great Swamp Fight 204 197 m When the commanders arrived they also found a vast assortment of teamsters volunteers servants service personnel and hangers on 197 Dedham s John Bacon died in the battle 205 During the battle in Lancaster in February 1676 Jonas Fairbanks and his son Joshua both died 206 Richard Wheeler whose son Joseph was killed in battle the previous August also died that day 206 When the town of Medfield was attacked they fired a cannon as a warning to Dedham 207 Residents of nearby Wrentham abandoned their community and fled for the safety of Dedham and Boston 208 Pumham one of Phillip s chief advisors was captured in Dedham on July 25 1676 201 209 Several Christian Indians had seen his band in the woods nearly starved to death 209 Captain Samuel Hunting led 36 men from Dedham and Medfield and joined 90 Indians on a hunt to find them 209 A total of 15 of the enemy were killed and 35 were captured 209 Pumham though he was so wounded he could not stand grabbed hold of an English soldier and would have killed him had one of the settler s compatriots not come to his rescue 209 John Plympton and Quentin Stockwell were captured in Deerfield in September 1677 and marched to Canada 199 Stockell was eventually ransomed and wrote an account of his ordeal but Plympton was burned at the stake 199 Praying Indians Edit In the middle of the 17th century the Reverend John Eliot converted many of the native people in the area to Christianity and taught them how to live a stable agrarian life 210 He converted so many that the group needed a large portion of land on which they could grow their own crops 210 John Allin assisted Elliot in his work and it is probably through his influence that Dedham agreed to give up 2 000 acres 8 1 km2 of what is today Natick to the praying Indians in 1650 210 211 In return Dedham expected the Indians to settle only on the northern bank of the Charles River not to set any traps outside their grant and give up all claims to any land elsewhere in Dedham 211 The natives who did not hold the same notions of private property as the English colonizers settled on the south side of the river and set traps within the bounds of Dedham 211 Disputes began arising in 1653 and compromise arbitration and negotiation were all attempted 211 In 1661 Dedham gave up attempts at friendly solutions and took their indigenous neighbors to court suing for title to the land the Indians were inhabiting 211 1 The case centered around the Indians use of a tract of land along the Charles River 210 The native people claimed they had an agreement to use the land for farming with the Town Fathers but Dedham officials objected 210 While the law was on the side of the town 212 Elliot made a moral argument that the group had a need for land of their own 210 The case eventually went before the General Court who granted the land in question to the Indians and in compensation for the land lost gave another 8 000 acres 32 km2 in what is today Deerfield Massachusetts to the Dedham settlers 212 211 The town s actions in the case were characterized by deceptions retaliations and lasting bitterness and they harassed their native neighbors with petty accusations event after the matter was settled 213 Parishes precincts and new towns EditSee also History of Dedham Massachusetts 1700 1799 Parishes precincts and new towns History of Dedham Massachusetts 1800 1899 Parishes precincts and new towns and History of Dedham Massachusetts 1900 1999 New towns and subdivisions As the town s population grew greater and greater residents began moving further away from the center of town Within a quarter century of the first settlement an expansionist philosophy had developed within Dedham 214 In the 1670s with each new dividend of land farmers began taking shares close to their existing plots 45 This along with special convenience grants close by their existing fields allowed townsmen to consolidate their holdings 45 A market for buying and selling land also emerged by which farmers would sell parcels further away from their main plots and buy land closer to them 45 When this began happening residents first started moving their barns closer to their fields and then their homes as well 45 By 1686 homes coalesced in several outlying areas pulling their owners away from the day to day life of the village center 12 215 As the numbers further away grew they began to break off and form new towns beginning with Medfield in 1651 Until 1682 all Dedhamites had lived within 1 5 miles 2 4 km of the meetinghouse 93 After Walpole left Dedham had just 25 of its original land area 216 Dedham residents also became in substantial numbers early settlers of Lancaster Hadley and Sherborn Massachusetts 215 Community Year incorporated as a town 217 NotesMedfield 1651 The first town to leave Dedham Natick 1659 Established as a community for Christian Indians Wrentham 1673 Southeast corner of town was part of the Dorchester New Grant of 1637 Deerfield 1673 Land was granted to Dedham in return for giving up Natick 218 Medfield Edit The majority of present day Medfield had been granted to Dedham in 1636 but the lands on the western bank of the Charles River had been meted out by the General Court to individuals 219 Edward Alleyn for example had been granted 300 acres in 1642 219 Dedham asked the General Court for some of those lands and on October 23 1649 the Court granted the request so long as they established a separate village there within one year 219 Dedham sent Eleazer Lusher Joshua Fisher Henry Phillips John Dwight and Daniel Fisher to map out an area three miles by four miles and the colony sent representatives to set the boundaries on the opposite side of the river 219 The land that Dedham contributed to the new village became Medfield and the land the colony contributed eventually broke away to become Medway 219 The separations were not without difficulty however 192 When Medfield left there were disagreements about the responsibility for public debts and about land use 192 There were some residents who did not move to the new village who wanted rights to the meadows while others thought that the land should be given freely to those who would settle them 219 A compromise was reached where those moving to the new village would pay 100 to those who remained in lieu of rights to the meadows 219 It was later reduced to 60 if paid over three years or 50 if paid in one year 220 Tax records show that those who chose to move to the new village came from the middle class of Dedham residents 219 Among the first 20 men to make the move were Ralph Wheelock Thomas Mason Thomas Wright John Samuel Morse and his son Daniel John Frary Sr Joseph Clark Sr John Ellis Thomas Ellis Henry Smith Robert Hinsdale Timothy Dwight James Allen Henry Glover Isaac Genere and Samuel Bullen 221 By 1664 several of their sons would join them as would Joshua Fisher n and his son John and several other Dedhamites 221 Those who moved there often moved with family members and many would move on from their to other inland communities 222 It is also possible that those who left Dedham for Medfield were those most disaffected by the political or social climate within the town 222 Town Meeting voted to release Medfield on January 11 1651 and the General Court agreed the following May 223 Wretham Edit In 1660 after the dust had settled on the Medfield separation five men were sent to explore the lakes near George Indian s wigwam and to report back to the selectmen what they found 214 The report of those men Daniel Fisher Joshua Fisher Sgt Fuller Richard Ellis and Richard Wheeler was received with such enthusiasm that in March 1661 it was voted to start a new settlement there 224 The Town then voted to send Ellis and Timothy Dwight to go negotiate with King Phillip to purchase the title to the area known as Wollomonopoag 225 226 They purchased 600 acres o of land for 24 6s 226 224 The money was paid out of pocket by Captain Thomas Willett who accompanied Ellis and Dwight 224 The Town voted to assess a tax upon the cow commons to repay him but some thought the money should be paid by those who would be moving to the new village 224 The dispute resulted in Willet not being paid back for several years 224 After the boundaries of the new community were set the Town voted to give up all rights to the land in return for the proprietors paying Dedham 160 over four years beginning in 1661 224 By January 1663 however little progress had been made towards establishing a new village 224 A meeting was called and the 10 men p who volunteered to go raised several concerns about their ability to move forward 224 After much discussion it was decided not to give the 600 acres to the group of pre selected men but rather to lay out lots and then award them by lottery 227 Those who already began to improve their lots were allowed to keep them q and land for a church burial ground training ground roads and officer lots were not included 227 All were free to buy and sell their lots 227 Not much happened at Wollomonopoag until 1668 at which time a report arrived of native peoples planting corn and cutting down trees on the land that Dedham had purchased 227 Eleazer Lusher was charged with sending the illiterate Indians a letter warning them to depart from that place and trespass no further 227 Samuel Fisher then took it to them and read it aloud at which point they replied that they had every intention of remaining on the land 227 Though they had still not paid him back for the land in question the Town then asked Willett to speak with King Phillip and ask that he intervene 228 There is no record of Phillip s response to that entreaty but in August 1669 r the Town Fathers received an odd letter from him offering to negotiate for more land if they would quickly send him a holland shirt 229 Dwight and four others were appointed to negotiate with him again provided Phillip could prove he and not another sachem had the rights to the land 226 In November an agreement was reached to clear the title for 17 0s 8d 229 There is no record of whether a shirt was traded 229 Samuel Sheares lived alone at Wollomonopoag for some time before a new attempt at a settlement was undertaken in 1671 229 Five men John Thurston Thomas Thurston Robert Weare John Weare and Joseph Cheeney moved there with him followed the next year by Rev Samuel Man a one time teacher in the Dedham Public Schools 229 Robert Crossman was employed at the same time to construct a corn mill 229 Man would be selected by the residents of the new village to be their minister and their decision was ratified by a committee of John Allin John Hunting and Eleazer Lusher 230 Those who moved there were drawn from the middle class of Dedham 61 They were primarily people from outside of Dedham who had purchased land there and second generation Dedhamites who moved without their parents 61 Without the outsiders it is questionable whether the new community would have survived 222 Soon however the Wollomonopoag settlers complained that those in the village center were keeping them in a state of colonial dependency 192 They were upset about absentee landlords whose land values were going up thanks to the labor of the inhabitants and who refused to pay taxes to support the community 229 They also complained that with the seat of the town government being so far away that they were disenfranchised and best by a lack of capital 229 Constables refused to travel to Wollomonopoag to make collections assessments and social judgement 229 With the blessing of Dedham s Board of Selectmen the General Court separated the new town of Wrentham Massachusetts on October 16 1673 231 Deerfield Edit After the Praying Indians were given 8 000 acres 32 km2 in what is today Natick the General Court gave the Dedham proprietors 8 000 acres 32 km2 in compensation 212 211 19 The question of how to handle the additional grant puzzled the town for some time 232 There were those who wanted to sell the rights to the land and take the money while others wanted to find a suitable location and take possession 232 The Town sent Anthony Fisher Jr Nathaniel Fisher and Sgt Fuller to explore an area known as Chestnut Country in 1863 61 They reported back two weeks later that the area was hilly with few meadows and was generally unsuitable for their purposes 61 After a potential location was claimed by others before Dedham could do so a report was received about land at a place known as Pocomtuck about 12 or 14 miles from Hadley 232 It was decided to claim the land before others could do so 232 Joshua Fisher Ensign John Euerard and Jonathan Danforth were assigned by the selectmen to go and map the land in return for 150 acres 232 233 Two weeks later Fisher appeared before the board demanding 300 acres instead 232 The selectmen agreed provided that he provide a plot map of the land 232 Fisher s map and report were submitted to the General Court and they agreed to give the land to Dedham provided that they settle the land and maintain the ordinances of Christ there within five years 232 212 211 Fisher was the first in the region to use a compass while surveying 234 Daniel Fisher and Eleazer Lusher were sent to purchase the land from the Pocomtuc Indians who lived there 232 19 They contracted with John Pynchon who had a relationship with the native peoples there and he obtained a quitclaim deed from them 232 Pynchon submitted a bill for 40 in 1666 but a tax on the cow commons to pay it was not imposed until 1669 235 By that time the bill had risen to over 96 and he was not paid in full until 1674 236 The drawing of lots took place on May 23 1670 by which time many rights had been sold to people from outside of Dedham or one of her daughter towns 236 Before that even happen Robert Hinsdale s son Samuel moved into the area and began squatting on the land 236 He was eventually joined by his father and brothers 237 Hard feelings arose at the distance of the new settlement from Dedham and the fact that the proprietors were not strictly a Dedham company 236 On May 7 1673 the General Court separated the town of Deerfield with additional lands provided they establish a church and settle a minister within three years 236 Natural resources EditMother Brook Edit Main article Mother Brook While both the Charles River and the Neponset River ran through Dedham and close by to one another both were slow moving and could not power a mill With an elevation difference of 40 feet 12 m between the two however a canal connecting them would be swift moving In 1639 the town ordered that a 4000 foot ditch be dug between the two so that one third of the Charles water would flow down what would become known as Mother Brook and into the Neponset Abraham Shaw would begin construction of the first dam and mill on the Brook in 1641 and it would be completed by John Elderkin who later built the first church in New London Connecticut 19 A fulling mill would be established in 1682 151 238 239 Trees Edit It is estimated that each family would burn enough wood in a year to clear cut four acres of land 240 With the memory of the social unrest that happened in Boston when they cleared nearly every tree in that town within three years of its founding restrictions upon cutting trees on public and unallotted lands were strictly enforced 240 Preserving these trees became one of the first conservation projects in New England 173 The Old Avery Oak Tree named for Dr William Avery stood on East Street for several centuries The builders of the USS Constitution once offered 70 to buy the tree but the owner would not sell 241 The Avery Oak which was over 16 in circumference survived the New England Hurricane of 1938 to be toppled by a violent thunderstorm in 1973 the Town Meeting Moderator s gavel was carved out of it Swamps bogs and meadows Edit Owners of swampland were required to drain them 172 Doing so served several purposes First it deprived dangerous wild animals of a habitat 240 Secondly it made it easier to cut down the trees on the land at a time when lumber was in high demand for building projects and for burning 242 Clearing the swamp turns it into a bog and draining a bog turns it into a meadow 242 Meadowland was in high demand to raise cattle and the rich meadows along the Charles River were a major factor in choosing the location to settle in the first place 173 The General Court had awarded 300 acres to Samuel Dudley along the northeast border of town between East Street which was part of an ancient Indian trail 240 and the river 173 Four men Samuel Morse Philemon Dalton Lambert Genere and John Dwight purchased the meadowland from Dudley for 20 173 With an immediate need for more meadows the Town purchased it from them for 40 doubling their initial investment 173 The land came to be known as Purchase Meadows and was divided into herdwalks for use by the residents of the various districts 173 A road today known as Needham Street was laid out along the banks of the Charles River in 1645 but was frequently washed out or flooded 156 The road brought farmers from their homes in the village to the planting field at Great Plain in what is today Needham 243 In addition to washing out the road the waters would also frequently would flood the broad meadow further limiting needed pasture 156 25 It was discovered that the river which runs due east for many miles suddenly took a turn southeast then north and then northwest at which point it flowed close by to where it originally turned 156 Despite a run of seven or eight miles it only fell three feet accounting for much of the flooding 156 In January 1652 Town Meeting voted to dig a 4000 foot ditch connecting the Charles River at either end of its great loop 157 25 It was not completed for nearly two years but once it was it began channeling the water directly from the high side to the low side 243 Doing so also created an island today the neighborhood of Riverdale 25 Animals Edit Wild animals were an issue and the town placed a bounty on several of them Upon producing an inch and a half of a rattlesnake plus the rattle the killer was entitled to six pence 244 A ten shilling bounty was placed on wolves and was frequently paid in addition to a bounty on wildcats 240 244 In 1638 seven year old John Dwight disappeared in the woods near Wigwam Pond an area known to be particularly infested with wolves 240 s Between 1650 and 1672 more than 70 wolves were killed in Dedham 245 For a short period of time the Town employed professional hunters and a pack of dogs 240 Dogs could also be a problem though In 1651 the Town deputized Joshua Fisher to keep them from disturbing people in the meetinghouse 246 On May 27 2647 Daniel Fisher gave a parcel of land to the Town for use as an animal pound but reserved the right to cut the trees on it 247 A great black boar eight feet long walked into town in November 1677 248 Nearly every man in town was assembled around it with his musket before they could subdue it 248 Eventually it would take 13 bullets before it was killed 248 Mines and minerals Edit By 1647 residents had discovered plenty of iron and some lead in the wilderness 246 All were encouraged to seek out more and the following year John Dwight and Francis Chickering thought they had discovered a mine in present day Wrentham 246 A decade later in 1658 a committee was appointed to look into setting up an ironworks within the town 246 Neither the mine nor the ironwork would pan out however 246 Other EditCemetery Edit The first portion of the Old Village Cemetery was set apart at the first recorded meeting of the settlers of Dedham on August 18 1636 with land taken from Nicholas Phillips and Joseph Kingsbury 249 The original boundaries were roughly Village Avenue on the north St Paul s Church in the east land later added by Dr Edward Stimson in the south and the main driveway off Village Avenue in the west 250 It remained the only cemetery in Dedham for nearly 250 years until Brookdale Cemetery was established 251 Early records Edit Of towns founded during the colonial era Dedham is one of the few towns that has preserved extensive records of its earliest years 33 They have been described as very full and perfect 22 So detailed were the records that a map of the home lots of the first settlers can be drawn using only the descriptions in the book of grants 169 Many of the records come from Timothy Dwight who served as town clerk for 10 years and selectman for 25 252 In 1681 the town voted to collect all deeds and other writings and store them in a box kept by Deacon John Aldis in order to better preserve them 226 The records included four deeds from Indians at Petumtuck one from Chief Nehoiden one from Magus and one deed and one receipt from King Phillip 226 t Jonathan Fairbanks Edit Main articles Jonathan Fairbanks and Fairbanks House Dedham Massachusetts nbsp The Fairbanks House is the oldest timber frame house in North America In 1637 Jonathan Fairbanks signed the town Covenant and was allotted 12 acres 49 000 m2 of land to build his home which today is the oldest house in North America In 1640 the selectmen provided that Jonathan Fairbanks may have one cedar tree set out unto him to dispose of where he will In consideration of some special service he hath done for the towne 253 He had long stood off from the church upon some scruples about public profession of faith and the covenant yet after divers loving conferences he made such a declaration of his faith and conversion to God and profession of subjection to the ordinances of Christ in the church that he was readily and gladly received by the whole church 121 The house is still owned by the Fairbanks family and today stands at 511 East Street on the corner of Whiting Ave Jonathan Fairbanks would have a number of notable descendants including murderer Jason Fairbanks of the famous Fairbanks case as well as Presidents William H Taft 254 George H W Bush 255 George W Bush 256 and Vice President Charles W Fairbanks 257 He is also an ancestor of the father and son Governors of Vermont Erastus Fairbanks and Horace Fairbanks 258 the poet Emily Dickinson 259 and the anthropologist Margaret Mead 260 Early laws Edit In early years each resident was cautioned to keep a ladder handy in case he may need to put out a fire on his thatched roof or climb out of harm s way should there be an attack from the Indians It was also decreed that if any man should tie his horse to the ladder against the meetinghouse then he would be fined sixpence 19 The Town occasionally found it necessary to institute fines against those caught borrowing another s canoe without permission or cutting down trees on the common land 261 A one shilling fine was imposed in 1651 for taking a canoe without permission 246 First public school Edit Main article Dedham Public Schools nbsp The first taxpayer funded public school in the United States was in Dedham On January 1 1644 by unanimous vote Dedham authorized the first U S taxpayer funded public school the seed of American education 262 Its first teacher Rev Ralph Wheelock was paid 20 pounds annually to instruct the youth of the community 263 Descendants of these students would become presidents of Dartmouth College Yale University and Harvard University Another early teacher Michael Metcalf was one of the town s first residents and a signer of the Covenant 264 265 At the age of 70 he began teaching reading in the school 265 John Thurston was commission by the town to build the first schoolhouse in 1648 for which he received a partial payment of 11 0 3 on December 2 1650 The details in the contract require him to construct floorboards doors and fitting the interior with featheredged and rabbited boarding similar to that found in the Fairbanks House 20 The early residents of Dedham were so committed to education that they donated 4 6 6 to Harvard College during its first eight years of existence a sum greater than many other towns including Cambridge itself 266 By the later part of the century however a sentiment of anti intellectualism had pervaded the town 267 Residents were content to allow the minister to be the local intellectual and did not establish a grammar school as required by law 267 As a result the town was called into court in 1675 and then again in 1691 267 Colonial politics Edit When King Charles II threatened to revoke the charter of the Massachusetts Bay Colony Dedham went firmly on the record as opposing any such action 268 Town meeting requested that Governor Simon Bradstreet protect the rights and interests of the colonists 268 In a unanimous vote they also rejected a motion to completely subjugate themselves to the king and accept his decision to revoke the charter 268 Daniel Fisher and his sister Lydia helped to hide William Goffe and Edward Whalley after they sought asylum in American 200 During the 1689 Boston revolt Fisher grabbed Governor Edmund Andros by the collar and placed him under arrest both to protect him from a mob and to ensure that he stood trial 248 A group of notable clergy from around the colony including Dedham s John Allin wrote a petition to the General Court in 1671 complaining that the lawmakers were contributing to anti clerical sentiment 126 They asked for the General Court to endorse the authority of the clergy in spiritual matters which by implication included the half way covenant 126 The General Court complied but 15 members including Joshua Fisher and Daniel Fisher dissented 126 133 Notes Edit Including John Kingsbury 7 Tiot was later used to describe the village of South Dedham today the separate town of Norwood 23 Those five were John Allen Thomas Carter Timothy Dalton Samuel Morse and Ralph Wheelock 24 While there were no Quakers who lived in Dedham there were others who were arrested while traveling through town and persecuted for their religious beliefs They include Richard Dowdney and Elizabeth Hooten 39 During the early days of the settlement the Selectmen voted to ask an Irishman and his wife who were visiting friends to leave town as soon as possible presumably because they were Catholic 47 Barber has the date as August 15 1636 8 In 1636 there were 30 signers In 1637 there were 46 By 1656 79 men put their names on the document 75 The third paragraph of the Town Covenant stated that if at any time differences shall rise between parties of our said town that then such party or parties shall presently refer all such differences unto some one two or three others of our said society to be fully accorded and determined without any further delay if it possibly may be 76 56 Wight came from the same town in England as Ann Hutchinson and was a parishioner of John Cotton with her He may have chosen to move to Dedham to avoid the controversy she was stirring up in Boston 107 Luson Hinsdale and Lusher all arrived in Dedham with Allin and Frary was from the same town in England as Michael Metcalf 115 Belcher continued to preach until 1721 when illness prevented him 134 The area has since been converted into athletic fields and a commercial shopping space 194 Hanson has the date as December 9th 197 The father of Joshua Fisher the politician Dwight has the figure as six square miles 226 It is not known who all 10 were but they included Anthony Fisher Richard Ellis Robert Weare and Isaac Bullard 224 Those granted a dispensation included Richard Ellis Anthony Fisher Jr Robert Weare Isaac Bullard James Thorpe Samuel Fisher Samuel Parker Joshua Kent and John Farrington Ralph Freeman Daniel Makiak and Sgt Stearnes did not have pre selected lots of land but were among the first settlers 227 Hanson has the letter dated 25 May 1669 229 Dwight has the date of offer to be in November 226 Parr has the date as March 1639 and Dwight s age as 17 not seven 244 These deeds have since been lost 226 References Edit a b c d e f g h i A Capsule History of Dedham Dedham Historical Society 2006 Archived from the original on October 6 2006 Retrieved November 10 2006 Hanson 1976 p 13 14 a b Hanson 1976 p 14 a b Hanson 1976 p 23 24 a b Hanson 1976 p 15 Hanson 1976 p 18 Kingsbury Frederick John 1905 The Genealogy of the Descendants of Henry Kingsbury of Ipswich and Haverhill Mass Hartford Press p 82 Retrieved 13 November 2019 a b c d e f g h i Barber 1848 p 455 a b c d e f g h i Hanson 1976 p 21 Hanson 1976 p 32 a b c d e f Lockridge 1985 p 4 a b c Lockridge 1985 p 94 a b Hill Don Gleason 1892 The Early Records of the Town of Dedham Massachusetts 1636 1659 The Dedham Transcript Vol 3 Dedham Massachusetts a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint location missing publisher link Lockridge 1985 p 3 a b Smith 1936 p 4 Brown amp Tager 2000 p 37 a b c d e f Lockridge 1985 p 80 a b c Smith 1936 p 5 a b c d e f g h i j k Abbott 1903 pp 290 297 a b St George Robert Blair 1979 Style and Structure in the Joinery of Dedham and Medfield Massachusetts 1635 1685 Winterthur Portfolio 13 1 46 doi 10 1086 495859 ISSN 1545 6927 JSTOR 1180600 S2CID 225087466 Parr 2009 p 11 a b Rev Elias Nason 1890 A Gazetteer of the State of Massachusetts Cape Cod History Retrieved December 10 2006 A Brief History of Norwood Town of Norwood Massachusetts Archived from the original on December 6 2006 Retrieved November 27 2006 a b c d Smith 1936 p 11 a b c d Parr 2009 p 18 Smith 1936 p 10 Smith 1936 pp 10 11 Lockridge 1985 p xiv a b c d Lockridge 1985 p 16 Lockridge 1985 p xv Lockridge 1985 p 1 a b c Lockridge 1985 p 7 a b Mansbridge 1980 p 130 a b Lockridge 1985 pp 16 17 a b c Lockridge 1985 p 5 a b c Lockridge 1985 p 15 Lockridge 1985 pp 5 6 Hanson 1976 p 57 58 Hanson 1976 p 58 Lockridge 1985 p 11 Lockridge 1985 pp 73 74 Lockridge 1985 p 74 Lockridge 1985 p 79 a b c Lockridge 1985 p 81 a b c d e Lockridge 1985 p 82 a b Lockridge 1985 pp 84 85 Sullivan M D James S 1895 Archdiocese of Boston St Mary s Parish Dedham p 667 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a work ignored help a b c d e Lockridge 1985 p 85 a b Hanson 1976 p 53 Hanson 1976 p 86 88 a b c d Hanson 1976 p 86 Hanson 1976 p 86 87 a b c Hanson 1976 p 87 Hanson 1976 p 87 88 a b c Lockridge 1985 p 124 a b c d e f g h i Brown amp Tager 2000 p 39 a b Lockridge 1985 p 54 Lockridge 1985 p 137 Hanson 1976 p 63 64 a b Hanson 1976 p 64 a b c d e Hanson 1976 p 74 a b c Lockridge 1985 p 136 a b Lockridge 1985 p 89 Lockridge 1985 p 90 Lockridge 1985 p 91 a b Hanson 1976 p 16 a b c Hanson 1976 p 17 Hanson 1976 p 22 a b c Hanson 1976 p 23 a b c d Lockridge 1985 p 49 Lockridge 1985 pp 48 49 Lockridge 1985 p 55 a b c d e Lockridge 1985 p 46 a b c Lockridge 1985 p 8 Lockridge 1985 p 9 a b c The Dedham Covenant A Puritan s Mind 1636 Archived from the original on 2006 12 17 Retrieved 2006 11 27 a b c d e f g h i Brown amp Tager 2000 p 38 Lockridge 1985 p 23 Lockridge 1985 p 14 Lockridge 1985 p 6 a b c d e f g Lockridge 1985 p 12 a b c Lockridge 1985 p 38 Lockridge amp Kreider 1966 p 550 Lockridge 1985 pp 47 48 a b c Lockridge 1985 p 47 a b c d e f Lockridge amp Kreider 1966 p 551 Mansbridge 1980 p 131 a b c d Lockridge 1985 p 48 Lockridge 1985 p 47 48 Lockridge 1985 p 128 a b c d Lockridge 1985 p 120 a b c Hanson 1976 p 42 a b c d e Edward M Cook Jr 1970 Social Behavior and Changing Values in Dedham Massachusetts 1700 to 1775 The William and Mary Quarterly 27 4 546 580 doi 10 2307 1919704 JSTOR 1919704 a b Lockridge 1985 p 44 a b c Lockridge 1985 p 40 Lockridge 1985 p 41 Lockridge 1985 p 42 Lockridge 1985 p 43 a b c d Lockridge 1985 p 32 Lockridge 1985 p 125 a b c Lockridge amp Kreider 1966 p 552 Lockridge 1985 p 119 Lockridge 1985 p 126 Lockridge 1985 pp 120 121 a b Lockridge 1985 p 45 Worthington 1827 pp 79 a b Hanson 1976 p 33 Hanson 1976 p 32 35 a b c Hanson 1976 p 35 a b Lockridge 1985 p 24 a b c Lockridge 1985 p 25 Hanson 1976 p 38 39 a b Lockridge 1985 p 26 Lockridge 1985 pp 25 26 a b Hanson 1976 p 40 a b c Lockridge 1985 p 28 a b Lockridge 1985 p 29 Lockridge 1985 pp 26 27 a b Lockridge 1985 p 27 Hanson 1976 p 39 a b Lockridge 1985 p 31 Lockridge 1985 pp 31 32 a b c Lockridge 1985 p 34 Lockridge 1985 p 33 a b Hanson 1976 p 65 66 a b c d Hanson 1976 p 66 Lockridge 1985 pp 85 87 a b c Hanson 1976 p 88 89 Worthington 1827 p 101 a b c d e f g h i j Hanson 1976 p 41 Worthington 1827 p 104 a b c d Worthington 1827 p 105 a b c d Lockridge 1985 p 35 a b c d Bartlett J Gardner 1906 The Belcher families in New England Retrieved July 11 2019 a b Lockridge 1985 p 86 Tuttle Julius H 1915 A pioneer in the public service of the church and of the college Publications of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts The Colonial Society of Massachusetts 17 211 Retrieved 18 August 2019 Smith 1936 p 64 Hanson 1976 p 40 41 a b Lockridge 1985 p 30 Friedman Benjamin M 2005 The Moral Consequences of Economic Growth New York Alfred A Knopf p 45 Lockridge 1985 p 87 a b c d Hanson 1976 p 84 Hanson 1976 p 84 85 a b Smith 1936 pp 70 71 a b c Caulkins Frances Manwaring 1849 Memoir of the Rev William Adams of Dedham Mass and of the Rev Eliphalet Adams of New London Conn Cambridge Massachusetts Metcalf and Company p 22 a b Hanson 1976 p 85 a b c Hanson 1976 p 101 Hanson 1976 p 66 67 a b Hanson 1976 p 101 102 Lockridge 1985 pp 35 36 a b Hanson 1976 p 102 a b Hanson 1976 p 37 Hanson 1976 p 37 38 Hanson 1976 p 38 a b c Hanson 1976 p 44 a b c d e f Hanson 1976 p 51 a b c Hanson 1976 p 50 Hanson 1976 p 64 65 a b Hanson 1976 p 31 a b c Lockridge 1985 p 65 Hanson 1976 p 43 a b c Hanson 1976 p 4 Smith 1936 p 6 Lockridge 1985 pp 65 66 Lockridge 1985 p 66 Lockridge 1985 pp 66 67 Lockridge 1985 pp 67 68 a b c d e f g Smith 1936 p 13 a b c d e f g h Smith 1936 p 12 a b Lockridge 1985 p 10 Questions We Are Often Asked Dedham Historical Society News Letter May 3 4 2015 a b Hanson 1976 p 24 25 a b c d e f g Hanson 1976 p 26 Lockridge 1985 p 63 a b c Lockridge 1985 p 64 Lockridge 1985 p 139 Lockridge 1985 pp 139 140 Lockridge 1985 p 143 Hanson 1976 p 36 a b Hanson 1976 p 56 Lockridge 1985 pp 9 10 a b Lockridge 1985 pp 72 73 Lockridge 1985 p 151 a b c Lockridge 1985 p 69 Lockridge 1985 p 70 a b c d Lockridge 1985 pp 69 70 a b c d Levy 1997 p 290 Levy 1997 p 290 291 a b c d e f g h Levy 1997 p 289 a b Lockridge 1985 p 72 a b c d Hanson 1976 p 24 a b c d e Lockridge 1985 p 95 Hanson 1976 p 102 103 a b c d Coughlin Gail Dedham s Indigenous Histories PDF Dedham Museum and Archive Retrieved June 29 2023 Lockridge 1985 p 68 Hanson 1976 p 91 92 a b c d Hanson 1976 p 92 Lockridge 1985 p 59 a b c Hanson 1976 p 97 a b c d Hanson 1976 p 89 a b Bedini Silvio A 2003 The History Corner Joshua Fisher 1621 1672 Colonial Inn keeper and Surveyor Part 1 Professional Surveyor Magazine September Retrieved April 17 2021 a b c Hanson 1976 p 90 a b c d e Hanson 1976 p 91 Philbrick Nathaniel 2006 Mayflower A Story of Courage Community and War Viking p 266 ISBN 978 0 670 03760 5 Retrieved July 9 2019 Hanson 1976 p 92 93 a b Hanson 1976 p 93 Hanson 1976 p 94 Hanson 1976 p 95 a b c d e Hanson 1976 p 96 a b c d e f Lockridge 1985 p 83 a b c d e f g h Hanson 1976 p 63 a b c d Lockridge 1985 p 84 Lockridge 1985 p 83 84 a b Hanson 1976 p 70 a b Hanson 1976 p 67 68 Lockridge 1985 p 147 Massachusetts City and Town Incorporation and Settlement Dates William Francis Galvin Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Retrieved July 13 2019 Hanson 1976 p 74 76 a b c d e f g h Hanson 1976 p 68 Hanson 1976 p 68 69 a b Hanson 1976 p 69 70 a b c Hanson 1976 p 78 Hanson 1976 p 69 a b c d e f g h i Hanson 1976 p 71 Hanson 1976 p 70 71 a b c d e f g h Dwight 1874 p 103 a b c d e f g Hanson 1976 p 72 Hanson 1976 p 72 73 a b c d e f g h i j Hanson 1976 p 73 Blake 1879 p 16 Hanson 1976 p 73 74 a b c d e f g h i j Hanson 1976 p 75 Fisher 1898 p 12 Fisher 1898 p 13 Hanson 1976 p 75 76 a b c d e Hanson 1976 p 76 Hanson 1976 p 77 Worthington 1900 p 4 Sconyers Jake Stewart Nikki December 18 2017 Episode 59 Corn Cotton and Condos 378 Years on the Mother Brook Hub History Podcast Retrieved December 26 2017 a b c d e f g Hanson 1976 p 25 Guide Book To New England Travel 1919 a b Hanson 1976 p 25 26 a b Hanson 1976 p 50 51 a b c Parr 2009 p 12 Hanson 1976 p 51 52 a b c d e f Hanson 1976 p 52 Dedham Historical Society amp Museum trivia answer The Dedham Times Vol 29 no 45 November 12 2021 p 8 a b c d Hanson 1976 p 100 Smith 1936 p 144 Smith 1936 p 145 Smith 1936 p 146 Dwight 1874 p 102 Miles D H Worthington M J Grady A A 2002 Development of Standard Tree Ring Chronologies for Dating Historic Structures in Eastern Massachusetts Phase II Boston Dendrochronology Project Oxford Dendrochronology Laboratory Archived from the original on January 3 2005 Retrieved November 27 2006 Lineage as follows Jonathan permanent dead link b 1595 to his son George b 1619 to his daughter Mary who married Joseph Daniels and together they had a son Eleazer b 1681 It continues through his son David Archived March 22 2007 at the Wayback Machine to his daughter Cloe who married Seth Davenport and together had a child Anna Anna married William Torrey whose son Samuel had a daughter Louisa Louisa married Alphonso Taft and together they had President William Howard Taft Lineage as follows Jonathan permanent dead link b 1595 to his son Jonathan permanent dead link b 1628 to his son Jeremiah b 1674 to his daughter Mary who married Richard Bush and together had Timothy Bush b 1728 The lineage continues with Timothy s son Timothy Bush Jr b 1761 to his son Obadiah Newcomb Bush b 1791 to his son James Smith Bush b 1825 to his son Samuel P Bush b 1863 to his son Senator Prescott Bush who was George Bush s father Lineage as follows Jonathan permanent dead link b 1595 to his son Jonathan permanent dead link b 1628 to his son Jeremiah b 1674 to his daughter Mary who married Richard Bush and together had Timothy Bush b 1728 The lineage continues with Timothy s son Timothy Bush Jr b 1761 to his son Obadiah Newcomb Bush b 1791 to his son James Smith Bush b 1825 to his son Samuel P Bush b 1863 to his son Senator Prescott Bush to his son President George H W Bush who was George W Bush s father Lineage as follows Jonathan permanent dead link to his son Jonas permanent dead link to his son Jabez to his son Joshua to his son Luther to his son Luther to his son Loriston Monroe who was the father of Vice President Charles Warren Fairbanks Lineage as follows Jonathan permanent dead link to his son John to his son Joseph to his son Joseph to his son Ebenezer to his son Joseph to his son Governor Erastus Fairbanks to his son Governor Horace Fairbanks Lineage as follows Jonathan permanent dead link to his son George to his son Eliesur to his son Eliesur to his son Eleazer to his daughter Sarah who married Jude Fay to their daughter Betsey who married Joel Norcross to their daughter Emily who married Edward Dickinson and their child was Emily Dickinson Lineage as follows Jonathan permanent dead link to his son George to his son Eliesur to his daughter Martha who married Ebenezer Leland and together they had a child Caleb whose daughter Hannah married John Ware Their son Orlando had a daughter Emily who married James Pecker Fogg who had a son James Leland Fogg He married Elizabeth Bogart Lockwood and they had a daughter Emily Fogg who married Edward Sherwood Mead Together their child was Margaret Mead Mansbridge 1980 p 134 Maria Sacchetti November 27 2005 Schools vie for honor of being the oldest The Boston Globe Retrieved November 26 2006 Hanson 1976 p 46 Lockridge 1985 p 57 a b Jennifer Monaghan Literacy instruction and the town school in seventeenth century New England University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign Archived from the original on September 11 2006 Retrieved December 10 2006 Hanson 1976 p 45 46 a b c Hanson 1976 p 103 a b c Hanson 1976 p 99 Works cited EditAbbott Katharine M 1903 Old Paths And Legends Of New England PDF New York The Knickerbocker Press pp 290 297 Retrieved October 6 2018 Barber John Warner 1848 Historical Collections Being a General Collection of Interesting Facts Traditions Biographical Sketches Anecdotes amp c Relating to the History and Antiquities of Every Town in Massachusetts with Geographical Descriptions Lazell pp 455 463 Retrieved October 1 2018 Blake Mortimer 1879 A History of the Town of Franklin Mass From Its Settlement to the Completion of Its First Century 2d March 1878 with Genealogical Notices of Its Earliest Families Sketches of Its Professional Men and a Report of the Centennial Celebration Higginson Book Company Retrieved April 25 2021 Brown Richard D Tager Jack 2000 Massachusetts A concise history University of Massachusetts Press ISBN 978 1558492493 Carter Jane Greenough Avery Holmes Susie Perry 1893 Genealogical Record of the Dedham Branch of the Avery Family in America Press of Avery amp Doten pp 19 34 Retrieved 8 November 2019 Dwight Benjamin Woodbridge 1874 The History of the Descendants of John Dwight of Dedham Mass J F Trow amp son printers and bookbinders Retrieved September 9 2019 Fisher Phillip A 1898 The Fisher Genealogy A Record of the Descendants of Joshua Anthony and Cornelius Fisher of Dedham Mass 1630 1640 Massachusetts Publishing Company ISBN 978 0 608 32125 7 Retrieved April 18 2021 Goodwin Nathaniel 1982 Genealogical Notes Or Contributions to the Family History of Some of the First Settlers of Connecticut and Massachusetts Genealogical Publishing Com ISBN 978 0 8063 0159 4 Retrieved 31 August 2019 Hanson Robert Brand 1976 Dedham Massachusetts 1635 1890 Dedham Historical Society Jordan John Woolf 2004 Colonial And Revolutionary Families Of Pennsylvania Genealogical Publishing Com ISBN 978 0 8063 5239 8 Retrieved 18 November 2019 Levy Barry 1997 Girls and Boys Poor Children and the Labor Market in Colonial Massachusetts Pennsylvania History A Journal of Mid Atlantic Studies 64 287 307 JSTOR 27774064 Lockridge Kenneth 1985 A New England Town New York W W Norton amp Company ISBN 978 0 393 95459 3 Lockridge Kenneth A Kreider Alan 1966 The Evolution of Massachusetts Town Government 1640 to 1740 The William and Mary Quarterly 23 4 549 574 doi 10 2307 1919125 JSTOR 1919125 Mansbridge Jane J 1980 Beyond Adversary Democracy New York Basic Books Parr James L 2009 Dedham Historic and Heroic Tales From Shiretown The History Press ISBN 978 1 59629 750 0 Smith Frank 1936 A History of Dedham Massachusetts Transcript Press Incorporated Retrieved 21 July 2019 Whittemore Henry 1967 Genealogical Guide to the Early Settlers of America With a Brief History of Those of the First Generation and References to the Various Local Histories and Other Sources of Information where Additional Data May be Found Genealogical Publishing Com ISBN 978 0 8063 0378 9 Retrieved 17 November 2019 Worthington Erastus 1827 The history of Dedham from the beginning of its settlement in September 1635 to May 1827 Dutton and Wentworth Retrieved November 8 2019 Worthington Erastus 1900 Historical sketch of Mother Brook Dedham Mass compiled from various records and papers showing the diversion of a portion of the Charles River into the Neponset River and the manufactures on the stream from 1639 to 1900 Dedham MA C G Wheeler Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title History of Dedham Massachusetts 1635 1699 amp oldid 1172393647, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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