Английская Википедия:History of Dedham, Massachusetts, 1635–1699

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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

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. 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.Шаблон:Sfn On May 6, 1635, the General Court granted permission to residents of Watertown to set off and establish new towns.Шаблон:Sfn One group, led by Rev. Thomas Hooker, left and founded Hartford, Connecticut and another, led by Simon Willard, left to found Concord, Massachusetts.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn

It was not until the following March, however, that the General Court ordered that the bounds of what would become Dedham be mapped out.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn The original grant was for about Шаблон:Convert 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.Шаблон:Sfn The order came after twelve menШаблон:Efn petitioned the General Court for a tract of land south of the Charles River.Шаблон:Sfn

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

Neither the settlers nor the General Court knew exactly how much land they were requesting, or granting.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn It had never been explored by colonial settlers beyond that point.Шаблон:Sfn 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."Шаблон:SfnШаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn

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."Шаблон:Sfn The General Court granted only a three-year reprieve from taxes.Шаблон:Sfn

They also asked to "distinguish our town by the name of Contentment" 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."Шаблон:SfnШаблон:SfnШаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn The earliest records of the settlement, before the General Court settled on Dedham, all use the name Contentment.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn "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.

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.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn To the west were ungranted lands.Шаблон:Sfn The less than 100 Indians who lived on the land sold it for a small sum.Шаблон:Sfn Early settlers gave places names such as Dismal Swamp, Purgatory Brook, Satan's Kingdom, and Devil's Oven.Шаблон:Sfn

Landing and first settlement

The Algonquians living in the area called the place Tiot, which means "land surrounded by water."Шаблон:Efn

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.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Efn As Puritans, they came to Massachusetts in order to live and worship as they pleased.Шаблон:Sfn

They traveled up the Charles River from Roxbury and Watertown in rough canoes carved from felled trees.Шаблон:Sfn 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."Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Nbsp... 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."Шаблон:Sfn

They first landed where the river makes its "great bend,"Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn

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

Utopian commune

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.Шаблон:Sfn A number of the customs and institutions in the town were direct transplants from contemporary English villages.Шаблон:Sfn However, as a settlement of English Puritans who escaped oppression to settle in the wilderness, "Dedham was peculiarly American."Шаблон:Sfn

It was originally intended to be a Utopian society along the lines of the later Amana Colonies, Oneida Community, and Brook Farm.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn In "its first years, the town was more than a place to live; it was a spiritual community."Шаблон:Sfn 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 perfect 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.Шаблон:Sfn

Each of the original settlers pledged to live out Christian love in their daily lives.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn

None who were not committed to this ideal were to be admitted as townsmen and, if the need arose, they were to be expelled.Шаблон:Sfn 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."Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Efn The Covenant was intended to extend beyond the lifetimes if those who wrote it and to be binding upon all residents in perpetuity.Шаблон:Sfn

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

This did not mean communism as the settlers subscribed to the Puritan belief of a natural inequality among men as being divine providence.Шаблон:Sfn Still, the relative economic equality kept social rank to a minimum and helped maintain social harmony.Шаблон:Sfn Men could live their entire lives in this community among their equals and on their own land.Шаблон:Sfn 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."Шаблон:Sfn

Decline

The Utopian impulse did not last, however, and "the policies of perfection" no longer dominated just 50 years after the establishment of the community.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn

By about 1660, not every newcomer to town was invited to sign the Covenant making them "by implication second class citizens."Шаблон:Sfn Laws that restricted the presence of strangers were rarely enforced after 1675.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Efn 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.Шаблон:Sfn

Also around this time evidence of the "loving spirit" proclaimed in the Covenant "came to be conspicuous by [its] absence."Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn Records of open dissent began appearing, first about seating placements in the meetinghouse.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn In 1674, people began sitting in places other than those assigned for them.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn

Some refused to meet with the committee and others were not happy with the decisions they made.Шаблон:Sfn With discontent lingering, Ruling Elder John Hunting was asked to speak to those involved.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn After Nathanial Bullard informed on a number of his fellow townsmen, he apparently appeared so obnoxious and greedy that the fine was repealed.Шаблон:Sfn

The number of yea and nay votes also began being recordedШаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn where previously decisions were made by consensus.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn

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.Шаблон:Sfn In 1661, Richard Ellis refused to serve as Town Clerk, an action that would have been unthinkable just a decade before.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn

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

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.Шаблон:Sfn After 1691, as the county grew more powerful, the town began more closely following the law lest they get fined.Шаблон:Sfn

Government

The colonial settlers met for the first time on August 18, 1636 in Watertown.Шаблон:Sfn By September 5, 1636, their number grew from 18 at the first meeting to 25 proprietors willing to set out for the new community.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn

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

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

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

Covenant

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

The covenant outlined both the social ideal they hoped to achieve and the policies and procedures they would use to reach it.Шаблон:Sfn 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." 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,Шаблон:Sfn but it was not a theocracy.Шаблон:Sfn Before a man could join the community he underwent a public inquisition to determine his suitability.Шаблон:Sfn

While great effort was taken to ensure disagreements were resolved before they grew into disputes,Шаблон:Sfn the covenant also stipulated that differences would be submitted to between one and four other members of the town for resolution.Шаблон:Sfn This arbitration system was so successful there was no need for courts.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Efn

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

Town Meeting

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."Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn The early meetings were informal, with all men in town likely participating.Шаблон:Sfn Attendance at Meetings was considered vital for the life of the community. The meeting operated on a basis of consensus.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn Even when it did not fully exercise them, "the power of the town meeting knew no limit."Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn

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."Шаблон:Sfn

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

Selectmen

The whole town would gather regularly to conduct public affairs, but it was "found by long experience that the general meeting of so many menШаблон:Nbsp... has wasted much time to no small damage and business is thereby nothing furthered."Шаблон:SfnШаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn 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."Шаблон:SfnШаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn 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." 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.Шаблон:Sfn

Soon the selectmen "enjoyed almost complete control over every aspect of local administration."Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn The selectmen wrote most of the laws in the town and they levied taxes on their fellow townsmen.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn They could also approve expenditures.Шаблон:Sfn They also served as a court, determining who had broken by-laws and issuing fines.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn As the selectmen became more active, the Town Meeting became essentially passive.Шаблон:Sfn

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

Relationship between Town Meeting and Selectmen

MetricШаблон:Sfn	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.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn In fact, the Meeting would often refer issues to the Selectmen to act uponШаблон:Sfn or to "prepare and ripen the answer" to a difficult question.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn

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.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn Over the course of 30–40 years, small innovations brought the initiative back to the meeting and away from the board.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn

One of the most prominent ways they did so was by calling for more meetings.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn

Other

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."Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn

The first Town Clerk was elected on May 17, 1639.Шаблон:Sfn

Forming a 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.Шаблон:Sfn Led by John Allin, they included Michael Metcalf, Thomas Wight,Шаблон:Efn Robert Hinsdale, Eleazer Lusher, Timothy Dalton, and Allin's brother-in-law, Thomas Fisher.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn

Establishment

Шаблон:Main While it was of the utmost importance, "founding a church was more difficult than founding a town."Шаблон:Sfn Meetings were held late in 1637 and were open to "all the inhabitants who affected church communionШаблон:Nbsp... 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."Шаблон:Sfn 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.'"Шаблон:SfnШаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn

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?"Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn

It took months of discussions before a church covenant could be agreed upon and drafted.Шаблон:Sfn The group established thirteen principles, written in a question and answer format, that established the doctrine of the church.Шаблон:Sfn Once the doctrinal base was agreed upon, 10 men were selected by John Allin, assisted by Ralph Wheelock, to seek out the "pillars"Шаблон:Sfn or "living stones"Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Efn The men found worthy submitted themselves to a conference of the entire community.Шаблон:Sfn

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.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn 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."Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn

Membership

Шаблон:Main Only "visible saints" were pure enough to become members.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn A public confession of faith was required, as was a life of holiness.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn It was not good enough just to have been baptized, because then "papists, heretics, and many visible atheists that are baptized must be received."Шаблон:Sfn A group of the most pious men interviewed all who sought admission to the church.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn

Once the church was established, residents, whether or not they were members,Шаблон:Sfn would gather several times a week to hear sermons and lectures in practical piety.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn Non-members were not discriminated against as seen by several men being elected Selectmen before they were accepted as members of the church.Шаблон:Sfn

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

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.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn Allin endorsed the measure but the congregation rejected it, striving for a pure church of saints.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn

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.Шаблон:Sfn In the 1670s, as the Utopian spirit of the community waned, it became necessary to impose a tax to ensure the minister was paid.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn

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

Minister	Years of service
John Allin	1638Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn–1639Шаблон:Sfn
John Phillips	1639Шаблон:Sfn-1641Шаблон:Sfn
John Allin	1641Шаблон:Sfn–1671Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn
Vacant	1671–1673
William Adams	1673Шаблон:Sfn–1685Шаблон:Sfn
VacantШаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn	1685–1693
Joseph Belcher	1693Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn–1723Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Efn

John Allin and John Phillips

John Phillips, though he was "respected and learned," was "unable to join the church as its first minister."Шаблон:Sfn He twice refused calls to settle in Dedham and instead went to the Cambridge church where Harvard College had recently been established.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn John Hunting was selected as Ruling Elder over Ralph Wheelock, who also wanted the position.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn They were ordained on April 24, 1639.Шаблон:Sfn

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

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

William Adams

After Allin's death the pulpit went without a settled minister for a long stretch.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn By December he had already been approached several times to preach in Dedham.Шаблон:Sfn

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

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.Шаблон:Sfn Eventually the church would recant and accept the Half-Way Covenant Шаблон:Sfn

Joseph Belcher

After Adams died, the church was without a minister from 1685 to 1692.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn Following his death, the congregation again rejected the Half-Way Covenant.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn

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.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn A new minister, Joseph Belcher, began preaching in March 1692 and was installed on November 29, 1693.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn He remained in the pulpit until the autumn of 1721 until illness prevented him from preaching.

Meetinghouses

Almost immediately after arriving, the group began holding prayer meetings and worship services under various trees around town.Шаблон:Sfn On January 1, 1638, the Town voted to construct a meetinghouse.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn It is unclear when the building was finished, but presumably was not complete before November 1638.Шаблон:Sfn An addition was ordered to be built in 1646,Шаблон:Sfn but the plastering was not completed until 1657.Шаблон:Sfn

A vote to purchase a bell was made in 1648,Шаблон:Sfn but a bell was not hung until February 1652.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn

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

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.Шаблон:Sfn The vote was nearly unanimous in favor.Шаблон:Sfn The new meetinghouse was erected on June 16, 1673.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn

First public school

Файл:First school.jpg

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." Its first teacher, Rev. Ralph Wheelock, was paid 20 pounds annually to instruct the youth of the community.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn At the age of 70 he began teaching reading in the school.

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.

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.Шаблон:Sfn By the later part of the century, however, a sentiment of anti-intellectualism had pervaded the town.Шаблон:Sfn Residents were content to allow the minister to be the local intellectual and did not establish a grammar school as required by law.Шаблон:Sfn As a result, the town was called into court in 1675 and then again in 1691.Шаблон:Sfn

Population

Year	Population
1637	31 men, plus their familiesШаблон:Sfn
1640	>200
1648	~400Шаблон:Sfn
1651	~100 familiesШаблон:Sfn
Late 1650s	150+ men, plus othersШаблон:Sfn
1686	>600Шаблон:Sfn
1700	700–<750Шаблон:Sfn

On June 3, 1637, Ruth Morse was the first child born to white parents, John and Annis, in Dedham.Шаблон:Sfn

The average population during the 1600s was about 500 people making slightly larger than the average English village during the same time period.Шаблон:Sfn With people moving either in or out of town, nearly all growth came from births and all declines through deaths.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn Younger marriages resulted in more births.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn

By the 1650s, a variety of types of men were living in Dedham, including bachelors, family men, the well-to-do, and servants.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn

Lifestyles of early settlers

Land distribution

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

The land was given sparingly, with no family given land than they could currently improve.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn Married men received 12 acres, four of which were swamp, while single men received eight, with three acres being swampland.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:SfnШаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn Lands were also awarded in return for service to the church and the community,Шаблон:SfnШаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn a practice that had long been established by the General Court.Шаблон:Sfn

Land was distributed according to several criteria.Шаблон:Sfn The first was the number of persons in the household.Шаблон:Sfn Servants were considered a part of a freeman's estate.Шаблон:Sfn Land was also given according to the "rank, quality, desert and usefulness, either in church of commonwealth" of the proprietor.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn

Insularity

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

From its earliest days, Dedham was closed off to all unless the current residents explicitly welcomed someone in.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn On August 11, 1637, a total of 46 house lots had been laid out and it was voted to stop admitting new residents.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:SfnШаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn

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.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn On January 23, 1657, the growth of the town was further limited to descendants of those living there at the time.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn Newcomers could settle there, so long as they were like-minded, but they would have to buy their way into the community.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn Land was no longer freely available for those who wished to join.Шаблон:Sfn

Wealth

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.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn In the early days anyone who might be considered poor was likely to be a sick widow, an orphan, or "an improvident half-wit."Шаблон:Sfn In 1690, the poorest 20% of the population owned about 10% of the property.Шаблон:Sfn

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

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

Labor

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.Шаблон:Sfn Each year, one day was set aside to assign young adult to other households as subordinates.Шаблон:Sfn 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."Шаблон:Sfn Selectmen also had the authority to take children out of homes and put them to work in other households.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn

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

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

Relationship with native peoples

In April 1637, the Town voted to begin keeping watch to prevent Indian attacks.Шаблон:Sfn By May, however, they were lamenting the time and resources they were spending on patrols.Шаблон:Sfn A delegation was sent to Watertown to ask Thomas Cakebread to move`to Dedham "upon good consideration of his knowledge of martial affairs."Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn

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.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn

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.Шаблон:Sfn

Sarah David, the wife of Alexander Quapish, was known as the "last Indian" in Dedham.Шаблон:R When Sarah died in 1774, she was buried at the ancient Indian burial ground near Wigwam Pond.Шаблон:R She was said to be the last person buried there.Шаблон:RШаблон:Efn

King Phillip's War

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

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.Шаблон:Sfn The next morning he was found dead, having been shot.Шаблон:Sfn A group of praying Indians found him and suspicion fell on a group on non-Christian Nipmucs who were also heading south to Providence.Шаблон:Sfn This was the "first actual outrage of King Phillip's War." One of the Nipmucs, a son of Matoonas, was found guilty and hanged on Boston Common.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn Dedham then readied its cannon, which had been issued by the colony in 1650, in preparation for an attack that never came.Шаблон:Sfn

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.Шаблон:Sfn Captain Daniel Henchmen took command of the men and left Boston on June 26, 1675.Шаблон:Sfn They arrived in Dedham by nightfall and the troops became worried by an eclipse of the moon, which they took as a bad omen.Шаблон:Sfn Some claimed to see native scalplocks and bows in the moon.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn

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.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Efn When the commanders arrived, they also found "a vast assortment of teamsters, volunteers, servants, service personnel, and hangers-on."Шаблон:Sfn Dedham's John Bacon died in the battle.Шаблон:Sfn

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

Pumham, one of Phillip's chief advisors, was captured in Dedham on July 25, 1676.Шаблон:Sfn Several Christian Indians had seen his band in the woods, nearly starved to death.Шаблон:Sfn Captain Samuel Hunting led 36 men from Dedham and Medfield and joined 90 Indians on a hunt to find them.Шаблон:Sfn A total of 15 of the enemy were killed and 35 were captured.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn

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

Praying Indians

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.Шаблон:Sfn He converted so many that the group needed a large portion of land on which they could grow their own crops.Шаблон:Sfn John Allin assisted Elliot in his work, and it is probably through his influence that Dedham agreed to give up Шаблон:Convert of what is today Natick to the "praying Indians in 1650."Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn

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.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn Disputes began arising in 1653, and compromise, arbitration, and negotiation were all attempted.Шаблон:Sfn

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.Шаблон:Sfn The case centered around the Indians' use of a tract of land along the Charles River.Шаблон:Sfn The native people claimed they had an agreement to use the land for farming with the Town Fathers, but Dedham officials objected.Шаблон:Sfn While the law was on the side of the town,Шаблон:Sfn Elliot made a moral argument that the group had a need for land of their own.Шаблон:Sfn

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 Шаблон:Convert in what is today Deerfield, Massachusetts to the Dedham settlers.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn

Parishes, precincts, and new towns

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.Шаблон:Sfn In the 1670s, with each new dividend of land, farmers began taking shares close to their existing plots.Шаблон:Sfn This, along with special "convenience grants" close by their existing fields, allowed townsmen to consolidate their holdings.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn

When this began happening, residents first started moving their barns closer to their fields and then their homes as well.Шаблон:Sfn By 1686, homes coalesced in several outlying areas, pulling their owners away from the day-to-day life of the village center.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn 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 Шаблон:Convert of the meetinghouse. After Walpole left, Dedham had just 25% of its original land area.Шаблон:Sfn Dedham residents also became, in substantial numbers, early settlers of Lancaster, Hadley, and Sherborn, Massachusetts.Шаблон:Sfn

Community	Year incorporated as a town	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.Шаблон:Sfn

Medfield

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.Шаблон:Sfn Edward Alleyn, for example, had been granted 300 acres in 1642.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn

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.Шаблон:Sfn The land that Dedham contributed to the new village became Medfield, and the land the colony contributed eventually broke away to become Medway.Шаблон:Sfn

The separations were not without difficulty, however.Шаблон:Sfn When Medfield left there were disagreements about the responsibility for public debts and about land use.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn It was later reduced to £60, if paid over three years, or £50 if paid in one year.Шаблон:Sfn

Tax records show that those who chose to move to the new village came from the middle class of Dedham residents.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn By 1664, several of their sons would join them, as would Joshua FisherШаблон:Efn and his son John, and several other Dedhamites.Шаблон:Sfn Those who moved there often moved with family members, and many would move on from their to other inland communities.Шаблон:Sfn It is also possible that those who left Dedham for Medfield were those most disaffected by the political or social climate within the town.Шаблон:Sfn

Town Meeting voted to release Medfield on January 11, 1651 and the General Court agreed the following May.Шаблон:Sfn

Wretham

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.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn

They purchased 600 acresШаблон:Efn of land for £24, 6s.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn The money was paid out of pocket by Captain Thomas Willett, who accompanied Ellis and Dwight.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn The dispute resulted in Willet not being paid back for several years.Шаблон:Sfn

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.Шаблон:Sfn By January 1663, however, little progress had been made towards establishing a new village.Шаблон:Sfn A meeting was called, and the 10 menШаблон:Efn who volunteered to go raised several concerns about their ability to move forward.Шаблон:Sfn

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.Шаблон:Sfn Those who already began to improve their lots were allowed to keep them,Шаблон:Efn and land for a church, burial ground, training ground, roads, and officer lots were not included.Шаблон:Sfn All were free to buy and sell their lots.Шаблон:Sfn

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.Шаблон:Sfn Eleazer Lusher was charged with sending the illiterate Indians a letter warning them to "depart from that place and trespass no further."Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn

There is no record of Phillip's response to that entreaty but, in August 1669,Шаблон:Efn the Town Fathers received an odd letter from him offering to negotiate for more land if they would quickly send him a "holland shirt."Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn In November, an agreement was reached to clear the title for £17 0s 8d.Шаблон:Sfn There is no record of whether a shirt was traded.Шаблон:Sfn

Samuel Sheares lived alone at Wollomonopoag for some time before a new attempt at a settlement was undertaken in 1671.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn Robert Crossman was employed at the same time to construct a corn mill.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn

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

Soon, however, the Wollomonopoag settlers complained that those in the village center were keeping them in a state of colonial dependency.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn Constables refused to travel to Wollomonopoag to make collections, assessments, and social judgement.Шаблон:Sfn

With the blessing of Dedham's Board of Selectmen, the General Court separated the new town of Wrentham, Massachusetts on October 16, 1673.Шаблон:Sfn

Deerfield

After the "Praying Indians" were given Шаблон:Convert in what is today Natick, the General Court gave the Dedham proprietors Шаблон:Convert in compensation.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn The question of how to handle the additional grant puzzled the town for some time.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn

The Town sent Anthony Fisher Jr., Nathaniel Fisher, and Sgt. Fuller to explore an area known as "Chestnut Country" in 1863.Шаблон:Sfn They reported back two weeks later that the area was hilly, with few meadows, and was generally unsuitable for their purposes.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn It was decided to claim the land before others could do so.Шаблон:Sfn

Joshua Fisher, Ensign John Euerard, and Jonathan Danforth were assigned by the selectmen to go and map the land in return for 150 acres.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn Two weeks later Fisher appeared before the board, demanding 300 acres instead.Шаблон:Sfn The selectmen agreed, provided that he provide a plot map of the land.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn Fisher was the first in the region to use a compass while surveying.Шаблон:Sfn

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

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.Шаблон:Sfn Before that even happen, Robert Hinsdale's son Samuel moved into the area and began squatting on the land.Шаблон:Sfn He was eventually joined by his father and brothers.Шаблон:Sfn

Hard feelings arose at the distance of the new settlement from Dedham and the fact that the proprietors were not strictly "a Dedham company."Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn

Natural resources

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 Шаблон:Convert 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.Шаблон:Sfn A fulling mill would be established in 1682.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn

Trees

It is estimated that each family would burn enough wood in a year to clear cut four acres of land.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn Preserving these trees became "one of the first conservation projects in New England.Шаблон:Sfn

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. 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

Owners of swampland were required to drain them.Шаблон:Sfn Doing so served several purposes. First, it deprived dangerous wild animals of a habitat.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn Clearing the swamp turns it into a bog, and draining a bog turns it into a meadow.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn

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 trailШаблон:Sfn) and the river.Шаблон:Sfn Four men, Samuel Morse, Philemon Dalton, Lambert Genere, and John Dwight, purchased the meadowland from Dudley for £20.Шаблон:Sfn With an immediate need for more meadows, the Town purchased it from them for £40, doubling their initial investment.Шаблон:Sfn The land came to be known as Purchase Meadows and was divided into herdwalks for use by the residents of the various districts.Шаблон:Sfn

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.Шаблон:Sfn The road brought farmers from their homes in the village to the planting field at Great Plain, in what is today Needham.Шаблон:Sfn In addition to washing out the road, the waters would also frequently would flood the "broad meadow," further limiting needed pasture.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn

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.Шаблон:Sfn Despite a run of seven or eight miles, it only fell three feet, accounting for much of the flooding.Шаблон:Sfn In January 1652, Town Meeting voted to dig a 4000-foot ditch connecting the Charles River at either end of its great loop.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn Doing so also created an island, today the neighborhood of Riverdale.Шаблон:Sfn

Animals

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.Шаблон:Sfn A ten shilling bounty was placed on wolves, and was frequently paid, in addition to a bounty on wildcats.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn In 1638, seven-year-old John Dwight disappeared in the woods near Wigwam Pond, an area known to be particularly infested with wolves.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Efn Between 1650 and 1672, more than 70 wolves were killed in Dedham.Шаблон:Sfn

For a short period of time, the Town employed professional hunters and a pack of dogs.Шаблон:Sfn Dogs could also be a problem, though. In 1651, the Town deputized Joshua Fisher to keep them from disturbing people in the meetinghouse.Шаблон:Sfn 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.

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

Mines and minerals

By 1647, residents had discovered "plenty of iron and some lead" in the wilderness.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn A decade later, in 1658, a committee was appointed to look into setting up an ironworks within the town.Шаблон:Sfn Neither the mine nor the ironwork would pan out, however.Шаблон:Sfn

Other

Cemetery

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.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn It remained the only cemetery in Dedham for nearly 250 years until Brookdale Cemetery was established.Шаблон:Sfn

Early records

Of towns founded during the colonial era, Dedham is one of the few towns "that has preserved extensive records of its earliest years."Шаблон:Sfn They have been described as "very full and perfect." 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.Шаблон:Sfn Many of the records come from Timothy Dwight, who served as town clerk for 10 years and selectman for 25.Шаблон:Sfn

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.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Efn

Jonathan Fairbanks

Файл:Fairbanks house dedham.jpg

The Fairbanks House is the oldest timber frame house in North America.

In 1637 Jonathan Fairbanks signed the town Covenant and was allotted Шаблон:Convert 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.'" He had "long stood off from the church upon some scruples about public profession of faith and the covenant, yet after divers loving conferencesШаблон:Nbsp... 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."Шаблон:Sfn

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, George H. W. Bush, George W. Bush and Vice President Charles W. Fairbanks. He is also an ancestor of the father and son Governors of Vermont Erastus Fairbanks and Horace Fairbanks, the poet Emily Dickinson, and the anthropologist Margaret Mead.

Early laws

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.Шаблон:Sfn 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."Шаблон:Sfn A one shilling fine was imposed in 1651 for taking a canoe without permission.Шаблон:Sfn

Colonial politics

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.Шаблон:Sfn Town meeting requested that Governor Simon Bradstreet protect the rights and interests of the colonists.Шаблон:Sfn In a unanimous vote, they also rejected a motion to completely subjugate themselves to the king and accept his decision to revoke the charter.Шаблон:Sfn

Daniel Fisher and his sister Lydia helped to hide William Goffe and Edward Whalley after they sought asylum in American.Шаблон:Sfn 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.Шаблон:Sfn

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.Шаблон:Sfn They asked for the General Court to endorse the authority of the clergy in spiritual matters, which by implication included the half-way covenant.Шаблон:Sfn The General Court complied but 15 members, including Joshua Fisher and Daniel Fisher, dissented.Шаблон:SfnШаблон:Sfn

Works cited

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