A year later, rumblings were heard of an impending war with Native Americans; it was all too apparent that the coastal settlements were utterly vulnerable to an attack from the interior. Accordingly, in September of , the General Court issued orders for the establishment of two inland towns, which could relieve the population pressures within the existing settlements along the Bay, as well as serve as a buffer zone between the Native Americans and the main colony. The first of these towns was Concord; the second was Dedham.
Predominantly yeomen and people from Suffolk, Norfolk, and Essex, England, the Dedham pioneers found themselves in possession of something in excess of two hundred square miles of virgin wilderness, complete with lakes, hills, forests, meadows, and a seemingly endless supply of rocks and wolves.
In , after a protracted litigation, the Native Americans were awarded title to those 2, acres, and Dedham, in compensation, was granted 8, acres at Pocumtuck Deerfield. Protected to the North by the Charles River, to the South and East by swamp, quagmire, and bog, the main settlement sat upon a broad plateau, which offered a long-range view of all approaches to the settlement.
The towns-folk built a garrison, put the town cannon in order, trained their defense forces, and presented such an appearance of preparedness as to presumably thwart attack. Sensing trouble, the Wrentham folk had abandoned their town and fled back to Dedham; the Native Americans burned the empty town. Medfield suffered a full-scale attack, which left seventeen people dead. The church records show no instances of dissension, Quaker or Baptist expulsions, or witchcraft persecutions. On the other hand, the state of peace which existed in town and church should not be surprising in the light of the requirements stipulated by the Town Covenant, signed by all those admitted as settlers:.
Newcomers who seemed to be potentially troublesome, or who posed the possibility of becoming public charges were warned out and forbidden to reside within Dedham boundaries.
The whole company, who gathered in general meeting originally, transacted Town business. As the population grew, this became impracticable:. Beginning in , the size of the town was growing enough that selectmen were elected to carry out the administration of town affairs.
Tiot, which means "land surrounded by water," was later used to describe the village of South Dedham, today the separate town of Norwood. In "its first years, the town was more than a place to live; it was a spiritual community.
Many of the other yeomen settling the new Dedham in the Massachusetts Bay Colony came from Suffolk, in eastern England. Of towns founded during the colonial era, Dedham is one of the few towns "that has preserved extensive records of its earliest years. The first public meeting of the plantation they called Contentment was held on August 18, and the town covenant was signed; eventually men would ascribe their names to the document.
As the Covenant stipulated that "for the better manifestation of our true resolution herein, every man so received into the town is to subscribe hereunto his name, thereby obliging both himself and his successors after him forever. The Covenant of Dedham, Massachusetts was first signed on August 15, Those men who signed the Covenant are listed below, in the order in which they signed.
He was one of the signatories to the Dedham Compact , a key historical document for the creation of the new colonial town of Dedham, Massachusetts , located in Norfolk County, Massachusetts. The first 35 signatures were collected in August and another 90 more soon thereafter.
This document provided for the common governance and defense of the community. Throughout the following two centuries, Dedham continued to grow and prosper. Today, there are hundreds of businesses located in Dedham, employing more than 15, workers. Dedham is home to the Fairbanks House, which is the oldest standing timber-frame house in the United States.
In , Dedham unanimously voted to authorize the first taxpayer-funded public school, setting the stage for its continuing strong support of public education. Dedham Historical Society. It is not a town department and receives no funds from local, state or federal.
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