History of Dedham, Massachusetts, 1700-1799
The history of Dedham, Massachusetts from 1700 to 1799 saw the town become one of the largest and most influential country towns in Massachusetts. As the population grew and residents moved to outlying areas of the town, battles for political power took place. Similar battles were taking place within the churches, as liberal and conservative factions bristled at paying for ministers with whom they had differences of theological opinion. New parishes and preciencts were formed, and eventually several new towns broke away.
The town became less insular and less homogeneous as available land was used up and contact with other communities grew. Though still more economically an socially equal than other communities, a lower class of residents began to emerge and depend on the town's charity. The Town was active during the American Revolution, with nearly every able man taking part in the war. The population at the time was between 1,500 and 2,000 people, of which 672 men fought in the Revolution and 47 of them did not return.
Both the lightest and the harshest sentences ever given for violating the Alien and Sedition Acts were given out to men who erected a liberty pole in Dedham. In 1793, Dedham became the shiretown of the newly created Norfolk County.
Government
Selectmen
Selectmen who served between 1640 and 1740 were almost always among the wealthiest 20% of the town. In any given year a majority of a particular board were among the richest 10%.| Year first elected | Selectman | Total years served |
| 1702 | Thomas Fuller | 5 |
| 1702 | Joseph Fairbanks | 3 |
| 1704 | Nathaniel Gay | 7 |
| 1704 | Amos Fisher | 2 |
| 1705 | John Fuller | 2 |
| 1705 | Benjamin Colburn | 2 |
| 1706 | John Smith | 3 |
| 1707 | Timothy Whiting | 8 |
| 1710 | Robert Cook | 1 |
| 1711 | John Ellis | 3 |
| 1712 | Daniel Wight | 2 |
| 1714 | Joseph Ellis | 5 |
| 1714 | Michael Metcalf | 7 |
| 1715 | Comfort Starr | 3 |
| 1716 | John Metcalf | 27 |
| 1717 | Nathaniel Kingsbury | 2 |
| 1717 | William Bullard | 8 |
| 1718 | William Avery | 5 |
| 1718 | John Hunting | 1 |
| 1719 | Jeremiah Fisher | 6 |
| 1719 | Samuel Ware | 1 |
| 1719 | Joseph Dean | 2 |
| 1720 | Jabez Pond | 2 |
| 1721 | John Gay | 4 |
| 1721 | Joseph Smith | 1 |
| 1722 | Ebenezer Woodward | 3 |
| 1724 | John Everett | 8 |
| 1727 | Joseph Smith | 2 |
| 1729 | Eleazer Ellis | 2 |
| 1731 | Nathaniel Chickering | 5 |
| 1731 | John Fisher | 2 |
| 1731 | Joseph Richards | 5 |
| 1732 | Ephraim Wilson | 7 |
| 1736 | Richard Everett | 5 |
| 1736 | Jeremiah Fisher | 6 |
| 1736 | Josiah Fisher | 7 |
| 1739 | Jonathan Onion | 3 |
| 1739 | Jonathan Whiting | 2 |
| 1741 | Joseph Wight | 14 |
| 1741 | Nathaniel Battle | 3 |
| 1742 | Eleazer Fisher | 2 |
| 1742 | Joseph Ellis | 2 |
| 1743 | Eliphalet Pond | 16 |
| 1744 | William Everett | 5 |
| 1744 | Richard Ellis | 3 |
| 1744 | Joshua Ellis | 3 |
| 1746 | James Draper | 1 |
| 1746 | Lusher Gay | 2 |
| 1747 | Michael Bacon | 1 |
| 1748 | Hezekiah Allen | 2 |
| 1749 | Ezra Morse | 4 |
| 1749 | Nathaniel Colburn | 1 |
| 1750 | Benjamin Fairbanks | 3 |
| 1750 | Nathaniel Wilson | 3 |
| 1753 | Nathaniel Sumner | 19 |
| 1753 | Isaac Whiting | 12 |
| 1753 | Joseph Chickering | 2 |
| 1755 | Jonathan Metcalf | 1 |
| 1755 | Stephen Badlam | 4 |
| 1755 | Jonathan Day | 3 |
| 1756 | James Draper | 2 |
| 1758 | William Avery | 13 |
| 1758 | Daniel Gay | 3 |
| 1758 | Ralph Day | 2 |
| 1759 | John Jones | 3 |
| 1760 | Ebenezer Everett | 4 |
| 1762 | David Fuller | 2 |
| 1762 | Samuel Colburn | 5 |
| 1762 | Daniel Chickering | 4 |
| 1764 | Samuel Dexter | 5 |
| 1764 | Ebenezer Newell | 7 |
| 1768 | Joseph Haven | 5 |
| 1768 | Joseph Guild | 7 |
| 1769 | Abijah Draper | 5 |
| 1770 | William Whiting | 3 |
| 1771 | William Bullard | 2 |
| 1773 | Isaac Bullard | 5 |
| 1773 | Nathaniel Kingsbury | 5 |
| 1773 | Isaac Colburn | 2 |
| 1773 | Nathaniel Battle | 1 |
| 1774 | Jonathan Dean | 1 |
| 1775 | Samuel Damon | 3 |
| 1775 | Ichabod Gay | 4 |
| 1776 | Isaac Whiting | 2 |
| 1776 | George Gould | 7 |
| 1776 | Eleazer Allen | 1 |
| 1777 | Jeremiah Kingsbury | 1 |
| 1778 | Ebenezer Battelle | 2 |
| 1778 | John Ellis | 13 |
| 1778 | Ichabod Ellis | 1 |
| 1779 | Ebenezer Smith | 2 |
| 1779 | Ebenezer Battle | 1 |
| 1780 | Abner Ellis | 1 |
| 1780 | Abiathar Richards | 1 |
| 1783 | Lemuel Richards | 1 |
| 1784 | Ebenezer Gay | 1 |
| 1785 | Ebenezer Fisher | 1 |
| 1785 | Benjamin Fairbanks | 1 |
| 1786 | Aaron Fuller | 16 |
| 1786 | Joseph Gay | 1 |
| 1787 | Eliphalet Pond | 16 |
| 1787 | Nathaniel Whiting | 4 |
| 1787 | James Kingsbury | 1 |
| 1788 | Joseph Whiting | 3 |
| 1791 | Eliphalet Thorp | 1 |
| 1792 | George Ellis | 10 |
| 1792 | Calvin Whiting | 14 |
Election of 1704
Prior to 1704, nearly all the selectmen in town came from the old village center despite greater numbers of residents moving to more outlying areas. At the March 6 Town Meeting that year, three of the five incumbent selectmen, Samuel Guild, Joshua Fisher, and Joseph Fairbanks, all men from the village, were voted out of office. In their place were elected three newcomers, Ashael Smith, Amos Fisher, and Nathaniel Gay, who collectively had just one year prior service on the board, but at least two of them came from outlying areas. One of the selectmen reelected that year was also from an outlying area, and the third newcomer was probably in sympathy with them, giving them a majority of four to one. Gay also replaced Guild as Town Treasurer.Those from the village, upset that they had been turned out of power, began complaining that the election was illegal because there had not been enough warning given in advance of the town meeting that served as an election. The old board of selectmen, including those members just voted out of office, invalidated the election and called for a new one to be held on March 27. In that election Guild was returned to both his posts as selectman and treasurer, but Fisher and Fairbanks both lost again and were replaced with men from other parts of town. Those from outside the village maintained a three-vote majority after the new election.
Still upset with the outcome, several men from the village took the issue to the Suffolk County Court where they argued that both March elections were invalid. The court ordered a new election and, on April 17, the same men chosen at the March 6 election were elected again. It took several years for the villagers to reassert their political power.
Elections of the 1720s
Tensions were building in town in the years 1725 and 1726 between those who lived in the center village and those who lived in the outlying parts of town. On March 6, 1727, Town Meeting assembled to elect selectmen for the coming year. It became so contested, however, that it took two days to finish. Instead of the customary method of voting for the entire board at the same time, individuals stood for election for single seats. After the nominees for each seat were established, they were then voted through a secret, written ballot.Every incumbent lost their seat, the first time this had happened since 1690. Five new men were elected, including three from the Clapboard Trees section of town and two from the village who were sympathetic for their calls to separate as an independent town.
At the November 1727 town meeting, Joseph Ellis was elected as representative to the General Court. Following the election, 49 men from the village brought suit to say that his election was illegal but were unsuccessful and Ellis went on to serve six terms.
The following March, in 1728, the Town Meeting once again gathered to elect selectmen. It quickly adopted a resolution that allowed any man with any property whatsoever to be granted a vote. This extended the franchise to a much larger number of men, most of whom came from outlying areas of town, and was in direct violation of a provincial law. The meeting then elected by secret ballot three men, a majority, from the outlying areas of town: John Gay, Comfort Starr, and Joseph Smith.
The meeting then descended into chaos. The Moderator, Ebeneezer Woodward, expressed doubts or perhaps even tried to adjourn the meeting over concerns about those not entitled to vote casting ballots. As moderator, he could be held liable under the law. John Gay, Benjamin Gay, and Joseph Smith then took their muskets and demanded that Woodward leave the meeting. When he refused, Woodward was hit and the meeting adjourned. The three belligerents were arrested and heavily fined, but the election results were not overturned.
At the 1729 election the village reasserted its political power by taking back control of the board. Four men from the village were elected, including Woodward, along with one man from the Springfield area of town. Shortly thereafter, Springfield became its own precinct in an apparent quid pro quo.
1730s and 1740s
By the 1730s and 1740s, sectional strife in town had grown to such a degree that the General Court had to impose several settlements on the town. It resulted in a truce whereby each of the five selectmen seats was unofficially allocated with one going to those in the village, or First Precinct, one going to residents of First Precinct who attended church in the more liberal Third Precinct, and one each to a resident from the Second, Third, and Fourth Precincts.Moderator
An act of the colonial legislature gave town meetings the right to elect their own moderators in 1715, but this had already been in practice for several years in Dedham. The moderator was sometimes a selectman, and was always a respected member of the community. The first moderator to come from outside the village center, Joseph Ellis, was elected in 1717. Ellis, a resident of "the southerly part of town," was elected selectman in the same election.Town Clerk
Representation in the General Court
Church
Ministers
began preaching in the spring of 1692 and was installed as pastor of the Church of Christ on November 29, 1693. He remained in the pulpit until the autumn of 1721 when illness prevented him from preaching. Samuel Dexter, who had a grandson with the same name that served in the cabinets of John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, was hired as the minister following Belcher's death in 1723.In the 1760s, Thomas Balch served as minister in South Dedham. His daughter, Mary, married Manasseh Cutler, and Cutler studied under the elder Balch for the ministry.
Dissent and division of the church
As the town grew and residents began moving to outlying areas, the town was divided into parishes and precincts. Parishes could hire their own ministers and teachers while precincts could do that and elect their own tax assessors and militia officers.In 1717, the Town Meeting voted, in what was the first ever concession to outlying areas, to exempt residents from paying the minister's salary if they lived more than five miles from the meetinghouse. Those who chose to do so could begin attending another church in another town. In May 1721, Town Meeting refused to allow an outlying section of town to hire their own minister, prompting that group to seek to break away as the town of Walpole.
The Clapboard Trees section of town had more liberal religious views than did those in either the original village or South Dedham. After a deadlocked Town Meeting could not resolve the squabbling between the various parts of town, the General Court first put them in the second precinct with South Dedham, and then in the first precinct with the village. This did not satisfy many of them, however, and in 1735 they hired their own minister along with some like minded residents of the village. This was an act of dubious legality and the General Court once again stepped in, this time to grant them status as the third precinct and, with it, the right to establish their own church. The General Court also allowed more liberal minded members of conservative churches to attend the more liberal churches in town, and to apply their taxes to pay for them.
The preaching of Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield helped to revive the churches of Dedham during the Great Awakening. The theological debates that arose as a result, however, helped bring about a split in the churches into different denominations.
Lifestyle of residents
During the early years of the town, land was distributed to all the men who lived there. By 1713, however, there was no more land to be distributed. Anyone who wished to own land from that point forward would have to purchase it. By 1736, some farm land had already been worn out.First generation farmers could expect to pass on about 150 acres of land to their heirs. Second generation farmers could expect to pass on that much or even more between their inheritances and the dividends awarded by the town. As the generations grew, third generation farms in the early 1700s were about 100 acres. By the end of the 1700s, farmers could only expect to inherit about 50 acres of land, a plot not large enough to support a family.
Declining insularity
Dedham remained largely autonomous and cohesive community throughout the 1700s. As the century moved on, however, there was an increase in the number of people moving to town from about 700 in 1700 to roughly 2,000 by 1801.In 1728, a majority of residents, which had thirty family names between them, could trace their ancestors back to 1648. Only 13 of the 57 names on the rolls in 1688 disappeared in the next 40 years. Of the 31 new names that appeared, most were single men.
In the years leading up to 1736, and especially those following them, economic opportunities were growing in Dedham and the surrounding area. This brought more people into contact with those from outside Dedham's borders. More residents were also finding spouses in surrounding communities than before. Prior to 1705, only three boys from Dedham earned degrees from Harvard College. By 1737, 11 more would do so.
As the population grew through generations, and the land area of the town shrank with new towns seceding, the amount of land each man could expect to inherit shrank. Though the number of men who sold off their small plots and moved elsewhere remained too small to substantially relieve the economic pressure, it did increase as time went on.
Wealth
By 1736, the wealthiest 20% of the town included 50 men, as opposed to 20 men roughly 50 years before. In the same time period, the richest 5% of the population still only owned 15% of the property, as they did nearly 100 years before. The richest 10% of the population owned 25% of the property. In some nearby cities and towns, by contrast, the top 5% owned one-third of all property and the top 10% owned more than 50%.As the population grew, disparities in wealth became apparent and "a permanent group of dependent poor began to appear" in the 1700s. Part of the reason for the emergence of this class was the scarcity of land could not keep up with the growing population. In Dedham, the poorest 20% owned jut 5% of the property in 1730. For this population, the standard of living fell from "one of near independence to one of scrabbling inadequacy" in just 40 years.
The core of this group, which rose from 5% to 10% of taxpayers and increasing over the same time period, did not own any land at all. Those seeking charity no longer just consisted of widows, orphans, and the disabled but began to include grown men who could not earn enough to survive. It was during this time that records first mention "the poor," and a poor house would be opened for them in 1711.
The poor became increasingly concentrated in the outlying lands were the soil was poorest. By the midpoint of the 18th century, in 1750, the outer precincts would contain 60% of the population but 75% of the poor. The men in the village, who tended to come from senior lines of old families, were disproportionately likely to be in the richest 10% of taxpayers.
The wealth lost by this population was gained equally by all other classes in town. There was no indication by this time that an upper class had emerged though by the middle of the century they were on their way. Even the richest men were still likely to be farmers, or perhaps a merchant or inn keeper. Though the demand for food in Boston, just 10 miles away, was growing, farmers did not make contracts to deliver large amounts of crops. Instead, they grew enough to feed their families and a little extra to trade. Most men could expect to lead the same sort of life and lifestyle that his father did, and at least 75% had the same occupation.
Parishes, precincts, and new towns
As the town's population grew greater and greater, residents began moving further away from the center of town. Until 1682 all Dedhamites had lived within of the meetinghouse and the trend towards people moving away began slowly.In the 1670s, with each new dividend of land, farmers began taking shares close to their existing plots. This, along with special "convience grants" close by their existing fields, allowed townsmen to consolidate their holdings. 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. When this began happening, residents first started moving their barns closer to their fields and then their homes as well. By 1686, homes coalesced in several outlying areas, pulling their owners away from the day-to-day life of the village center.
As farms and homes moved outward away from the village center, distinct and often antagonistic sections of town were already forming during the years 1725 to 1750. After the contested elections of 1704, sectional disputes intensified. Those on the outskirts would soon begin to seek independence as separately incorporated towns, causing some to worry about "the total destruction of Dedham."
New towns, beginning with Medfield in 1651 and followed by Needham in 1711, Bellingham in 1719 and Walpole in 1724, began to break off. The separations were not without difficulty, however. When Medfield left there were disagreements about the responsibility for public debts and about land use. Wrentham settlers complained that those in the village center were keeping them in a state of colonial dependency before they incorporated as a separate community. After Walpole left, Dedham had just 25% of its original land area.
As the population spread, residents crossed borders into other towns and between 1738 and 1740 Dedham annexed about eight square miles from Dorchester and Stoughton. By the end of the 19th century, the communities of Bellingham, Dover, Franklin, Medfield, Medway, Millis, Natick, Norfolk, Needham, Norwood, Plainville, Walpole, Wellesley, Westwood, and Wrentham would be established within the original bounds of Dedham. With the division and subdivision of so many communities, Dedham has been called the "Mother of Towns."
| 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. |
| Needham | 1711 | |
| Medway | 1713 | Separated from Medfield. |
| Bellingham | 1719 | |
| Walpole | 1724 | |
| Stoughton | 1726 | Part of the Dorchester New Grant of 1637. Separated from Dorchester. |
| Sharon | 1775 | Part of the Dorchester New Grant of 1637. Separated from Stoughton. |
| Foxborough | 1778 | Part of the Dorchester New Grant of 1637. |
| Franklin | 1778 | Separated from Wrentham. |
| Canton | 1797 | Part of the Dorchester New Grant of 1637. Separated from Stoughton. |
| Dover | 1836 | Then known as Springfield, it became a precinct of Dedham by vote of Town Meeting in 1729; relegated to a parish the same year by the General Court. Created the Fourth Precinct by the General Court in 1748. |
| Norfolk | 1870 | Separated from Wrentham. |
| Norwood | 1872 | Created a precinct with Clapboard Trees in 1729. Became its own precinct in 1734. |
| Wellesley | 1881 | Separated from Needham |
| Millis | 1885 | Separated from Medfield. |
| Avon | 1888 | Part of the Dorchester New Grant of 1637. Separated from Stoughton. |
| Westwood | 1897 | Joined with South Dedham to create Second Precinct in 1729. Returned to First Precinct in 1734. In 1737 became Third Precinct. Last community to break away directly from Dedham. |
| Plainville | 1905 | Eastern section of town was part of the Dorchester New Grant of 1637. Separated from Wrentham. |
American Revolution
In the years leading to the American Revolution Dedham had a number of men rise to protect the liberties of the colonists. When Governor Edmund Andros was deposed and arrested in 1689 it was Dedham's Daniel Fisher who "burst into Usher's house, to drag forth the tyrant by the collar, to bind him and cast him into a fort" and eventually send him back to England to stand trial. Fisher also served, along with John Fairbanks, as town explorers and together selected 8,000 acres in Pocumtuck in place of the land given to Elliot and the praying Indians. Fisher was the great-grandfather of Fisher Ames, Dedham resident and member of the First, Second, Third and Fourth Congresses.In 1766, Dr. Nathaniel Ames, Fisher Ames' older brother, and the Sons of Liberty erected the Pillar of Liberty on the Church green at the Corner of High and Court streets. It is the only monument known to have been erected by the Sons of Liberty. On top of the 10' pillar was a bust of William Pitt the Younger who, according to the inscription on the granite base, "saved America from impending slavery, and confirmed our most loyal affection to King George III by procuring a repeal of the Stamp Act." The monument was later destroyed.
The Woodward Tavern stood diagonal from the monument on September 6, 1774. It was at the tavern, where the Norfolk County Superior Court now stands, that the Suffolk Convention convened and eventually adopted the Suffolk Resolves. The resolves were then rushed by Paul Revere to the First Continental Congress. The Congress in turn adopted as a precursor to the Declaration of Independence. The resolves denounced the Intolerable Acts as "gross infractions of those rights to which we are justly entitled by the laws of nature, the British constitution, and the charter of the province" and called on the towns to organize militias to protect "the rights of the people." In 1774, the year after the Boston Tea Party, the Town outlawed India tea and appointed a committee to publish the names of any resident caught drinking it.
On the morning of April 19, 1775, a messenger came "down the Needham road" with news about the battle in Lexington. A Dedham resident, "Captain Joseph Guild 'gagged a croaker' who said the news was false and in an hour" the "men of Dedham, even the old men, received their minister's blessing and went forth, in such numbers that scarce one male between sixteen and seventy was left at home." Aaron Guild, a captain in the British Army during the French and Indian War, was plowing his fields in South Dedham when he heard of the battle. He immediately "left plough in furrow oxen standing" to set forth for the conflict, arriving in time to fire upon the retreating British.
Nearly every man who was physically able joined Guild and a majority served in the siege of Boston. The Continental Army issued the town a quota as the war progressed but as the town had already run through its available men it was forced to hire mercenaries from Boston. The population at the time was between 1,500 and 2,000 persons, of which 672 men fought in the Revolution and 47 did not return.
As the Revolutionary War went on the attention of the General Court, which had resolved itself into a Provincial Congress in 1774, focused primarily on military matters. The town was then forced to develop a government that operated with increasing independence from the province. The Dedham men who would become American leaders in the first years of independence from the British crown, including "Reverend Jason Haven, the younger Nathaniel Ames, his brother Fisher, and the Samuel Dexters all received their political indoctrinations in Dedham during this period of turmoil and change." Following the evacuation of Boston General George Washington spent the night of April 4, 1776 at Samuel Dexter's home on his way to New York. The house still stands today at 699 High Street.
Liberty pole
In the late 18th century, Massachusetts was a solidly Federalist state. Dedham, however, was divided between Federalists and Republicans.Fisher Ames, the patriot, orator, and Congressman who saved the Jay Treaty, retired from Congress due to illness and returned home to Dedham in 1797. Upon returning, he was alarmed by the growing number of Republicans in town, led by his brother Nathaniel. In 1798 he hosted a Fourth of July party for 60 residents that was complete with patriotic songs and speeches. The attendees wrote a letter to President John Adams, pledging their support should the new nation go to war with France. Referring to the XYZ Affair, they wanted France to know that "we bear no foreign yoke--we will pay no tribute."
Nathaniel Ames wrote in his diary that his brother had convinced "a few deluded people" into signing the letter by "squeezing teazing greazing" them with food and drink. Despite his brother the Congressman's efforts, Nathaniel believed that "the Great Mass of People" in the town were with the Republicans. For his part, Fisher wrote to Secretary of State Timothy Pickering after the party that "the progress of right opinions" was winning out in Dedham over "perhaps the most malevolent spirit that exists," the Republican Party.
Several years later, residents awoke one October morning to find a large wooden pole had been erected on the Hartford Road. At the top was a hand painted sign declaring
No Stamp act; no sedition; no alien bill; no land tax.
Downfall to the tyrants of America; peace and
retirement to the President; long live the vice
President and the minority.
This liberty pole was erected by David Brown, an itinerant veteran of the American Revolution who traveled from town to town in Massachusetts, drumming up subscribers for a series of political pamphlets he had written. He was assisted by Benjamin Fairbanks and about 40 others, including Amariah Chapin, who painted the sign. Brown held the ladder while another, presumably Fairbanks, put up the sign. Nathaniel Ames was also very likely involved.
When it appeared, Fisher Ames and the rest of Dedham's Federalist community were enraged. The pole was taken down and the culprits were sought. A Boston newspaper, Russell's Gazette, wrote that "a vagabond Irishman, or Scotchman" was likely the ringleader. Fairbanks, a prosperous farmer and former Selectman but also an "impressionable, rather excitable man," was quickly arrested and charged with violating the Sedition Act of 1798. He posted bond and was scheduled for trial the following June in Boston.
Brown, on the other hand, eluded authorities until March 1789, when he was caught in Andover, 28 miles away. While Fairbanks was out on bail, Brown sat for three months in dank jail cell in Salem awaiting trial because he could not afford the $4,000 bail, which was twice the maximum fine if found guilty. When the trial came, Fairbanks was brought before the court first. He requested the legal aid of Fisher Ames, and while Ames declined to serve as the defendant's attorney he did appear as a character witness. Fairbanks, facing the "powerful forces" arrayed against him, confessed on June 8.
Fairbanks said that "it was not then known by me, nor perhaps by others concerned, how heinous an offense it was." He then added that he was a patriotic citizen, and would attempt to live his life accordingly in the future. Justice Samuel Chase sentenced Fairbanks to six hours in prison and a fine of five dollars, plus court costs, the lightest sentence ever given for any of the Sedition Act defendants.
On June 9, Brown also pled guilty, but he was not shown the same mercy as Fairbanks.
Chase accepted the guilty plea, but insisted on trying the case anyway so that the "degree of his guilt might be duly ascertained." Several Dedham residents, including Chapin, Joseph Kingsbury, Jeremiah Baker, and Luther Ellis, testified against Brown, who was not represented by a lawyer. Nathaniel Ames received what he called "two illegal summons to the High Fed Circ't Court," but refused to appear and testify. He was arrested and charged with contempt of court the following October, but nothing came of it.
Chase offered Brown a chance to reduce his sentence by naming everyone involved with his "mischievous and dangerous pursuits," and the names of all those who subscribed to his pamphlets. Brown refused, saying, "I shall lose all my friends." He did, however, apologize for his political opinions and "more especially in the way and manner I did utter them." Despite this apology, and the promise to change his ways, Chase found "no satisfactory indication of a change of disposition, or amelioration of temper" that might lessen "the punishment which his very pernicious and dangerous practice demanded."
Brown was sentenced to 18 months in prison and a $480 fine, the harshest sentence ever imposed under the Sedition Act. Brown had requested that there be no fine as he had no way to pay it. As he did not have the money, and had no way of earning it while in prison, Brown petitioned President John Adams for a pardon in July 1800, and then again in February 1801. Adams refused both times, keeping Brown in prison.
When Thomas Jefferson became president, one of his first acts was to issue a general pardon for any person convicted under the Sedition Act. This set free Brown and James T. Callendar, the only two remaining in prison. It is unknown what Brown did after his release, or where or when he died.
Other
In the 1700s, Dedham was "becoming one of the largest and most influential country towns in Massachusetts."In 1721, Town Meeting voted to periodically move the school from place to place around the town, relieving the burden of students who lived in outlying areas.
Eleven Acadians arrived in Dedham in 1758 after the British deported them from what is today Nova Scotia. Though they were Catholics, the officially Protestant town accepted them and they "were allowed harbor in town as 'French Neutrals.'" There would be no Catholic Church in Dedham for another 99 years when the first St. Mary's Church opened.
The first Episcopal church, a simply structure measuring 30' by 40', was built on Court Street in 1758. It was replaced in 1798 by a church built in Franklin Square. The first minister, Rev. William Clark, held controversial Tory views.
A legend first published in 1932 by William Moore tells the story of Black Bear, a descendant of King Phillip, who allegedly haunts the woods surrounding Wigwam Pond. According to the legend, Black Bear was a petty thief who one night in 1775 tried to kidnap the infant child of Sam Stone, a local farmer. Earlier in the day Stone had thwarted Black Bear's attempt to steal some horse blankets, and Black Bear took the child as revenge. When the child's cry awoke his parents, however, Stone gave chase.
Black Bear eventually dropped the child in the woods so he could run faster to his waiting canoe. When Stone arrived on shore, he shot Black Bear, who gave out a loud cry and then fell into the pond. His spirit still allegedly haunts the area, and is sometimes seen holding a child, and other times with horse blankets, but always giving off an unearthly wail. The part of the pond that never freezes, even in the coldest winters, is said to be the spot where he died.
When Norfolk County was formed in 1793 Dedham was named as the shire town and "an influx of lawyers, politicians, and people on county business forced the town to abandon its traditional insularity and its habitual distrust of newcomers." A new county courthouse was built by Solomon Willard, the same architect who built the Bunker Hill Monument. When it was remodeled in 1863 a dome was added, but it was too large and had to be removed. A new dome sits atop the building today.
The first post office was established in 1795 in Jeremiah Shuttleworth's West India Goods shop on High Street at the site of the present day Dedham Historical Society building. Mail was placed on a table in the shop, and residents would walk in and help themselves. Shuttleworth was replaced as postmaster 38 years later by Dr. Elisha Thayer.