Norfolk County, Massachusetts - Chapter 6: Organization of Norfolk County, 1918

Chapter 6: Organization of Norfolk County

In the settlement of New England, especially in Massachusetts, townships or towns were established before the counties, and for a score of years the township formed the unit of political action on all questions of public policy. In 1642 the people of New Hampshire voluntarily united with Massachusetts, and on May 10, 1643, the whole territory was divided into four counties - Essex, Middlesex, Norfolk and Suffolk. These were the first New England counties.

The County of Norfolk established in 1643, and which has since become known as "Old Norfolk County," embraced the towns of Dover, Exeter, Hampton, Haverhill, Salisbury and Strawberry Bank (now Portsmouth), all lying north of the Merrimac River. The Town of Amesbury was afterward erected and added to the county. In 1679 New Hampshire was made a royal province, taking four of the towns from Norfolk County, and on February 4, 1680, the General Court of Massachusetts issued the following order:

"This Court being sensible of the great inconvenience and charge that it will be to Salisbury, Haverhill and Amesbury to continue their County Court, now some of the towns of Norfolk County are taken off, and considering that these towns did formerly belong to Essex County, and attended at Essex courts, do order that these towns that are left be again joined to Essex and attend public business at the Essex courts, there to implead and be impleaded, as occasion shall be ; their records of lands being still to be kept in some one of their own towns on the north of the Merrimack, and all persons according to course of law are to attend in Essex County."

By this order "Old Norfolk County," established in 1643, passed out of existence, and the name was not revived until more than a century later, when the present Norfolk County was erected. The territory comprising the Norfolk County of the present day was included in the County of Suffolk in 1643, and remained a part of that county for one hundred and fifty years.

Division Of Suffolk

The first movement for a division of Suffolk County was made early in May, 1726, when "A memorial of divers persons, representatives of ye country towns within the County of Suffolk, praying that said towns be set apart by themselves and made a distinct county, was read in the House of Representatives of the Province," etc. (See State Archives, Court Records, vol. 13, p. 225.)

The memorial at that time presented, and in which seven towns joined, set forth the following reasons for the establishment of a new county:

"First - The hardships on the country jurymen attending a week or a fortnight together to causes they know little of by reasons of their ignorance of affairs of trade and merchandise. The allowance for the actions they try does not defray the charge of their attendance. The hardship to the parties who have actions in the courts that they are obliged to attend until the Boston cases are tried.

"'Second - The vast business of the Sessions and Common Pleas coming together prolongs the court, and not about eight country causes in one hundred actions.

"Third - If the country towns were a distinct county, it is probable that four days in the year would be sufficient for the dispatch of their business, and the juries would be concerned only in titles of land.

After this memorial was read in the house, it was ordered that the Town of Boston be served with a copy thereof, "That they may show cause (if any they have), on or before Thursday, the ninth day of June next, why the Prayer of the petitioners shall not be granted."

On May 25, 1726, the selectmen of Boston - John Baker, Nathaniel Green, Henry Dering and Timothy Prout - sent in a partial reply and asked for further time in which to prepare a full answer. They were granted until the following November. On November 26, 1726, the reply of the town, which had been prepared by the selectmen "with much skill and dexterity," was read in the House of Representatives. On the 30th the House voted in favor of granting the petition, but the next day the Council refused to concur. Thus the project to establish a new county was defeated.

The Second Petition

Another petition asking for a division of Suffolk County came before the House of Representatives on June 19, 1727. It was signed by W. Dudley, John Chandler, Joseph Write, Thomas Tileston, Jonathan Ware, Joseph Ellis, Samuel WThite, John Morse and John Brown, "in behalfe of ye Inhabitants." They also asked, in the event a new county was impracticable, "That the Inferior Court of Common Pleas and the Court of General Sessions of the Peace may be removed into the country part of Suffolk County, one to Braintree and the other to Medfield or Dedham."

No action was taken upon this petition by the General Court until the 26th of the following December, when the House of Representatives granted the petitioners power and instructed them "to bring in a bill for constituting the country towns into a separate county," but the Council refused to concur. The following month the House of Representatives voted "That two of the Courts of General Sessions of the Peace and Superior Court of Common Pleas be kept as follows, viz., one at Braintree and the other at Dedham." Once more the Council nonconcurred, thereby manifesting a disposition to grant no favors whatever to the country towns.

In this connection it may not be amiss to offer a word of explanation regarding the attitude of the Council on the question of establishing a new county. Under the charter of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, the General Court was composed of the Governor, appointed by the King, the Council and the House of Representatives. The Council was at first appointed by the King, but the members of the House of Representatives were elected by the qualified voters in the respective towns. After the Court was established, the members of the Council were elected annually by joint ballot of the two branches of the Court. The councilmen, twenty-eight in number, were generally able to secure their reelection, and having first been placed in office by royal favor, they did not recognize any obligations to the people. Their refusal to recognize such obligations, or to show the common people any favors, added to the general discontent that culminated in the Revolution some years later.

A Third Effort

On October 2, 1730, the towns of Abington, Braintree, Hanover, Hingham, Hull, Scituate and Weymouth presented a petition asking that they be organized into a separate county. Evidently this movement was not regarded with favor by either branch of the General Court. It was laid over until the next session and on April 7, 1731, was dismissed without further consideration or ceremony.

The Fourth Petition

The next request for the establishment of a new county came from the towns of Bellingham, Dedham, Framingham, Holliston, Medfield, Medway, Sherborn, Walpole and Wrentham in the form of a petition which was presented to the General Court on June 8, 1733. The petition respectfully asked "That said towns, and any other town adjacent, which the General Court shall think fit to join within the counties of Suffolk and Middlesex, may be erected into a separate county." The petition was referred to the next sitting of the Court, and there the matter appears to have ended, as no further record can be found.

The Fifth Petition

In the House of Representatives, on June 19, 1735, was presented another petition "of divers towns in the County of Suffolk, praying that the county towns be set off from Boston." This petition was received and referred to the next sitting of the General Court, when Boston offered a lengthy argument, giving various reasons why the County of Suffolk should not be divided. One of these reasons wyas as follows:

"The more we are united, the more our judges, by the recompense now allowed them, will be able to study the law and furnish themselves still further with power agreeable to their place and duty. . . . The bigger our counties are, the more contracted will the business be, the fees and profits of the judges shared among the fewer, and the more business despatched in less time, and that continued without interruption and wasteful vacancies interposed."

The House of Representatives refused to be converted by this argument and on January 2, 1736, passed a bill granting the prayer of the petitioners and authorizing the establishment of a new county. Again the Council nonconcurred and the question lay dormant for about two years. On January 10, 1738, a bill providing for the formation of a new county by the division of Suffolk reached the third reading in the House of Representatives and was ordered to be engrossed. It was then sent to the Council, where it was "indefinitely postponed."

The Sixth Petition

On December 30, 1740, a petition signed by a large number of the citizens of Braintree, Dedham. Dorchester, Hingham, Medfield, Milton, Needham, Roxbury, Stoughton and Wrentham came before the General Court, asking for a division of Suffolk County ; that the towns above named be erected into a new county ; and that Boston and Chelsea be made a separate County. The House of Representatives voted in favor of granting the petition, and, to the great astonishment of the petitioners, this time the Council concurred.

At last it looked as though the country towns were to be successful in their efforts to secure a division of Suffolk County. But the truth of the old adage, "There's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip," was never better verified than in the fate of the petition. On January 9, 1741, a bill carrying out the intent of the petition was passed by the House of Representatives and sent to the Council. There it was read once, when further action was "indefinitely postponed," and again the movement to establish a new county met defeat.

A Long Delay

Discouraged by repeated rebuffs, the people of the country towns allowed several years to pass before making another effort to secure the division of Suffolk County. In 1760 a petition was circulated in some of the towns, but it did not meet with a hearty support and the attempt was abandoned.

Again in 1775 it was voted in some of the towns to present another petition to the General Court asking for a division of Suffolk County. Efforts were made to secure signers to such a petition, which was drawn in the names of all the towns in the county, except Boston and Chelsea, praying for the establishment of a new county to be called Hancock. A number of signers had been obtained when the battle of Lexington occurred, the war overshadowed everything else, and all thoughts of the new county were postponed until the restoration of peace.

Under The Constitution

Nothing further in the matter of the division of Suffolk County was undertaken until after the adoption of the Massachusetts State Constitution on June

15, 1780. Under that constitution the first General Court was convened in Boston on October 25, 1780. A short time before the meeting of the Court, a number of towns in the county elected delegates to a convention to decide upon some policy relative to the division of the county. The convention met at Timothy Gay's tavern in Dedham, December 12, 1780, and adopted a resolution to the effect "That the towns of Bellingham, Dedham, Foxborough, Franklin, Medfield, Medway, Needham, Stoughton, Stoughtonham, Walpole and Wrentham, with Holliston, Hopkinton, Natick and Sherborn, in the County of Middlesex, ought to be formed into a new county, with Medfield as the shire town."

A petition in harmony with the spirit of this resolution was circulated and was signed by a large number of the citizens in the various towns. It was presented to the House of Representatives on April 28, 1781, where it was read and referred to a committee. When the bill passed by the house came before the senate it was amended, and in the amended form failed to become a law.

On September 29, 1783, a petition from Dedham and other towns was read for the first time in the House of Representatives. Just how this petition was finally disposed of is not clear. It was referred to a committee in the house and sent to the senate for concurrence. On October 20, 1783, the senate voted to concur in the action of the house, but no new county was established.

The next move for the division of Suffolk County came on January 31, 1784, when a petition signed by Daniel Gay and others came before the senate. This petition was presented "in behalf of Dedham and certain other towns in the counties of Suffolk and Middlesex,'' asking for the erection of a new county. The senate ordered that notice of said petition be given to all the towns in said counties, and the house concurred with an amendment, which the senate accepted.

In May, 1784, a town meeting was held in Dedham, at which it was voted to appoint a committee to confer with the other towns in the County of Suffolk as to the expediency of dividing the county. The meeting also decided "That our representative be instructed to use his influence to secure delay on the petition for dividing the county until the sentiment of said towns can be known." Later in the month, at another meeting, it was voted to instruct the representative "to use his influence to oppose the granting of the prayer of the petition now before the General Court for dividing the County of Suffolk."

The action of the Dedham town meetings seems to have been effective in defeating the purpose of the Gay petition and preventing a division of the county for the time being. But in 1786 Dedham instructed its representative "to endeavor a division of the county whereby we may be separate from Boston, and in support of the motion you are to offer the following arguments, and such others as your ingenuity may suggest."

Then follows in detail a series of reasons for the division of the county, one of which was : "Should courts of justice be erected -in some country town within the county, wre expect (at least for awhile) that the wheels of law and justice would move on without the clogs and embarrassments of a numerous train of lawyers. The scenes of gaiety and amusements which are more prevalent at Boston we expect would so allure them, as that we should be rid of their perplexing officiousness."

Apparently the people of that period believed the average lawyer to be a pleasure-loving individual who cared more for "gaiety and amusement" than for the serious business of his profession. Although the instructions to the Dedham representative were full and complete, he failed at this time to secure the desired division of Suffolk County, and the subject was permitted to rest for another five years.

On February 25, 1791, the petition of Moses Fuller and others, asking for the division of Suffolk County, was read in the House of Representatives. A few davs later it was referred to a joint committee and notices sent to all the towns of the county. Remonstrances came in from Boston, Brookline, Hingham and Roxbury, but the joint committee recommended a bill for the establishment of the new county asked for by the petitioners. The report of the committee was accepted by the house on February 24, 1792, by a vote of 72 to 40, but on March 8th the senate voted not to concur.

Success At Last

Encouraged by the action of the General Court on the Fuller petition, the advocates of county division girded on their armor for the final fray. As the project was defeated in the senate, an anonymous letter was sent to all the towns suggesting that a contest be made for the election of senators who would favor the establishment of a new county. Suffolk County at that time had six senators. The election was to be held on the first Monday in April, 1792. Less than a month remained in which to make a campaign, but a man from each of the thirteen towns that had been advocating division (except Bellingham, Braintree and Medway) met at the house of John Ellis, in Dedham, and assumed authority to nominate a senatorial ticket.

Prior to this meeting, however, what was known as the "Boston Ticket" had already been named. The candidates on this ticket were : Thomas Dawes, Benjamin Austin, Oliver Wendell and James Bowdoin, of Boston ; William Heath, of Roxbury ; and Stephen Metcalf, of Bellingham, all of whom were supposed to be opposed to the division of Suffolk County.

The meeting at Ellis' nominated Stephen Metcalf, Lemuel Kollock, John Everett, Seth Bullard, Elijah Dunbar and Gen. Ebenezer Thayer, Jr. Dr. Nathaniel Ames, in an account of the affair, says: "But their meeting was so public, made such a bustle, and was so indiscreetly managed, that the idlers about the house talked openly of their business of choosing senators, so that it will be in the newspapers and the whole design defeated, as secrecy was the only foundation to build on."

Stephen Metcalf, being on both tickets, was elected without question. At the opening of the General Court the senate and house, in joint convention, elected all the remaining candidates on the "Boston Ticket" except James Bowdoin, for whom General Thayer was substituted.

But the "tempest in a teapot" over the election of senators had its effect. On June 12, 1792, the House of Representatives took up the Moses Fuller petition and referred it to a committee, with instructions to report as to the advisability of dividing Suffolk County. Nothing further was done until February 8, 1793, when a joint committee recommended the passage of a bill in accordance with the prayer of the petitioners. The bill was accordingly introduced, passed both house and senate on March 22, 1793, and was approved by Gov. John Hancock on the 26th. It provided that "All the territory of the County of Suffolk, not comprehended within the towns of Boston and Chelsea, from and after the 20th day of June next, be and hereby is formed and erected into a distinct county, by the name of Norfolk, and Dedham shall be the shire town till otherwise ordered by the General Court."

Before the day came for the act to take effect, the towns of Hingham and Hull sent petitions to the General Court asking to be allowed to remain a part of Suffolk County, and on June 20, 1793, an act was passed repealing that part of the act of March 26th relating to those two towns.

As originally erected, the County of Norfolk consisted of twenty-one towns, to wit : Bellingham, Braintree, Brookline, Cohasset, Dedham, Dorchester, District of Dover, Foxborough, Franklin, Medfield, Medway, Milton, Needham, Quincy, Randolph, Roxbury, Sharon, Stoughton, Walpole, Weymouth and Wrentham.

It is not certain who is responsible for the county's name. In the bill a space was left and the name "Norfolk" was inserted just before the final passage of the measure. Geographically, the name is inappropriate. As the first settlers of Massachusetts were English people, it was natural that they should adopt many of the names of their native land. In the eastern part of England, on the shores of the North Sea, there are two counties called Norfolk and Suffolk. The inhabitants of the northern county were originally known as the "North Folk," and those of the southern were called the "South Folk." In time the names were shortened to Nor' Folk and Sou' Folk, and the counties became known as Norfolkshire and Suffolkshire. It is related that not long after Norfolk County, Massachusetts, was organized, John Randolph of Virginia walked up to John Quincy Adams in the national House of Representatives, of which both were then members, and said: "Look here, Quincy, how is this? You live in Norfolk County ; now what the devil do you people in Massachusetts mean by setting off Norfolk County and putting it south of Suffolk County?"

When it came to locating the county seat, or shire town, opinion was divided. Braintree, Dedham, Medfield, Milton and Roxbury were all mentioned for the honor, but none of them was satisfactory in every respect. The people of Medfield destroyed the aspirations of that town by declaring that "The practice of visiting the court room during the trial of cases would be prejudicial to habits of industry in the citizens."

On February 8, 1776, seventeen years before Norfolk County was established, the General Court passed the following act : "Whereas, Boston is now made a garrison for the ministerial army and become a common receptacle for the enemies of America, it is enacted that Dedham shall be made the shire town of the County of Suffolk for the future."

Dedham remained the shire town of Suffolk until after the evacuation of Boston by the British army, when the seat of justice was taken back to Boston. But the town having once been thus honored by the General Count seems to have given it some advantage in the contest, and it was declared to be the shire town "till otherwise ordered by the General Court." As that body has never seen fit to order otherwise, Dedham remains the shire town to the present day.