Wrentham, Norfolk County, Massachusetts
Wrentham was first settled by the English in 1660 and officially incorporated as a part of Suffolk County in 1673. It moved to Norfolk County when that county was created on 20 June 1793. Wrentham's settlement history, however, began on 3 September 1635 and 8 September 1636 when the town of Dedham was established and defined, and the land now known as Wrentham was separate from, but within the limits of, the town of Dedham. In 1662 the Wrentham land was officially purchased from King Phillip of the Wampanoag tribe by a group of investors, all from Dedham, who divided 600 acres out of the center of this roughly 36 square mile area for a settlement. The layout was for a group of home sites clustered around an area of open fields near to the 2 natural lakes and the river draining them, a perfect mill site. This land was among the best Southern New England had to offer, well drained with a gravel base, ideal for building and farming, and surrounded by meadows, high rocky hills and forests. The boundaries were the Stop River to the East, Charles River to the North, the towns of Dorchester to the Southeast, Rehoboth South and other Dedham land to the West. The boundary with what became Rhode Island was not very clear.