FOXBOROUGH, MA
A 300-acre farm was plotted by Captain William Hudson in 1669, and in that year Hudson erected the first dwelling in what was to become Foxborough. The farm was in the vicinity of Wading River and encompassed land around what is now South and Cedar Streets. It also skirted the edge of Lake Mirimichi and extended into Plainville.
Having a farm built on the property, Hudson became the first white settler to leave his imprint on what would eventually become Foxborough. However, it is believed that Hudson never lived on the property but rather leased it for profit. For that reason, he can hardly be considered the first settler in the new territory, although he did begin the process that directly led to the presence of the area’s first homeowner.
The home near Wading River was leased to Richard George and later to John Daniell, who both worked the farm while living there. In July 1670, Squamaug, chief of the Ponkapoags, and King Philip Sachem of the Wampanoags met on Hudson’s property to settle the boundaries of their tribal lands. Those same boundaries would set the limits of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and Plymouth Colony, which are the present boundaries of Norfolk and Bristol counties and the towns of Foxborough and Mansfield.
Foxborough was officially incorporated as a town in 1778 and was named in honor of Charles Fox, a member of the British Parliament who supported the colonists. Other notable years in Foxborough’s history are 1798, the year Eunice Everett made her first straw hat, which lead to the nickname “Straw Hat Capital of the World”; and 1971 the year that construction began on Foxboro Stadium home of the New England Patriots.
The year 2001 also remains fresh in everyones mind as the new home of the Patriots opened as Gillette Stadium, while in 2007 Patriot Place construction began. |
