Church and Cemetery Records of Dedham, Mass. 1638-1845

From the introduction:

“Two years ago, upon the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the incorporation of the Town, we published our first volume of Dedham Records from the Town Clerk's books of Births, Marriages, and Deaths—1635 to 1845. The records of the various churches in town contain a large quantity of valuable material not found upon the Town Clerk's records. These church records have been open to the public, but they were scattered throughout the several parishes, were not indexed, and few people have had the time or the patience to attempt to search these books and decipher their contents.

In my report to the town, upon the publication of the first volume, I called attention to the records in the several parishes, and their importance to the town, together with the fact that, in many cases, these books were kept in the private houses of their custodians, in great danger of being lost or destroyed, and that steps should be taken to enable the town to have the benefit of the important information which they contain.

At the last annual meeting, the town made an appropriation toward printing a second volume, which should contain records from the different parishes in town, of public interest, or supplementary to the first volume. Acting under the authority thus given, I have prepared and herewith present this second volume. It contains the records of public interest from four churches and three cemeteries, but only the first book of the First Church has been taken entire; from the other books the covenants, votes and general church records have been omitted, as outside the scope of this work.

The First Book of the First Church is a very important document, and must be recognized as a valuable contribution to the ecclesiastical history of the early New England days. It contains a minute account of the formation of this Church, 1638, the method of selecting a pastor, and other officers, and the process by which they were installed into these important offices, and was written by the hand of Rev. John Allin, the first pastor, and covers nearly the entire period of his ministry.“

“So little time before 1845 was covered by the records of the other churches in town, that it seemed inexpedient to make any use of them here. Following the church records will be found the inscriptions upon the tomb-stones in our three old cemeteries, a valuable record, but, though written in stone, they are far less permanent than one would at first imagine, for stones crumble and break, are frequently neglected and allowed to be covered with moss, and with the action of the elements some become unreadable, others disappear altogether, hence the importance of preserving in print these records. But with these, as with the church records, as a rule, only those items dated prior to 1845 have been taken.”

The four churches are: First Church, Second Church, First Congregational Church, and Episcopal Church. The three cemeteries are: Third Parish Cemetery, Ancient Burial Ground, and South Parish Cemetery.

This database contains 4,686 baptisms, 2,434 marriages, 3,460 deaths, 1,844 admissions, and 370 dismissals. The images of the original book pages may be viewed from the search results page.

This volume is also available in our Boston research library, call number: F74.D3 D34 1888.

To locate additional genealogy and local history resources, search our library catalog.