DEDHAM  , a township and the

county seat of Norfolk county, Massachusetts, U.S.A., with an area of 23 sq. m. of comparatively level country . Pop . (189o) 7123; (1900) 7457, of whom 2186 were foreign-born; (1910 U.S. census) 9284 . The township is traversed by the New York, New Haven & Hartford railway, and by interurban electric lines . It contains three villages, Dedham, East Dedham and Oakdale . Dedham has a public library (1854; incorporated 1871) . The Dedham historical society was organized in 1859 and was incorporated in 1862 . The Fairbanks house was erected in part as early as 1654 . Carpets, handkerchiefs and woollen goods are manufactured, and a pottery here is reputed to make the only true crackleware outside the East . Dedham was " planted " in 1635 and was incorporated in 1636 . It was one of the first two inland settlements of the colony, being coeval with Concord . The original plantation, about 20 M. long and 10 m. wide, extended from Roxbury and Dorchester to the present state line of Rhode Island: from this territory several townships were created, including Westwood (pop. in 1910, 1266), in 1897 .

A

free public school, one of the first in America to be supported by direct taxation, was established in Dedham in 1645 . In the Woodward tavern, the birthplace of Fisher Ames, a convention met in September 1774 and adjourned to Milton (q.v.), where it passed the Suffolk Resolves .