Norfolk County, Massachusetts: History
One of the original counties of the Massachusetts Bay Colony created on May 10, 1643, was called Norfolk, and is unrelated to the current Norfolk County. It covered territory in what is now New Hampshire, and was abolished on September 18, 1679, when King Charles II separated the Colony of New Hampshire from Massachusetts.
Shortly after the Constitution of Massachusetts was adopted on October 25, 1780, a number of towns in Suffolk County, of which Dedham was then a part, elected delegates to a convention to decide upon some policy relative to the division of the county. The convention met at Gay's Tavern in Dedham on 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, along with the Middlesex County towns of Holliston, Hopkinton, Natick, and Sherborn ought to be formed into a new county with Medfield as the shiretown. The Great and General Court did not look favorably upon the resolution, however, and no new county was then created.
Norfolk County, Massachusetts was created on June 20, 1793. Legislation passed in March which separated off all the towns in Suffolk County except Boston and Chelsea (which at the time included what are now Revere and Winthrop). Dedham was designated as the "shire town". Hingham and Hull petitioned to remain in Suffolk County and on the day the law was to take effect, their removal to Norfolk County was repealed, making Cohasset an exclave. In 1803, they were moved into Plymouth County, Massachusetts.
On June 22, 1797, the town of Natick was given to Middlesex County, and the town of Needham was transferred from Middlesex to Norfolk. The towns of Dorchester and Roxbury were part of Norfolk County when it was created but, as Boston annexed each town in stages from 1804 to 1912, they became part of Suffolk County again, leaving Brookline separated from the rest of Norfolk County. No other changes have been made to the territory of Norfolk County, other than new municipalities being created within its boundaries, and minor border adjustments.
Norfolk County is the birthplace of four Presidents of the United States (John Adams, John Quincy Adams, John F. Kennedy, and George H. W. Bush), resulting in the moniker "County of Presidents." …