| Town | Minister/dates served | Date/name/source/notes |
| Bellingham | (Jonathan Mills 1727-1739) | Great difficulty calling and keeping a settled minister. Mills and congregation had disagreements. Mills left. Town tried to call another minister unsuccessfully. In 1747 Court agreed to not hold town responsible to maintain a church. People attended churches in other towns. Bellingham also had a population of Baptists & Quakers who were excused from going to the Congo church. |
| Dedham (proper) | Rev. John Allin 1639-1671 Rev. William Adams 1673-1685 Rev. Joseph Belcher 1693-1723 Rev Samuel Dexter 1724-1755 Rev. Jason Haven 1756-1803 | 1741 & 1752/Primus/CR (negro servant of Dexter) |
| Second Parish Dedham (Norwood) | Rev. Thomas Balch 1735-1776 Rev. Jabez Chickering 1778- | 1744/death of Flora & 2 babies/CR |
| Third Parish Dedham (Westwood) | Rev. Josiah Dwight 1735-1742 Rev Andrew Tyler 1743-1780 Rev. Tho Thatcher 1780-1812 | 1748-56/Weston/ CR swept church |
| Fourth Parish Dedham (Springfield) Dover | Benjamin Caryl (1762-1812) | |
| Second Parish of Wrentham (Franklin) | Rev. Elias Haven 1738-1754 Rev. Caleb Barnum 1760-1768 Rev. Nathaniel Emmons 1773-1827 | 1754/Haven will: had money due for (the sale of?) a servant girl, Ginne & 2 calf skins 1776/Barnum will: had a negro man servant “Adonis” or “Adam” |
| Natick | Rev. John Elliot 1651- Rev. Oliver Peabody 1721-1752 Rev. Stephen Badger 1752-1799 | John Elliot, who converted Indians to Christianity, decried the treatment of the African slaves. He “lamented . . . with a bleeding and burning passion, that the English used their Negroes but as their Horses or the Oxen, and that so little care was taken about their immortal Souls.” 1752/will of Peabody/gives wife negro servant Rose…then at death of wife Rose gets freedom & negro man servant, Prince, freed year after Peabody’s death. |
| Needham | Rev. Jonathan Townsend 1719-1762 Rev Samuel West 1764-1788 | 1754/Homer/death in CR |
| Medfield | Rev. John Wilson 1651-1691 Rev. Joseph Baxter 1697-1745 Rev. Jonathan Townsend, Jr. 1745-1769 Rev. Thomas Prentiss 1770-1814 | 1745/Nanny/will of Baxter. (gave to wife, promised freedom at wife’s death.) (Townsend left will; no slave) |
| Medway (this church is now in Millis) | Rev. David Deming 1715-1722 Rev. Nathan Bucknam 1724-1786 | 1736 Buckham sold his slave, London to Jasper Adams. 1792/Flora/CR (recorded death) (NOTE the first church of Medway is now in Millis, was East Medway, then became Millis) |
| West Precinct of Medway | Rev. David Thurston 1752-1769 Rev. David Sanford 1773-1810 | 1758/Cato Fourtunatus birth/son of Fillis, negro servant of David Thurston (Thurston died 1777; admin. No slaves) Dea. Thomas Sanford owned a slave Jeffrey, who killed Sandford’s wife |
| Walpole | Rev. Phillips Payson 1728-1774 Rev. George Morey 1783-1829 | 1745/Gus/will of Rev. J Swift |
| Wrentham | Rev Samuel Mann 1652-1719 Rev. Henry Messinger 1719-1750 Rev. Joseph Bean 1750-1784 | (Sam Mann, had a will; no slaves noted) (Henry Messenger; no will) |
It is so interesting to see that practically, all the ministers in the “mother of town” communities that were set off from the original Dedham Land Grant were slave owners
Laurie L. Kearney 