Christmas Light Installation in Bedford, MA

The following compilation comes from Ellen Abrams (1999) based on information from Abram English Brown’s History of the Town of Bedford (1891), as well as other sources such as The Bedford Sampler Bicentennial Edition containing Daisy Pickman Oakley’s articles, Bedford Vital Records, New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Town Directories, and other publications from the Bedford Historical Society.

The land now within the boundaries of Bedford was first settled by Europeans around 1640. In 1729 it was incorporated from a portion of Concord (about 2/5 of Bedford) and a portion of Billerica (about 3/5 of Bedford).

In 1630, John Winthrop and Thomas Dudley of the Massachusetts Bay Company arrived aboard the Arabella from Yarmouth, England. After a difficult ten-week voyage, they landed on the shores of the New World, with Salem and Boston Harbor being the Arabella’s earliest destinations. In 1637, the General Court of Massachusetts granted some of land, including Huckins Farm land to the first governor, John Winthrop, and to Deputy Governor Thomas Dudley. The following year, the two men agreed to divide the land so that the parcel south of the two large boulders by the Concord River (Brothers Rocks) belonged to Governor Winthrop and north of the Rocks was to belong to Deputy Governor Dudley. Later, Dudley became governor. Dudley’s son Rev. Samuel Dudley and Winthrop’s daughter Mary were married; thus Brothers Rocks were so named because of this marriage of families.