Editing Rehoboth, Massachusetts (section)

==History==
[[File:Rehoboth Congregational Church Massachusetts 1721-2021.jpg|thumb|upright|left|Rehoboth Congregational Church celebrated its 300th anniversary in 2021.]]

Rehoboth was established in 1643 by Samuel Newman (born 1602), Walter Palmer (born 1585), and William Sabin. It was incorporated in 1645, one of the earliest [[Massachusetts]] towns to be incorporated.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.town.rehoboth.ma.us/Pages/index|title=Rehoboth, Massachusetts|publisher= Rehoboth, Massachusetts |access-date=August 25, 2012}}</ref> Newman named the town Rehoboth (Gen. 26:22), the Hebrew scriptural word for "enlargement," (Broad Places) signifying the space settlers enjoyed (God has given us room).<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.epodunk.com/cgi-bin/genInfo.php?locIndex=3104|title=Profile for Rehoboth, Massachusetts, MA|publisher= ePodunk |access-date=August 24, 2012}}</ref>

Early Rehoboth, known as Old Rehoboth, included all of what is now [[Seekonk, Massachusetts|Seekonk]], [[Massachusetts]], and [[East Providence, Rhode Island|East Providence]], [[Rhode Island]], as well as parts of the nearby communities of [[Attleboro, Massachusetts|Attleboro]], [[North Attleborough, Massachusetts|North Attleborough]], [[Swansea, Massachusetts|Swansea]],<ref name="hosm">{{cite book |editor1-last=Wright |editor1-first=Otis Olney |title=History of Swansea, Massachusetts, 1667-1917 |date=1917 |publisher=Town of Swansea |page=3 |url=https://archive.org/stream/historyofswansea00wrig#page/3/mode/1up |access-date=June 10, 2018|oclc=1018149266}}</ref> and [[Somerset, Massachusetts|Somerset]] in Massachusetts, and [[Barrington, Rhode Island|Barrington]], [[Bristol, Rhode Island|Bristol]], [[Warren, Rhode Island|Warren]], [[Pawtucket, Rhode Island|Pawtucket]], [[Cumberland, Rhode Island|Cumberland]], and [[Woonsocket, Rhode Island|Woonsocket]] in [[Rhode Island]]. The town was and still is a site of a crossroads which help to serve [[Taunton, Massachusetts|Taunton]], [[Providence, Rhode Island|Providence]], [[Fall River, Massachusetts|Fall River]] and points to the north.

One of the founding fathers of Rehoboth was [[Samuel Newman]], a clergyman from [[Weymouth, Massachusetts]] who moved to the [[Sakonnet|Seconet]] area near to [[Little Compton, Rhode Island|Little Compton]] in the [[Plymouth Colony]]. Samuel Newman and his followers migrated north and established a huge town common in what is now [[Rumford, Rhode Island]]. They gave the roundabout a distinctive name: "The Ring of the Green." [[Newman Congregational Church]] (founded 1643, current building dates to 1810) still stands at the intersections of Pawtucket Ave, Newman Ave and Ferris Ave.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.eastprovidenceri.net/content/658/default.aspx |title=City of East Providence - History |access-date=October 1, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006174407/http://www.eastprovidenceri.net/content/658/default.aspx |archive-date=October 6, 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The area was known as Rehoboth village.  Somewhat of a celebrity, Newman's famous bible concordance (the third ever printed in English) had just been published in London.  He spent the next few years revising the concordance with a second edition published in 1650 that includes on the title page, "By Samuel Newman, now teacher of the Church at Rehoboth in New England."  According to legend, he worked on the revisions by burning pine knots instead of candles. The concordance, later called the Cambridge Concordance, was reprinted as late as 1889, almost 250 years after it was first published by the founder of Rehoboth.

The [[Rehoboth Carpenter family]] was one of the founding families. Among the earliest purchasers of the land that is now Rehoboth and nearby communities was the [[Frederick S. Peck|Peck family]], who came from nearby Hingham, Massachusetts, initially. Joseph Peck, the brother of the Rev. Robert Peck,[4] the disaffected Puritan who had fled his Hingham church in England, after the crackdown by Archbishop Laud, had purchased sizable tracts of lands from the Native Americans. Peck's son was fined fifty shillings for making continuous sexual advances toward the maid. Peck died in Rehoboth in 1697. These tracts of land Peck willed to his son Samuel, who served as Deputy to the General Court at Plymouth, as well as the first representative from the town of Rehoboth after the Plymouth Colony and Massachusetts were united. The family continued to live in the area through the twentieth century. Today's Pecks Corner in Rehoboth is named for this early Puritan family.

===King Philip's War (1675–1676)===
[[File:Headstone Capt Samuel Peck Rehoboth Massachusetts.png|thumb|right|upright|Headstone of Capt. Samuel Peck, son of Joseph Peck, one of the original settlers of Rehoboth. Peck Burial Yard, Historic Cemetery #13]]
[[Image:Anawan Rock Sign.jpg|thumb|upright|Sign at Anawan Rock Historic Site]]

Rehoboth was a significant site during [[King Philip's War]]. On June 30, 1675,<ref name="kpwar">{{cite web|title=King Philip's War Event Timeline|url=http://kpwar.org/sample-page/timeline/|website=Battlefields of King Philip's War|publisher=Pequot Museum|access-date=February 21, 2017}}</ref> [[Metacomet|King Philip]] led a small force in a surprise attack against the undefended settlement, killing settlers, burning houses, and causing residents to live in constant fear of attack.<ref name="AmHistMag">{{cite web|last1=LaFantasie|first1=Glen W.|title=King Philip's War: Indian Chieftain's War Against the New England Colonies|url=http://www.historynet.com/king-philips-war-indian-chieftains-war-against-the-new-england-colonies.htm|website=HistoryNet|publisher=American History Magazine|access-date=February 21, 2017|date=April 2004}}</ref>

On March 28, 1676, [[Canonchet]] led the [[Narragansett people|Narragansetts]] in a second attack, destroying 42 homes, 21 barns, corn mills and a sawmill.<ref name="kpwar" />

On August 28, 1676, [[Benjamin Church (ranger)|Captain Benjamin Church]] surrounded and captured Anawan, a [[Wampanoag people|Wampanoag]] sachem who had become chief upon the death of [[Metacomet|King Philip]] two weeks earlier.  The Wampanoags had taken a position above Squannakonk Swamp to hide from the colonists. Church's capture and execution of Anawan effectively ended the campaigns in southeastern Massachusetts of [[King Philip's War]]. [[Anawan Rock]], a large [[Puddingstone (rock)|puddingstone]], still marks the location.<ref name="SouthCoastGhost">{{cite web|title=King Philip's War 1675-1676|url=http://southcoastghost.weebly.com/king-phillips-war.html|website=South Coast Ghost|access-date=February 21, 2017}}</ref> Although a desolate place at the time, the rock is not far off modern-day [[U.S. Route 44#Massachusetts|Route 44]].

===Public education===
Rehoboth is the birthplace of [[public education]] in [[North America]].  Upon incorporation, members of the Rehoboth community and Newman Church (in present-day East Providence, Rhode Island) elected to collect funds to pay a teacher for the settlement's children. Church and government were closely tied in early colonial villages, so the word 'public' refers instead to access to education by all children in the community, not just those of wealthy parents. Another town landmark is related to education: The historic [[Hornbine School]], built in 1845, is located in the southeast corner of town and is open to the public for visiting and educational purposes from May to September.

===350th anniversary===
[[File:Rehoboth a right to farm community.jpg|thumb|upright|Rehoboth is a [[Right-to-farm laws|Right to Farm]] community]]
For the town's 350th anniversary in 1992, the town conducted a promotional "take back" of the communities that were once the original Rehoboth.  With encouragement from musket-bearing members of the 13th Continental Regiment, Rehoboth Minutemen, other towns and cities ceremonially 'returned' their land for the duration of the anniversary year celebration.

===Historic places===
{{Main|National Register of Historic Places listings in Bristol County, Massachusetts}}
*[[Anawan Rock]]
*[[Briggs Tavern]], (1780)
*[[Brown House (Rehoboth, Massachusetts)|Brown House]] (1700)
*[[Col. Thomas Carpenter III House]] (1755)
*[[Carpenter House (Rehoboth, Massachusetts)|Carpenter House]] (1789)
*[[Hornbine Baptist Church]] (1753)
*[[Martin Farm (Rehoboth, Massachusetts)|Martin Farm]] (1750)
*[[Nathan Bowen House]]
*Sylvester Round House (Rehoboth, Massachusetts) (1782) site of R.Round Tavern (1810) & Grenville Stephens' store & first post office in Rehoboth, MA