Eliphalet Pond (1704-1795) represented Dedham, Massachusetts in the

Great and General Court The Massachusetts General Court (formally styled the General Court of Massachusetts) is the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name "General Court" is a hold-over from the earliest days of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, w ...

Personal life

Pond was born in Dedham in 1704. He served as an officer in the militia. Pond married Elizabeth Ellis is 1727 and worked as a farmer. He also bought and sold land. He had a son Eliphalet Pond, Jr.

Political life

He represented Dedham in the

Massachusetts House of Representatives The Massachusetts House of Representatives is the lower house of the Massachusetts General Court, the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. It is composed of 160 members elected from 14 counties each divided into single-member ...

in 1761 and 1763. He was also

town clerk A clerk is a senior official of many municipal governments in the English-speaking world. In some communities, including most in the United States, the position is elected, but in many others, the clerk is appointed to their post. In the UK, a Tow ...

for a total of 12 years, from 1747 to 1754, and in 1757, 1758, 1763. He served as selectman from 1744 to 1754 and in 1757, 1758, and 1763. He was also the Town Meeting moderator in 1756, 1761, 1762, and 1763. He opposed the call of

Jason Haven Jason Haven (March 2, 1733 – May 17, 1803) was the longest serving minister of the First Church and Parish in Dedham. Personal life Haven was born on March 2, 1733, in Framingham, Massachusetts. He was graduated from Harvard College in 1754. Whil ...

to minister at the

First Church and Parish in Dedham First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1). First or 1st may also refer to: *World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement Arts and media Music * 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...

, and for years on end requested to transfer to the third precinct church. In May 1774, Pond signed a letter with several other addressed to Governor Thomas Hutchinson that was, in the opinion of many in Dedham, too effusive in praise given the actions the British crown had recently taken on the colonies. A group confronted him the day after the

Powder Alarm The Powder Alarm was a major popular reaction to the removal of gunpowder from a magazine near Boston by British soldiers under orders from General Thomas Gage, royal governor of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, on September 1, 1774. In respo ...

. What happened next is unclear. According to Pond's own account, he spoke calmly with the group and they were satisfied that he was a patriot. In others, he and his black servant, Jack, had to hold off a mob by pointing muskets out the second story window.

Legacy

Land he owned was eventually sold to Hannah B. Chickering, who established the Temporary Asylum for Discharged Female Prisoners on it. Today, the land has a housing development and the

Baby Cemetery Baby Cemetery is an historic cemetery in Dedham, Massachusetts. The 3,000 square foot plot of land is located at the end of Pond Farm Road, near the border with Westwood. In 1863, Hannah B. Chickering established the Temporary Asylum for Disc ...

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Works cited

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pond, Eliphalet Members of the colonial Massachusetts General Court from Dedham 1704 births 1795 deaths Dedham, Massachusetts selectmen Dedham Town Clerks