The Jedediah Foster Homesite is a historic archeological site on Foster Hill Road in

West Brookfield, Massachusetts West Brookfield is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 3,833 at the 2020 census. Lucy Stone was born in West Brookfield, and George and Charles Merriam, the publishers of Webster's Dictionary, were rai ...

. The site was the location of the stately 18th century home of

Jedediah Foster Jedediah Foster (October 10, 1726October 17, 1779) was a judge and advocate for independence during the American Revolution, and ultimately a justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. Foster was born in Andover, Massachusetts and studi ...

, which was built in 1735 by his father-in-law,

Joseph Dwight General Joseph Dwight (17031765) was a military and civil leader and judge in the British American Province of Massachusetts Bay. Life Joseph Dwight was born in Hatfield, Massachusetts on October 16, 1703. He graduated from Harvard College in 172 ...

. Dwight (1703-1765) was a leading military figure in colonial Massachusetts, and was active locally in public service. Foster (1726-1779) was one of the most influential figures of his day in central Massachusetts. He served in the provincial assembly from 1761 to 1775, and supported

American independence The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...

. In 1779 he was a member of the select committee of the constitutional convention that drafted the

Massachusetts State Constitution The Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts is the fundamental governing document of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, one of the 50 individual state governments that make up the United States of America. As a member of the Massachuset ...

(although

John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, attorney, diplomat, writer, and Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father who served as the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Befor ...

is generally credited with doing most of the committee's work). Foster's home remained in family hands until it was given to the Quaboag Historical Society in 1902. It was shortly afterward destroyed by fire, and only foundations and other remnants survive. It is now a small local park. The site was listed on the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 2013.

References

National Register of Historic Places in Worcester County, Massachusetts West Brookfield, Massachusetts {{WorcesterCountyMA-NRHP-stub Archaeological sites on the National Register of Historic Places in Massachusetts

See also

References