Foxborough Town

Foxborough Town Hall is located at 40 South Street, Foxborough, MA 02035; phone: 508-543-1219.

Beginnings [2]

First settled around 1704, Foxborough was incorporated in 1778. It was named for Charles James Fox, British champion of the American Colonies. In 1781 the Foxborough Foundry was established for casting cannon and cannon balls for the Continental Army. As a result of its rapid industrialization, the town in 1798 passed a pioneering eight-hour-day law for heavy industry, providing "66 cents for eight hours' work and $1.33 for eight hours' work of a man and a team sufficient to carry a ton of weight."

It was the straw bonnet industry, however, which built up the town. Women and children braided and wove straw to help with finances. A certain Mrs. Cornelius Metcalf conceived the idea of adopting orphan children and putting them to work for the preparation of straw — a profitable combination of baby-farm, child labor and sweatshop.

1. Memorial Hall — At the close of the Civil War the people of Foxborough wanted a "more suitable monument" than just a tablet to honor those who served. They erected Memorial Hall in 1868 and dedicated it to "Everyone whose lives were touched by the war." Tablets include the names of those who fought and died in the Civil War as well as veterans of the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812. (source: Town of Foxborough, www.townfoxborough.us, accessed February, 2011.)
2. Federal Writers' Project of the Works Progress Administration for Massachusetts, Massachusetts: A Guide to Its Places and People, American Guide Series, The Riverside Press, Cambridge, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, 1937.