Henry Phillips (politician)

Phillips moved from Boston to Dedham in 1637,[1] two years after the town was first settled and one year after it was incorporated. He was a member of the church and a militia officer.[1] Though he received "better than average" dividends of land,[1] he complained in 1656 that too many people had been admitted to the town commons, diluting the value of his interest.[3] He led a group of dissatisfied settlers in a rare public complaint.[4][1][5] He brought his complaint before the General Court, which was an action even more rare in a community whose covenant called for disputes to be resolved by local mediation.[6] He served one term as selectman in 1645.[7] He briefly owned the land that came to be known as Broad Oak.[8]

He had a brother, Nicholas, who also lived in Dedham, and was likely related to Rev. George Phillips of Watertown.[9]

Upset about the distribution of land, Phillips returned to Boston in 1656.[1] There he became a deacon at First Church in Boston and a delegate to the Great and General Court of Massachusetts.[1] He also worked as a butcher.[1] His death in 1685 was mentioned in Samuel Sewall's diary.[1]

• Lockridge, Kenneth (1985). A New England Town. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-95459-3.
• Worthington, Erastus (1827). The history of Dedham: from the beginning of its settlement, in September 1635, to May 1827. Dutton and Wentworth. Retrieved November 8, 2019.
• Hanson, Robert Brand (1976). Dedham, Massachusetts, 1635-1890. Dedham Historical Society.