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Norfolk County

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This is a provisional page, here as a starting point for this family community.

We welcome more details, photographs, history, or even a complete re-write.

And of course
web links to your communities web sites.
Norfolk County, Massachusetts

Population: 620,000
Land area: 400 square miles

Excerpts from the History of Norfolk County
by Dorothy Peck, County Administrator

In 1793, Dedham was selected as the shiretown for the new County of Norfolk MA, and an influx of lawyers, politicians, and people on county business forced the town to abandon its traditional insularity and its habitual distrust of newcomers.
(This is a real 'Norfolk' touch - all Norfolk people are traditionally distrustful of newcomers!). The county of Norfolk MA, as first incorporated, included all the original territory of Suffolk, except for towns of Boston and Chelsea. On May 10, 1643, the Colony of Massachusetts Bay was divided into four counties; Essex, Middlesex, Suffolk and Norfolk. Thus Norfolk County originally had the towns of Haverhill, Salisbury, Hampton, Exeter, Dover and Portsmouth.
Salisbury, Hampton, Exeter & Dover were set off to New Hampshire with state separation in 1680. The remaining towns were set back to Essex county on 4 Feb 1680 and the Original County of Norfolk ceased to exist. Norfolk County MA consists of twenty-eight eastern Massachusetts communities, located to the South and West of Boston. The County was incorporated as a regional governmental entity in 1793, and has its county seat at the town of Dedham.

Norfolk County MA is proud of its heritage - it is the only county in the nation to boast of having four Presidents - John Adams, John Quincy Adams, John F.Kennedy, and George Herbert Walker Bush.
The Adams National Historical Park is situated in the City of Quincy and the family story is that of five generations (1720-1927) to include two Presidents and First Ladies, three United States Ministers, historians, writers and family members who supported these public figures.
Norfolk County MA has 185 farms and their average size is 53 acres and employs 42 workers who are on the farm more than 150 days per year. The major crop is Greenhouse and Nursery production whilst the second is Vegetables and the third Dairy.

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