Henry Phillips (Massachusetts politician)

Henry Phillips (died 1685[1]) was a wealthy businessman and politician from Boston and Dedham, Massachusetts. Phillips was described as "tender and brokenhearted."[2]

Life in Dedham

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] 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.[5] He served one term as selectman in 1645.[6] He briefly owned the land that came to be known as Broad Oak.[7]

Life in Boston

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]

References

1. Lockridge 1985, p. 60.
2. Lockridge 1985, p. 31.
3. Lockridge 1985, pp. 9-10.
4. Lockridge 1985, p. 15.
5. Lockridge 1985, pp. 82-83.
6. Worthington 1827, p. 79-81.
7. Richards, Arthur Wescate (1942). Genealogy: the James Francis Richards branch of a Richards family of New England; that of Edward Richards, Dedham, Massachusetts, 1635-1684. Sarasota, Florida: Star Printing Company. p. 16.

Works cited

• Lockridge, Kenneth (1985). A New England Town. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-95459-3.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)

• 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.