Francis Chickering was an early settler of Dedham, Massachusetts, who served in the Great and General Court of Massachusetts and on that town's Board of Selectmen for 15 years. He was also a teacher in the first public school in America, today well known as the Dedham Public Schools.
He arrived in Dedham in 1637 from Suffolk, England, with his wife, Ann, and was admitted as a freeman in 1640.
Together, they had Elizabeth in 1638, Bethia in 1640, and Mercy in 1648. He was possibly the brother of Henry Chickering, with whom he served in the General Court.[1] He was a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company.
Chickering was a part-owner of a mill on Mother Brook, the first man-made canal in America. The Town was displeased with the "insufficient performance" of the mill under Nathaniel Whiting's management and so, in 1652, Whiting sold his mill and all town rights to John Dwight, Chickering, Joshua Fisher, and John Morse for £250.[8] Whiting purchased it back the following year, however.
Though the schoolhouse was still standing, in 1661, school was kept in Chickering's home.[4] He signed the Dedham Covenant.
He was an ancestor of Jabez Chickering and Hannah B. Chickering.
(Wikipedia)
Brief Life History of Francis
When Francis Chickering was born in 1597 in Suffolk, England, his father, Henry Chickering, was 38 and his mother, Mary, was 30. He married Anne Fiske about 1629 in Suffolk, England. They were the parents of at least 3 sons and 7 daughters. He lived in Dedham, Dedham, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States, in 1636 and the Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America in 1639. He died on 2 October 1658, in Dedham, Suffolk, Massachusetts Bay Colony, British Colonial America, at the age of 61, and was buried in Old Village Burying Ground, Dedham, Norfolk, Massachusetts, United States.
(LDS)
