The town of Stoughton was incorporated by an Act of the General Court on December 22, 1726. Before that time it had been part of Dorchester and had existed as the South Precinct of Dorchester since an act of the General court on December 19, 1715. Since Canton was spun off as a separate town from Stoughton in 1797, all the ancient history of Stoughton is of interest to us and we find recorded some unusual reasons—at least from our modern point of view—for our ancestors to create a South Precinct in Dorchester. For example, it is hard to imagine in our era of swift transportation that the central part of Dorchester was so far away for our forefathers; it also seems strange, in view of our present separation of Church and State, that a South Precinct was needed for the purpose of raising taxes to support a minister.

In an old book called "Canton Records", which records births, marriages and deaths from 1715 – 1845, we find a copy from the records of the General Court of 1715 which explains the reasons for forming the South Precinct in Dorchester.

The words taken from the old records are as follows, with the original spelling and punctuation retained for flavor:

"Upon Reading a Petition of the Inhabitants of the Westerly Part of the Bleu Hills within the Town of Dorchester commonly call’d the New Grant, Importing, That they live very remote from any Place of Public Worship, The nearest being about six miles distant from Dorchester Dedham and Milton Were upon that account very uneasy and Petitioned ye Town of Dorchester that they might be sett off a Precinct by themselves, Whereupon at a Meeting of the Town of Dorchester on the twelfth Day of May 1707, they did by a Vote manifest their Consent thereto, and that the Petitioners should be empowered to agree with and settle an able Minister among themselves, and to raise a Tax to defray the Charges of Building their Meeting House and Maintenance of their minister etc., and chose a Committee who with the Petitioners on the tenth Day of June following agreed upon the place where the Meeting House should stand and now stands, and what should be the Bounds and Limits of their Precinct, As by the Committee’s return may appear, and moreover the Town of Dorcester gave the Petitioners about thirty Pounds towards Building their Meeting House,

That upon this Encouragement the Petitioners sett about building their Meeting House, and in May 1708 petitioned the General Court for Confirmation of what was to be done, and to empower them to do such other Acts as might be agreeable to the Laws and Which pass’d in the House of Representrs, but was Non-Concur’d in Council, That they have improv’d the Rev’d. Mr. Joseph Morse as their Minister for above these eight years, but not ordain’d, Nor the Petitioners enabled to levy a Tax for his Support, Which lays them under very great Inconveniences for want of the Gospel, and as to the Minister’s Support, Which falls heavy upon some while others refuse to pay anything at all.

Humbly Praying that the General Court will please to Confirm the said Town Vote, and the doings of the Committee thereupon, And that they may be a distinct Precinct and Impower’d to choose fit Persons among themselves to asses, and Levy a Tax for the Support of their Minister, and Defraying other Charges and to do such other acts as may be agreeable to the Laws, etc."