The Heywood Tavern, located at the site of the current deadhorse hill restaurant, was owned and operated by Daniel Heywood, whose family had operated the tavern since 1722. Its clientele was mostly Tory in outlook. It was one of the oldest taverns…

In the 1770s Elijah Dix was an apothecary (meaning doctor) in Worcester, where he not only tended to patients but was part of the Patriot group. His medical and social connections extended to Boston as well as Worcester and included the Patriot…

In 1775 Isaiah Thomas was 25 years old. Already he had established a reputation as a troublemaker, an expert publisher, and an ardent Patriot. His newspaper, The Massachusetts Spy, published in Boston, with a large paid subscribership, gave voice to…

As Worcester County’s shire town (county seat), Worcester was where the Court of Common Pleas and Court of General Sessions of the Peace were held four times a year. When Court Week was in session, people from all over Worcester County came to sue…

The Boston Post Road, which first came into existence in the 1670s, was Worcester’s means of accessing the wider world. To the east were the towns of Shrewsbury, Northborough, Marlborough and then Boston. To the west was the city of New York by way…

In the days and weeks following the battles of Lexington and Concord, militiamen from all parts of New England formed a siege around the British army garrisoned in the town of Boston. When George Washington, the newly named commander of the…

In 1755 the town of Worcester sent its minister, Thaddeus Maccarty, to Cambridge. His mission was to observe the new graduates of Harvard College and to offer to one of them the position of teacher. Maccarty, himself a Harvard alumnus, listened to a…

Worcester’s Police Headquarters is located where Timothy Bigelow’s house and forge stood. In this house, on the banks of the Mill Brook that ran through the town, Bigelow not only lived but worked as a blacksmith. In 1767 he was awarded a license to…

Worcester’s Rural Cemetery, located on Grove Street, was not a burial ground during the Revolution but became the final resting place for many who either participated in or observed the events of 1774 and after. Much of the land had originally been…

Boston-born Thomas Hancock was one of the wealthiest merchants in Massachusetts. In 1744 he adopted his 8-year old nephew, John. Twenty years later, when Thomas died, young John inherited the estate which included Thomas’s property in Worcester.…