The Town of Wareham became incorporated in 1739 through a legislative process. Did you know that the General Court of Massachusetts had to be petitioned in order to become a separate precinct?  In 1738, Israel Fearing, then Justice of the Peace, was sent on horseback, carrying the petition to Boston. There he met Plymouth Representative, James Warren, to whom he delivered the petition along with a fee of twenty shillings.

But many of the residents preferred that the area become a town rather than a precinct. Consequently, a second petition was prepared in 1739 by Ebenezer Burgess, Thomas Hamlen and others and was delivered. The petition was granted and the bill was signed by Governor Jonathan Belcher on July 10, 1739. The fee for this second petition was quite a bit more. In Israel Fearing’s “Booke” (or record he kept since 1722), he lists the amounts donated by private citizens totaling 54 shillings including ten of his own.

While the population of the town in 1739 is unknown, at that time, any town that contained forty voters was entitled to a representative in Boston. For forty years following incorporation Wareham did not qualify, but was allowed to send an agent instead of a representative to be heard at the General Court in Boston.