22 Facts About Ralph Wheelock

Ralph Wheelock was an English Puritan minister, American colonial public official, and educator.

Ralph Wheelock is known for having been the first public school teacher in America.

Ralph Wheelock was educated at Clare Hall at the University of Cambridge, where he studied alongside John Milton and John Eliot.

Ralph Wheelock enrolled in 1623, obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1626, and Master of Arts in 1631.

Ralph Wheelock participated in the radical Puritan movement that was then centered at the University of Cambridge.

In 1651, while retaining the Dedham house for rental income or housing extended family, Ralph Wheelock moved his immediate family to Medfield, Massachusetts, which he founded and where he spent the remaining 32 years of his life.

Ralph Wheelock joined the dissenting religious movement known as Puritanism while attending Clare College.

Ralph Wheelock's ordination comes almost four months before the signing of the Cambridge Agreement, where 12 men agreed to the sale of Massachusetts Bay Company shares to those interested in emigrating to the new world.

Ralph Wheelock participated in a plan to create a new settlement further up the Charles River from Watertown, Massachusetts, to be called Contentment.

In 1638, Ralph Wheelock became one of the earliest settlers and a founder of Dedham.

Ralph Wheelock was granted a tract of land in the west end of town, 1 mile from the meeting and school house.

Ralph Wheelock lived there with his wife for over a decade, and played a leading role in the affairs of the town.

Ralph Wheelock was appointed to assist in the surveying the boundaries of the town.

Ralph Wheelock was one of eight "living stones" that formed the First Church and Parish in Dedham.

Ralph Wheelock was the first teacher at this school, and hence the first tax-supported public school teacher in the colonies.

Ralph Wheelock was appointed leader of this effort, and in 1649 he and six others were given the duties of erecting and governing a new village, to be called New Dedham, later renamed Medfield.

Ralph Wheelock's planting field was directly across Main Street from his house lot and ran along Pleasant Street, extending almost to where Oak Street is today.

Ralph Wheelock held the position of representative to the General Court in Massachusetts for Medfield in the years 1653,1663,1664,1666, and 1667.

Ralph Wheelock was the first schoolmaster of the public school in Medfield, which was founded in 1655.

Ralph Wheelock played an active and important role in the settling of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Ralph Wheelock was instrumental in establishing two new towns, and held virtually every office of importance in both of them.

Ralph Wheelock's son, Benjamin, was a founder of the Town of Mendon, Massachusetts.