Thomas Balch (minister)

Thomas Balch (1712-January 8, 1774[1]) was a Colonial minister in South Dedham, Massachusetts.[2][3]

Balch was born in Charlestown, Massachusetts in 1712.[4] He was graduated from Harvard College in 1733.[4]

Balch first took the pulpit on June 30, 1736.[4][3][1] The Balch School was named for him in 1867 in Norwood, Massachusetts.[3][5] A new school was built on the same site in 1913 and is also known as the Balch School.[3]

When Norwood separated from Dedham in 1872, Balch was a potential name for the community.[3] His daughter, Mary, married Manasseh Cutler, and Cutler studied under the elder Balch for the ministry.[2] Another daughter, Hannah, married Jabez Chickering.[6] They also had a son named Jabez Chickering, Balch's grandson.

Balch died on January 8, 1774, 38 years after being ordained.[1][4]

References

1. Worthington, Erastus (1827). The history of Dedham: from the beginning of its settlement, in September 1635, to May 1827. Dutton and Wentworth. p. 116. Retrieved July 17, 2019.
2. McCullough, David (May 7, 2019). The Pioneers: The Heroic Story of the Settlers Who Brought the American Ideal West. Simon & Schuster. p. 4. ISBN 978-1-5011-6869-7. Retrieved July 9, 2019.
3. Cole, Brad (March 5, 2013). "Balch School to celebrate its centennial". Norwood Transcript. Retrieved July 11, 2019.
4. Burgess 1840, p. 515.
5. Slafter, Carlos (1905). A Record of Education: The Schools and Teachers of Dedham, Massachusetts 1644-1904. Dedham Transcript Press. p. 232. 1642-3.
6. Cutler, William Parker; Cutler, Julia Perkins (1888). Life, Journals and Correspondence of Rev. Manasseh Cutler, LL.D. R. Clarke. p. 56. Retrieved June 5, 2021.

Works cited

• Burgess, Ebenezer (1840). Dedham Pulpit: Or, Sermons by the Pastors of the First Church in Dedham in the XVIIth and XVIIIth Centuries. Perkins & Marvin. Retrieved May 3, 2021.