Mather (Richard) School (first) is established.

Subsequently named for the Dorchester minister, it is located in a one-room log cabin near today’s 2 Pleasant Street. The oldest free, public school in North America and the first in the British Colonies supported by public funds, it is established by Dorchester town meeting and supported by annual fees charged farmers for grazing their cattle on Thompson Island. The first schoolmaster is Rev. Thomas Waterhouse and the first class is made up of six boys. Girls are not admitted in 1754.* The school moves to a new building (second) near Winter Street in 1694,* another new building (third) in 1856, another new building (fourth) on Meeting House Hill in 1871,* and to the current building (fifth) in 1905.* Graduates include police chief William Bratton.