Foxborough, Massachusetts
town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States
Foxborough is a town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. Located within the Boston metropolitan area, it sits approximately 22 miles (35 kilometers) southwest of the city in Massachusetts' MetroWest region. As of the 2020 census, the population was 18,618.
"Foxborough" is the official spelling of the town name per local government, but the abbreviated spelling "Foxboro" is common and is used by the United States Postal Service.
Foxborough is the location site of Gillette Stadium, home of the New England Patriots of the National Football League (NFL) and the New England Revolution of Major League Soccer (MLS).
History
Settled in 1704 and incorporated in 1778, the town of Foxborough was named for Charles James Fox, a Whig member of Parliament and a staunch supporter of the Colonies in the years leading up to the American Revolution.
The town was once home to the world's largest straw hat factory, erected in 1886. The building became the Bay State Boot and Shoe Company which closed in 1891. In 1894, the building became the Inman and Kimball hat factory. It burned to the ground during a spectacular mid-day fire in 1936.
“Foxborough, Massachusetts” enters the record as town in Norfolk County, Massachusetts, United States. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Foxborough, Massachusetts and town can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Foxborough, Massachusetts” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Foxborough, Massachusetts and town provides the most credible route into that argument.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q830669. VIAF identifies the subject as 138423099. The Library of Congress control number is n84064737. Authority coordinates are 42.065, -71.250. 4 of 6 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2020, 1704, 1778 and 1886.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Foxborough, Massachusetts”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Foxborough, Massachusetts primary sources, Foxborough, Massachusetts archive and Foxborough research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Foxborough, Massachusetts”?
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- Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Foxborough, Massachusetts” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.