The Fay Family: Southborough, Massachusetts
   
THE FAY FAMILY HOMEPAGE

SOUTHBOROUGH
   
   
   
   
Driving north along route 85 on the way to an intended visit to Marlborough, Massachusetts, a town of great significance to the Fay family (see History of Marlborough, by John G. Phillips Buczek), I saw on the left hand side a cemetery that looked old. I stopped at the cemetery, and was very lucky to meet the Division Superintendent, Department of Public Works, Cemetery Division, Bridget Gilleney. She gave me copies of old public records and lists, and provided enormous help and encouragement. She then sent me to Peggy at the Southborough Library, who provided further information. In back of the library is the original Southborough Cemetery, for which Bridget also provided the data.

I never did make it to Marlborough, but I obtained a great deal of information, to which you will find links below.
   
Southborough itself is just beginning to create a web presence. A good site for providing basic information is Southborough, Massachusetts: A temporary web page [similar information can be found at Southborough.Org, which also has an interesting group of photographs of Southborough around 1900.]

A more fully developed web site is being created at The Town of Southborough, MA. This contains a short summary of the history of Southborough, based primarily on a book Fences of Stone, published in 1990 under the auspices of the Southborough Historic Commission and written by Southborough resident and Fay School teacher Richard E. Noble. This book is still available for purchase, and is an excellent source for the town and the Fays.
   
In the website historical summary, mention is made of the significant part played by Burnett, with a minor mention of Fay and Choate. If you examine the records, however, it becomes clear that Fay and Newton played major roles also. Scott Steward's book, The Fay School, contains an interesting statistic: between 1727 and 1889, 443 Newtons and 334 Fays were born in Southborough (page 10).
   
It was the Burnetts and the Fays whose support of educational excellence resulted in the foundation of The Fay School in Southborough. Eliza Bell Burnett Fay, daughter of Joel Burnett and wife of Sylvester Chamberlin Fay, and her sister Harriet Burnett, started a day school which grew into the present well-known boarding school. The above link discusses the school from the FAY point of view; for the school's website, see The Fay School.
   
There is a webpage for the Southborough Historical Society.
   
SOUTHBOROUGH MASSACHUSETTS
VITAL RECORDS
   
Births Marriages Deaths
   
Transcribed from VITAL RECORDS OF SOUTHBOROUGH, MASSACHUSETTS, To the end of the year 1849.
Worcester, Massachusetts: Published by Franklin P. Rice, 1903
  
   
THE OLD BURIAL GROUND AT SOUTHBOROUGH
   
THE SOUTHBOROUGH RURAL CEMETERY