ABSTRACT
Rebecca Dickinson was born in July 1738, the oldest daughter of farmer and dairyman Moses Dickinson and Anna Smith Dickinson. Following tradition, her proud parents named her after her grandmother, Rebecca Barrett Wright Dickinson. The world that Rebecca Dickinson knew in childhood was framed by two great concerns: security in this life and in the life to come. Though Hatfield would become home to some of Massachusetts's most influential citizens, it was never especially large and remained about the same size throughout Dickinson's lifetime. In 1738 Moses Dickinson had distinguished himself for neither property nor thrift. Tax and probate records suggest that he was a man of average means who farmed, keeping the dairy cows and raising mostly grains on about fifteen and a half acres of land. But what he lacked in prosperity he made up for in pedigree.
