In 1836, Samuel Boyd, known as the 'father of the city,' and his brother Joseph, opened the first shoe manufacturing business - an act that would change the community forever. Many travelers stopped at its inns and taverns, including George Washington, who visited the Williams Tavern soon after his inauguration in 1789. As population, business, and travel grew in the colonies, Marlborough became a favored rest stop on the Boston Post Road. In 1711 Marlborough's territory included Northborough, Southborough, Westborough and Hudson. The settlement was almost destroyed by Native Americans in 1676 during King Philip's War. This is the only record of names of the natives. In 1674 a deed was drawn up dividing the land between the settlers and the natives. Marlborough was one of the seven 'Praying Indian Towns' because they were converted to Christianity by the Rev.

The Puritan minister Reverend William Brimstead became the first minister of First Church in Marlborough, William Ward the first deacon and Johnathan Johnson was the first blacksmith. Sumner Chilton Powell wrote, in Puritan Village: The Formation of a New England Town, 'Not only did Rice become the largest individual landholder in Sudbury, but he represented his new town in the Massachusetts legislature for five years and devoted at least eleven of his last fifteen years to serving as selectman and judge of small causes.' Ĭity Hall (1905) by Allen, Collins & Berry Rice was elected a selectman at Marlborough in 1657. It was first settled in 1657 by 14 men led by Edmund Rice, John Ruddock, John Howe and a third John named John Bent in 1656 Rice and his colleagues petitioned the Massachusetts General Court to create the town of Marlborough and it was officially incorporated in 1660. The village was named after Marlborough, the market town in Wiltshire, England. In the 1650s, several families left the nearby town of Sudbury, 18 miles west of Boston, to start a new town. The settlers were welcomed by the Indians because they protected them from other tribes they were at war with. He could speak the language of the Algonquian Indians though the local tribe referred to themselves as the Pennacooks. John Howe in 1656 was a fur trader and built a house at the intersection of two Indian trails, Nashua Trail and Connecticut path. It was incorporated as a city in 1890 when it changed its municipal charter from a New England town meeting system to a mayor–council government. Marlborough became a prosperous industrial town in the 19th century and made the transition to high technology industry in the late 20th century after the construction of the Massachusetts Turnpike.

The population was 41,793 at the 2020 census. Marlborough is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States.

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