The purpose of the Sherborn Widows’ and Orphans’ Benevolent Society, commonly known as the Sherborn Benevolent Society, is to give financial aid or other material assistance to any resident of the Town of Sherborn who has an ongoing or temporary need. A person is considered a resident if he/she is included on the current town census. In the event that there is an individual with a need who works in the town or who has a strong association with the town, the Society may assist this individual or family by a unanimous vote of the Board of Directors.
The Board of Directors is designed to reflect the makeup of the town and have as wide a representation as possible. Directors are assigned to significant entities in the town, such as schools, churches, police and fire departments and other organizations, to act as liaisons and to bring to the Board concerns about individuals or families that may have a need.
The Society has a confidentiality policy that our members uphold, so please feel free to discuss any concerns and needs about an individual or family under your responsibility. It is our hope that you and a Director can work together to ease the burden of our friends and neighbors in times of need. Please contact any Board member if we can be of assistance or provide more information.
Our History
President
1859
Widows’ and Orphans’ Benevolent Society
By Betsy Johnson (2022)
On 19 October 1859 a group of women founded the Sherborn Widows’ and Orphans’ Benevolent Society. Eighty-eight women attended and joined at that organizational meeting, electing officers and a board of directors (two directors from each school district). Five men became honorary members: the three ministers (Theodore Dorr, Amos Clarke, and Edmund Dowse), plus Calvin P. Sanger and his brother-in-law William H. Mellen. (Five of the women were from Calvin Sanger’s family.)
The purpose of the organization was “to aid such indigent widows and orphans as may from time to time be residents of Sherborn; and such other persons, whether males or females, who, though reduced to necessitous circumstances, would shrink from a resort to the town for support….” It was intended to be a private charity, giving additional aid, “not intended… in any way or manner [to] relieve the town of its duty to its poor.”[a]
Dues were fifty cents per year (five dollars for a life membership) and ten dollars for male honorary membership. The Society was allowed to distribute the amount of annual interest received from its funds. After Calvin Phipps Sanger’s initial capital bequest of $2,500 he added to it several times and invested it such that by 1867 the amount had reached $4,000, allowing the group to distribute $400 per year.[b]
During later periods several others also made substantial bequests, namely Aaron Greenwood (1890), Ellen Morse (ca. 1914), and Leonard B. Ranlett (1915).
The Widows’ and Orphans’ Benevolent Society (now shortened to “Sherborn Benevolent Society”) has continued to help Sherborn residents into the present time and is the oldest on-going town organization.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Constitution of the Sherborn Widows’ & Orphans’ Benevolent Society. Boston: John Wilson & Son, 1860. Facsimile copy in Sherborn Historical Society.
Leland, Cora (Sanger). TMs. “The Widows’ and Orphans’ Benevolent Society.” Paper presented before Sherborn Historical Society 14 April 1914.
[a] “Article 2,” Constitution of the Sherborn Widows’ & Orphans’ Benevolent Society, 3, 4.
[b] Cora (Sanger) Leland, “The Widows’ and Orphans’ Benevolent Society,” citing 1879 report by Mrs. William Chamberlain Dowse.
Sherborn Benevolent Society 