The area of Randolph has probably been occupied for at least three thousand years. The first residents were small semi-nomadic bands living along the shores of the Cochato and Blue Hill Rivers which drain into the Neponset River then into Quincy Bay and eventually to Boston Harbor.

They quarried stone from the Great Blue Hill and fashioned it into projectile points for hunting. Gradually they settled and raised crops of corn, beans, and squash. Families joining together gave rise to the Wampanoag tribe. A trade route starting at Quincy Bay lead along the land between the Bear Swamp and the Cochato River (today's North and South Main Streets). In the Algonquian dialect, which they spoke, they called the region Cochaticquom.

In the early 1600's, encounters with Europeans introduced smallpox and other diseases against which the Native peoples had no immunity. Entire families were wiped out. Later the Pequot and King Phillip's wars lead to a further rapid decline of the native populations.

During the middle of the seventeenth century the Rev. John Eliot of Roxbury (who is mentioned in Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter as the Apostle Eliot) preached amongst the remaining native peoples. By the time of the first European settlement in the early eighteenth century many of the Native Americans had been reduced to servitude.

During King Philip's war, most of the area of present day Randolph and Holbrook was parceled out to settlers from Boston and Braintree. In 1717, there were enough families living there to mark out a burying ground, which exists today as Central Cemetery. In 1726, these settlers petitioned and were granted the right to establish a new south precinct of Braintree. Immediately, they began to construct a meeting house and school in what today is the park in Crawford Square, at the junction of North Main and North Street.

The South Precinct period would last for 63 years. During this time the area saw many new families move in. The first streets were laid out. And a new meeting house for the precinct was built in 1763. Throughout this era there were efforts made to establish a separate township.

In 1745, men from Braintree, probably including the South Precinct, were levied to join the first expedition against the French fortress of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island (in modern day Canada.) This expedition under the Massachusetts Bay Colony's General William Pepperell succeeded in capturing the Fortress to the great consternation of King Louis IV of France. However, in 1748, at the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle, the British negotiators gave the place back to the French. While fatal casualties during the capture were relatively small, over 700 New England troops perished while occupying Louisbourg and perhaps triple that number were wounded or sickened. Later in the French and Indian War of 1756-1758, British regulars under field command of Gen. Wolfe had to retake the Fortress. When the British parliament sought to pay for the cost of that war with a Stamp Tax, how that must have irritated the people of the South Precinct! They had originally captured the fort at their own expense of money and blood, only to see it handed back by a distant and uncaring colonial power (Britain).

Through protests and boycotts, the Stamp Act was repealed, but the parliament in London continued to seek ways to impose taxes on the colonies. Attitudes on both sides hardened. In 1769, British troops were occupying Boston and after the Boston Tea Party the port was closed. In the South Precinct, three companies of militia known as Minute Men were organized. In September 1774, upon hearing a rumor that the British were coming, the militia companies of the South and Middle precincts seized the powder stores held in the North Precinct (modern day city of Quincy.) By mid-morning of April 19, 1775, news of the fighting at Lexington and Concord reached the region. The three militia companies set off for Cambridge, but only arrived after the action was over. During 1775 there were continued alarms and on May 24, 1775 the militia was called out to drive off a British foraging party near Grape Island in Weymouth. After 1776 there was no further fighting in the area. Militiamen served as home guards. About 200 of the younger men served varying terms of enlistment in the Continental Army.

Following the conclusion of the War for Independence (Revolutionary War) local people actively engaged in the effort to draft and then ratify a national Constitution. On February 22, 1792, due to the desire to better manage their local affairs, the North Precinct of Braintree was granted the right to become a separate town (Quincy Mass.). There were similar sentiments in the South Precinct, and after some political machinations the town was incorporated on April 1, 1793.

There remains a mystery as to how the town was named. Obviously, most of the towns of Eastern Massachusetts that were incorporated prior to the War bore the names of Old World towns (Braintree, Boston, etc...). While those incorporated afterwards seemed to have purposefully avoid that practice. The following is an interesting story but whether it is true or apocryphal is a mystery. Supposedly when the North Precinct's Incorporation papers were handed to then Massachusetts Governor John Hancock, the name was left blank with the expectation that he would write in his own name. Instead the papers came back with the name of Quincy, after Josiah Quincy. Two years later, papers for the South Precinct also had a blank space for the town name, expecting that this time the Governor would write in his own name. However, they came back with the name Randolph, after Peyton Randolph (1721-1775) a prominent Virginia lawyer, cousin to Thomas Jefferson, who served as first President of the Continental Congress. If true, this means the town name honors one of the first families of Virginia. Perhaps the deepest mystery of all is why Gov. Hancock, a man of such monumental ego that he would write his name in proud letters on a document that might get him hanged (The American Declaration of Independence), would shirk from inscribing his name on a new town.

Eventually a town in the western part of the state was named after Gov. Hancock, but apparently not by his own doing.

The nineteenth century history of the town is dominated by the growth of rather sparse crops. Randolph sits atop large granite deposits, much of the top soil was scraped away by the great glaciers of the Ice Ages, as a result the most prolific crop that could be grown was rocks.

During the cold winter months, the many small farm families in the area supplemented their income by sewing up shoes. Gradually this cottage industry developed into factories. By the mid nineteenth century many of these had specialized into boot making. There were also factories to make boxes and crates to hold the finished goods.

By 1845 what would later become the Old Colony Railroad, then the New Haven, and now the Old Colony Branch of the MBTA, reached the town. With rail service industry could expand. Over a third of all the people in the town eventually worked in the boot and shoe or related industries.

In 1861, the local militia members, part of the Mass. 4th Regiment, answered the call to go to Washington D.C. to protect the city, they encountered some unpleasantness in Baltimore, perhaps because the locals did not know they came from a town named after a Virginia Patriot. Most of the young men joined the Mass. 35th Regiment and many were killed or wounded at the Battle of Antietam. Others enlisted in individual units or in the Navy.

During the Civil War there was a mini boom and then a bust in the industry. A young soldier from East Randolph (later to become the town of Holbrook) named John E. Warren, who had worked in the boot industry, wrote a letter to his mother asking that a new pair of boots be made up and sent to him. His letter describes the details of making a sturdy pair of boots

In late 1864 gold was discovered in the Montana Territory and prospectors flocked there. Enterprising merchants realized that they would need necessities and even some luxuries, so an order for work and fancy boots was placed with the Howard and French factory in Randolph. The shipment left by train in 1865. At St. Louis, Missouri it was loaded onto a steamboat The Bertrand, which later sank on the Missouri River near the modern city of Omaha in Nebraska. Recovered in 1968, preserved in the airless river mud, the boots and shoes were in like new condition still packed in thier shipping crates. They are now on display at the DeSoto National Wildlife Museum in Iowa. Photos of these are in the Randolph History book Beneath the Elms.

In the latter part of the nineteenth century the boot and shoe industry gradually declined as the area to the south of the town known as North Bridgewater, later to be incorporated in 1872 as the City of Brockton, rapidly developed new and larger shoe factories.

In 1871, there had been pressure building in the part of Randolph known as East Randolph for an independent town. After a little mis-understanding (according to Randolph brethren, the Eastern group used rather stronger language) about the placement of a cupola on top of Stetson Hall as a vent for the gas lighting, the pot boiled over and East Randolph petitioned to be incorporated as a separate town. On February 29, 1872 (yes, on a leap year), the town of Holbrook named after a noted local family and in honor of the sponsor of thier new Town Hall was incorporated.

The Holbrook Historical Society is now a valued partner with Randolph Historical and the two societies often conduct joint meetings. The Holbrook Historical Society is housed at the "Little Red School House" located on Union Street in Holbrook.

By the 1900's the boot and shoe industry was a small remnant of its past size. Randolph residents continued to work locally but many also began to commute to nearby growing industries such as the Fore River Shipyard in Quincy. In the latter part of the Twentieth century most residents are commuters. There exists some light industry in various parts of the town.

During World War I, over 120 young men served in the Army and Navy, Six perished during the war and their names are memorialized in the Town. Central Square was renamed to honor Lt. William Crawford. During World War II, Randolph men and women served all over the world on both land, sea and in the air. Likewise during the Korean conflict, Vietnam and the Gulf War they continued to serve.

In 1993, the Town celebrated its Bicentennial. Today, Randolph is a vibrant and active community, looking forward to its third century of history.