Sudbury was incorporated on 4 Sep 1639. It is located in Middlesex County

In 1637 people in Watertown proposed to start a settlement in what would become Sudbury, no doubt to relieve overcrowding in Watertown itself, where many new immigrants were arriving from England. Most of the early settlers in Sudbury were however not from Watertown, but were new immigrants. Some of them came on the ship "Confidence," which left Southampton, England on 24 Apr 1638, among them John Blanford. In order to set out to settle a new town, one needed permission from the Colonial Court, and one needed to buy the land from the Indians. The first allotted appropriation was about five miles square. It was bounded by Concord on the north, Watertown (now Weston) on the east, on the south by a line running from Nobscot Hill, along the present Framingham and Sudbury boundaries to the Weston town line, and on the west the border ran about two miles east of the present boundary. The second grant corrected a mistake made in the first one, and consisted of an additional mile in length at the southwest and southeast borders. The third tract was granted in 1649, and consisted of the additional two miles along the western border. The first tract was bought from the Indian proprietor Karte in 1638, and so was the second in 1648. The settlers paid five pounds for that tract. For the third tract in 1649 they paid twelve pounds. The settlement began on the eastside of the river. John Parmenter, Sr. and his son John Parmenter, Jr. were also among the first settlers. (Source: Hudson, Alfred Sereno. History of Sudbury, Massachusetts, 1638-1889. N.p.: Town of Sudbury, 1889; pg.58 and following).

Map of Sudbury c. 1650. (Source: Sudbury Archives)