Leicester, Massachusetts

Leicester is a village in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 10,970 at the 2010 census.HistoryLeicester was first settled in 1713 and was officially incorporated in 1714. The town was named after Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester.One of the early settlers in town was a Dr. Samuel Green. He lived at 2 Charlton St., in Greenville (which is now part of Rochdale, a village in Leicester). Samuel Green lived in a house at 2 Charlton Street. He was a doctor who trained many other doctors in the early 1700s. This constituted the first medical school in Massachusetts. The Green family was involved in the creation of both Worcester's Green Hill Park and New York City's Central Park.Although no significant battles of the American Revolution were fought in the area, Leicester citizens played a large role in the conflict's start. At a Committee of Safety meeting in 1774, Leicester's Colonel William Henshaw declared that "we must have companies of men ready to march upon a minute's notice"—coining the term "minutemen", a nickname for the militia members who fought in the revolution's first battles. Henshaw would later become an adjutant general to Artemas Ward, who was second in command to George Washington in the Continental Army.