Hadley, a township of Hampshire county, Massachusetts, U.S.A., on the Connecticut river, about 20 m. N. of Springfield, served by the Boston & Maine railway. Pop. (1900), 1789; (1905, state census), 1895; (1910) 1999. Area, about 20 sq. m. The principal villages are Hadley (or Hadley Center) and North Hadley. The level country along the river is well adapted to tobacco culture, and the villages are engaged in the manufacture of tobacco and brooms. Hadley was settled in 1659 by members of the churches in Hartford and Wethersfield, Connecticut, who were styled “Strict Congregationalists” and withdrew from these Connecticut congregations because of ecclesiastical and doctrinal laxity there. At first the town was called Norwottuck, but within a year or two it was named after Hadleigh in England, and was incorporated under this name in 1661. Hopkins Academy (1815) developed from Hopkins school, founded here in 1664. The English regicides Edward Whalley and his son-in-law William Goffe found a refuge at Hadley from 1664 apparently until their deaths, and there is a tradition that Goffe or Whalley in 1675 led the people in repelling an Indian attack. From 1675 to 1713 Hadley, being in almost constant danger of attack from the Indians, was protected by a palisade enclosure and by stockades around the meeting-house. From Hadley, Hatfield was set apart in 1670, South Hadley in 1753, and Amherst in 1759.
See Alice M. Walker, Historic Hadley (New York, 1906); and Sylvester Judd, History of Hadley (Northampton, 1863; new ed., 1905).
