The township's largest village, also named Natick, lying 18 m.
In the village of South Natick is the Bacon Free Library (1880), in which is housed the Historical, Natural History and Library Society.
Natick is the Indian name, signifying " our land," or " hilly land," of the site (originally part of Dedham) granted in 1650 to John Eliot, for the praying " Indians.
There was an Indian church in Natick, at what is now called South Natick or " Oldtown," from 1660 to 1716; and for some years the community was governed, in accordance with the eighteenth chapter of Exodus, by " rulers of tens," " rulers of fifties," and " rulers of hundreds."
Henry Wilson learned to make shoes here, and in the presidential campaign in 1840 gained the sobriquet of the " Natick cobbler."