New Braintree is located halfway between Worcester and Springfield Massachusetts.
Worcester, Springfield, and Braintree are all the names of English towns which were reused by the early settlers in New England, and they must have been very homesick, because they kept coming back to the same names, all of which are found in other New England states.
Unlike those other places, there is only one
So New Braintree is named after Braintree, and of course Braintree is named after Braintree, England.
But why the funny name?
I still don't know. Some of the mystery was removed after I discovered the Brain and Pain rivers, which meet in old Braintree.In February of 2002, I made a two hour visit to Braintree, England. (My schedule was dictated by the bus route and a desire to reach Cambridge before dark.) Although the history of the name wasn't on the tip of anyone's tongue, the town library has a shelf of local histories, and several of them talk about the name. (I forgot to take notes, so I can't properly credit the following information, which may also be distorted by memory error.)
Braintree was mentioned in the Domesday book as Breonctreu, and this is the oldest record of the name. It seems like this is a compound Anglo-Saxon word, and if so, the treu part is probably the word which has become "tree", but in the absence of standardized spelling, it's not certain whether the Breonc part is an Anglo-Saxon word (could have been an older name, maybe Celtic) or if it is Anglo-Saxon, what it is. Might be the word for council, sometimes elsewhere spelled as bran. Might be the word for hill, sometimes elsewhere spelled as bunc.
It seems likely that the current spelling was influenced by the neighboring village of Rayne, and since none of the histories mentioned the Brayne or Braine river as relevant to the name of the town, it's possible that the river is actually named after the town and not the reverse, as I originally surmised. The Pain is now known as the Black.
In short, knowing more, I know less. And the origins of names do sort of get lost. One of the things I observed on my trip to Braintree is that there are plenty of English placenames which look like English words, but probably aren't. For example the village of Bocking isn't evidence for an uncommon verb, to bock, but instead for a tendency to spell words so they look like other words we know.
Why aren't I speculating on Massachusetts, which is apparently an Indian name?
New Braintree is celebrating its 250th anniversary in 2001.
The Worcester Telegram and Gazette has a page of New Braintree facts, some of which are unreliable.
The Massachusetts DHCD has a page for New Braintree, too.
Much of the same information is in this page.
So does Yahoo
One of the big employers in New Braintree is New Braintree Grade School
One of the big employers in New Braintree is The State Police academy
A smaller business with a web page is Stillman's Farm
A smaller business with a web page is Greengate Farm