Bedford, town (township), Middlesex county, northeastern Massachusetts, U.S. It lies near the Concord River, just northwest of Boston. Settled in 1642, it developed around an Algonquian Indian trading post called the Shawsheen House. It was incorporated in 1729 and named for Bedford, England. The Bedford flag, carried by the minutemen (people who took up arms at a “minute’s notice”) on April 19, 1775, against the British at Concord Bridge, is displayed in the town library; the house of the flag carrier, Cornet Nathaniel Page, is now a historic site. Other landmarks include the Old Burying Ground, with graves of Revolutionary War soldiers, the First Parish Church (1817), and Fitch Tavern (1731).

Bedford’s economy is based on research and engineering associated with high-technology development. Major economic assets are Hanscom Air Force Base (an electronics research centre for both the military and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology) and the MITRE Corporation, a government-sponsored centre for the technological advancement of defense systems. The corporation’s first facility in the area was opened in 1959. Other major employers are Raytheon (defense contracting), Millipore (electronic filters), and a U.S. veterans’ hospital. Area 14 square miles (36 square km). Pop. (2000) 12,595; (2010) 13,320.