Wrentham, like much of the United States, was occupied by American Indians for thousands of years before Europeans arrived and settled. Around 6500 B.C.E., the first of three Indian civilizations arrived from the north. The area now known as Wrentham was called Wollomonopoag, meaning "place of shells." When English settlers arrived in 1635 to establish Dedham, Wollomonopoag lay within the town's limits.
Settlers from Dedham purchased Wollomonopoag from King Philip of the Wampanoag in 1662 and renamed it Wrentham, after a village in England. It was incorporated in 1673. Just 3 short years later, Wrentham was abandoned and largely burned down during King Philip's War. Settlers returned soon after to rebuild the town.
Wrentham grew in the 1700s with the establishment of schools and new parishes (two of which became the towns Franklin and Foxboro).
The 1800s saw the development of the Wrentham-Walpole Turnpike. The town, while still being a farming community, had businesses in boatbuilding, woodworking, and textiles. Irish immigrants made their way into Wrentham in the early- to mid-1800s with the first large wave of immigration during the potato famine. Norfolk and Plainville split off from Wrentham in 1870 and 1906, respectively. In 1907 the Wrentham State School was founded, which is still operational.
The construction of Route 1 (temporarily), Route 495, and Route 95 through Wrentham meant a lot of commercialization and development of the town. By the 1950s, Wrentham was no longer largely a farming community, but rather a suburb serving prime real estate for people working in either Providence or Boston.