The Town of East Sudbury split away from the western parish and was formally incorporated on April 10, 1780.

"[3] On March 11, 1835, members of town meeting voted to rename East Sudbury "Wayland" in honor of Dr. Francis Wayland, who was a temperance advocate, abolitionist, then president of Brown University, and a friend of local Judge Edward Mellen.

[4] When questions arose about the legality of taxing residents to establish a library, Representative Reverend John Burt Wight brought the question to the state legislature, which led to an 1851 Massachusetts state law enabling the establishment of free public libraries.

Edmund Sears, the minister of the First Parish Church, who wrote the 1849 poem and song "It Came Upon the Midnight Clear" and abolitionist, author, and suffragist Lydia Maria Child.

"[6] In 2010, Boston Duck Tours was asked to help transport flood victims in Wayland.

Torrential rains had left Pelham Island area of Wayland isolated and the Ducks were brought in to ferry people in and out of their neighborhood until the waters receded.

Wayland borders Lincoln, Sudbury, Weston, Framingham, Natick, and narrowly touches Concord.

The town is part of the Massachusetts Senate's Norfolk, Bristol and Middlesex district.