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Massachusetts Counties

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Massachusetts Counties

Massachusetts consists of the 14 counties. Massachusetts has abolished seven of its fourteen county governments, leaving five Counties with county-level local government (Barnstable, Bristol, Dukes, Norfolk, Plymouth) and two, Nantucket County and Suffolk County, with combined county/city government.

Bristol County, Massachusetts

Bristol County History, Geography, Demographics, Cities and Towns, and Education

County Seat: Taunton
Year Organized: 1685
Square Miles: 556

Court House:

9 Court Street
County Courthouse
Taunton, MA 02780-3223

Etymology - Origin of County Name

For its original county seat of Bristol, Massachusetts, which is named for the English port city of Bristol - when the city of Bristol joined Rhode Island, the name of the county was kept

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Bristol County was formed on 2 June 1685 when Old Plymouth Colony was divided into three counties, Plymouth, Bristol and Barnstable. Barnstable and Plymouth counties were named after their county seats. Bristol County, MA county seat is Taunton. Native Americans played a very important role before and during the "settlement" of the area.

Bristol County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, adjacent to the state of Rhode Island. The land that is now Bristol County was part of the Plymouth Colony, which pre-dates the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Part of the county's land has been transferred to Rhode Island over time

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 691 square miles (1,790 km²), of which, 556 square miles (1,440 km²) of it is land and 135 square miles (350 km²) of it (19.56%) is water. The highest point in Bristol County is Sunrise Hill (Watery Hill) at 390 feet above sea level located in World War I Memorial Park in North Attleborough.

Neighboring Counties:

North: Norfolk County
Northeast: Plymouth County
Southeast: Buzzards Bay
Southwest: Newport County, R.I.; Bristol County, R.I.
West: Providence County, R.I.

Cities and Towns:

- Acushnet	town
- Attleboro	city	Incorporated Area
- Berkley	town
- Dartmouth	town
- Dighton	town
- Easton	town
- Fairhaven	town
- Fall River	city	Incorporated Area
- Freetown	town
- Mansfield	town
- New Bedford	city	Incorporated Area
- North Attleborough	town
- Norton	town
- Raynham	town
- Rehoboth	town
- Seekonk	town
- Somerset	town
- Swansea	town
- Taunton (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Westport	town

County Resources:

Enter County Resources and Information Here

County Resources

The history of our nation was a prolonged struggle to define the relative roles and powers of our governments: federal, state, and local. And the names given the counties, our most locally based jurisdictions, reflects the "characteristic features of this country!"

But age, size and colorful names of our counties isn't the only reason to explore counties' role in American history, or the history of county government itself. In fact, the story of county government reflects the larger meanings of American history.

Today's counties are the most flexible, locally responsive and creative governments in the US. They are the most diverse, varying in size, population, geography, and governmental structure. In their politics and policies, they express a 1990's political slogan "Think globally, act locally."