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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.

Hampshire County, Massachusetts

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

County Seat: Northampton
Year Organized: 1662
Square Miles: 529

Court House:

99 Main Street

Northampton, MA 01060-3175

Etymology - Origin of County Name

For the English county of Hampshire

Demographics:

County QuickFacts: Census Bureau Quick Facts

County History

Hampshire County is a non-governmental county located in the U.S. state of Massachusetts.

Hampshire County was formed in 1662 out of Middlesex County, an original county of the Massachusetts Bay Colony which organized counties in 1643. Like a number of Massachusetts counties, Hampshire County exists today only as a historical geographic region and a judicial district and has no county government.

Geography

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 545 square miles (1,413 km²), of which, 529 square miles (1,370 km²) of it is land and 16 square miles (42 km²) of it (3.01%) is water.

Neighboring Counties:

North: Franklin County
East: Worcester County
South: Hampden County
West: Berkshire County

Cities and Towns:

- Amherst	town
- Belchertown	town
- Chesterfield	town
- Cummington	town
- Easthampton	city	Incorporated Area
- Goshen	town
- Granby	town
- Hadley	town
- Hatfield	town
- Huntington	town
- Middlefield	town
- Northampton (County Seat)	city	Incorporated Area
- Pelham	town
- Plainfield	town
- South Hadley	town
- Southampton	town
- Ware	town
- Westhampton	town
- Williamsburg	town
- Worthington	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."