An interesting fact I happened on the other day was that, in its earliest incarnation, our part of the New World was considered part of the Mississippi Territory. This was later changed to the Massachusetts Territory. I would guess that the change came about as the English explorers learned more about the country.
Today’s Massachusetts once consisted of two colonies: the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which had a charter from the King of England, and the Plymouth Colony, which was founded by a group of English merchants. For many years, the two colonies were in competition with each other over land, residents, fishing and trading rights until 1692 when England issued a new Province Charter which united Plymouth to Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Bay Colony was the larger of the two and, until Maine became a state in 1820, claimed counties along the Kennebec River and in the Penobscot region.
From the beginning, the colonies had both towns and counties. County government continues today mostly in Southeastern Massachusetts. Eight of the 14 counties of Massachusetts were abolished between 1997 and 2000 primarily due to fiscal mismanagement. The counties in southeastern Massachusetts are Barnstable, Norfolk, Dukes, Bristol and Plymouth.
Now, back to Rochester’s beginnings. The towns of Plymouth Colony were divided into three counties, Bristol, Barnstable, and Plymouth, and in 1685 the judicial departments of town government were transferred to each county.
Rochester was first placed in Barnstable County, perhaps because of the 20 towns in the Colony only six, counting Rochester, were in that county. I recently found a copy of a 1707 document in our files. It is addressed to his “excellency Joseph Dudley, Esq., Governor Council & Representatives assembled in General Court.” It is a petition from the inhabitants of Rochester in the county of Barnstable and it “Humbly showeth that it is a great burden to the poor inhabitants of (this) Town that we are annexed to the county of Barnstable and would be a great ease to us were we annexed to the County of Plymouth.”
What follows are the reasons for the desired change: “that Rochester is adjacent to Plimouth where cows are held for the county and Plimouth is where most of the towns people go to market with that little that they raise.” Also, “the distance to Barnstable was 12 to 15 miles further than the distance to the Plimouth court” and “indeed for those who need to go to Barnstable they pass through Plymouth 5 or 6 times.” They also referenced the fact that Barnstable was no longer the “the least county” but had grown.
The document ends, “At a meeting of its inhabitants of this town of Rochester regularly assembled to together on the 13th day of March 1707 this above-mentioned petition was publicly read confronted to and approved of by the major part of … inhabitants as acted by them freely.”
attest: Peter Blackmer, Clerk
In the House of Rep. Nov. 4, 1707
Their petition was granted and the transfer to Plymouth County was made in 1709.
Another petition was sent to Boston in 1735 from Rochester and Dartmouth requesting a new county. However, nothing came from it and Rochester has remained a part of Plymouth County for 314 years.
By Connie Eshbach