Archive:Massachusetts Town Origins

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Massachusetts Town Origins

Author: John Chandler, Version: 1996-02-03

Name and boundary changes of cities and towns. (Note: in New England, a "town" is a political subdivision of a county, not merely a populated place.) Each entry in this file has a date, two names, and a "transaction". The latter is a code for the type of event and comes in two flavors, according to which name is given first. Each event is entered twice, once with each name listed first. Some entries have remarks further explaining the locality. The entries within each county are listed alphabetically by the first name. The entries have the following patterns.

New	was	Old	(change of name, or foundation if "Old" is "---")
Old	became	New
Donor	part to	Donee	(land transferred from one town to another)
Donee	part fr	Donor
New	came fr	Old	(new town created from part of another)
Old	part as	New
Little	joined	Big	(town merged into another, or to another state)
Big	annexed	Little
Little	got fr	State
Town1	bound	Town2	(exchanging land)
Old	gone		(town abolished)