NORTH CENTRAL MASSACHUSETTS
A selected list on the origin of town/city names
prepared by Prof. Thomas Malloy,
Mt. Wachusett Community College

ORIGINAL TOWNS: The first towns in Northern Worcester County were Rutland (1722) and Lunenburg (1728). They are not included in the North Central Mass. study area.

Narragansett Towns

(Land Allocated because of a town’s service in Narragansett raid in King Philip’s War)

Westminster ( #2)

Named after England’s ecclesiastical center

Settled in 1737

Dist. In 1759, Inc. in 1770

Templeton (#6)

Named after John Temple, a British colonial agent

Settled in 1751

Inc. in 1762

CANADA TOWNS

(Land allocated because of town’s service on Canada Expedition in French & Indian Wars)

Ashburnham (Dorchester Canada)

Named after Second Earl of Ashburnham

Settled in 1736

Inc. in 1765

Winchendon (Ipswich Canada)

Named after a town in Buckinghamshire

Settled in 1751

Inc. in 1764

OTHER PRE-REVOLUTIONARY TOWNS

Leominster (1740 from Lancaster), Fitchburg (1764 from Lunenburg) , Princeton (1771 from Rutland) and Barre (1774 from Rutland) are not included in study area.

Petersham

Named after an English town

Settled in 1733

Inc. in 1754

Athol

Named for the second Duke of Athol in Scotland

Settled in 1735 as Pequoiag

Inc. in 1762

Royalston

Named for Isaac Royall, an original land owner who was a loyalist and left for England in 1776.

Settled in 1762

Inc. in 1765, last land grants in Worcester County

AFTER THE REVOLUTION

Gardner

Named for Colonel Thomas Gardner of Cambridge who died of wounds he received at the Battle of Bunker Hill

Settled in 1764

Inc. in 1785 from lands taken from Winchendon, Ashburnham, Westminster, and Templeton

Hubbardston

Named for Thomas Hubbard, speaker of the Massachusetts House of Representatives

Settled in 1737

Inc. in 1786 from Rutland

Phillipston

Settled in 1751

Inc. in 1786 from Templeton

Originally named Gerry after Massachusetts statesman Eldridge Gerry. In 1814 renamed Phillipston after William Phillips who was the Lieutenant Governor.


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