Mattapoisett

Mattapoisett is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 6,268 at the 2000 census. For geographic and demographic information on the village of Mattapoisett Center, please see the article Mattapoisett Center, Massachusetts. Mattapoisett was settled in 1750 and officially incorporated in 1857. Originally a part of Rochester, the area had most likely been visited by European traders and sailors. There is also evid... more

Mattapoisett is a town in Plymouth County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 6,268 at the 2000 census. For geographic and demographic information on the village of Mattapoisett Center, please see the article Mattapoisett Center, Massachusetts. Mattapoisett was settled in 1750 and officially incorporated in 1857. Originally a part of Rochester, the area had most likely been visited by European traders and sailors. There is also evidence of prior Wampanoag Indian settlements, including burial grounds, throughout the town. In fact, the word Mattapoisett is Wampanoag for "a place of resting." Early industry included logging and farming, but Mattapoisett became best known as a center for shipbuilding and whaling. Some 400 ships were built in the town's shipyards from 1740 until the 1870s, including the Acushnet, the ship that Moby-Dick author Herman Melville sailed on and later deserted. The town supplied many of the whalers used on the East Coast in the first half of the... less