TAUNTON, a city of Massachusetts, U.S.A., one of the county seats of Bristol county; 35 m. S. of Boston, at the head of ocean navigation on the Taunton river, 14 m. above Fall River. It is served by the New York, New Haven and Hartford railroad and several steamship lines. Pop. (1920) 3 7,13 7 (27% foreign born white, largely from the Atlantic islands, Portugal, Canada and Ireland) and 37,355 in 1930 Federal census. Within the corporate limits of the city (which has an area of 44.25 sq.m.) are six villages. The old "common," fringed with lofty elms, is the centre of the business section of the modern city, and about a mile from "the Weir," at the harbour. Its manufacturing indus tries are extensive and varied, including large cotton mills, bri tannia-ware factories and stove foundries. The aggregate output in 1927 was valued at $30,643,231. The city's assessed valuation for 1927 was $41,380,020. Taunton was founded in 1638, and became the frontier town of Plymouth Colony. Myles Standish was engaged on the original survey. The town was incorporated in 1639, taking the name of the English home of many of the settlers. It was a base of operations during King Philip's War.
In 1686 it refused to comply with the demands of Sir Edmund Andros for a tax levy. In 1774, after the passage of the Boston Port Bill, a red flag inscribed "Liberty and Union" was raised on the Common in token of sympathy with Boston. During the Shays Rebellion the court-house was twice besieged by insurgents, who were dispersed on both occasions by one of the judges, Gen. David Cobb. Industrial development began with the establish ment of ironworks in 1656. Brick-making and ship-building were important early industries, and for some time Thomas Coram, founder of the London Foundling hospital, was one of those en gaged in the latter. In the adjoining town of Berkley is the famous Dighton Rock, with inscriptions long attributed to the Norsemen, but now known to be the work of Indians. Taunton was chartered as a city in 1864. It was one of the first cities in the United States to operate its own electric-lighting plant, which it acquired in 1897.