Editing Taunton, Massachusetts (section)

=== Beginnings ===
Taunton was founded by settlers from England and officially [[incorporation (municipal government)|incorporated]] as a [[New England town|town]] on September 3, 1639. Most of the town's settlers were originally from [[Taunton]] in [[Somerset]], [[Kingdom of England|England]], which led early settlers to name the settlement after that town. At the time of Taunton's incorporation, they explained their choice of name as being "in honor and love to our dear native country."<ref>{{Cite book|title=A History of Taunton, Massachusetts|last=Hanna|first=William F.|publisher=Old Colony Historical Society|year=2008|isbn=978-0-9798867-2-0|location=Taunton, Massachusetts|pages=11}}</ref> Prior to 1640, the Taunton area was called Cohannet, Tetiquet, or Titiquet.

The [[English Empire|English]] founders of Taunton purchased the land from the [[Wampanoag]] Natives in 1637 as part of the Tetiquet Purchase<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=CPr5qFSi7QUC&dq=tetiquet+purchase&pg=PP11 An Historical Memoir of the Colony of New Plymouth], by Francis Baylies, Wiggins & Lunt Press, 1866.</ref> and the remaining native families were relocated to the [[praying town]] of [[Ponkapoag]] in present-day [[Canton, Massachusetts]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=6c0pAAAAYAAJ&q=taunton&pg=PP1 Indian history, biography & genealogy], by Ebineezer Weaver Pierce, published by Zerviah Gould Mitchell, 1878.</ref> [[Elizabeth Poole]], contrary to local folklore,{{efn|"Her name does not appear as one of the original purchasers, although another lady 'Widdo Randall,' does. It is known that Ms. Poole became the owner of land in this vicinity, and an active promoter of its interests."<ref name="qmillbook">{{cite book |year=1889 |title=Quarter Millennial Celebration of the City of Taunton, Massachusetts |url=https://archive.org/stream/quartermillinnia00taun#page/n5/mode/2up |location=Taunton, MA |publisher=Press of Charles H. Buffington, City Government [of Taunton] |pages=33–34, 42 }}</ref> }} did not take part in the town purchase but was among its greatest benefactors and played a significant role in the founding of its church.<ref name="qmillbook" /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/elizabeth-poole-first-woman-found-town-americas/ |title=Elizabeth Poole, the Puritan Who Founded a Town |publisher=New England Historical Society |access-date=February 6, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170206060921/http://www.newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/elizabeth-poole-first-woman-found-town-americas/ |archive-date=February 6, 2017 |quote=She would become the first woman to found a town in the Americas. |url-status=dead }}</ref> Described as "the foundress of Taunton" and its matriarch, Poole "was accorded equality of rights, whether in the purchase of lands, [or] in the sharing of iron works holdings,"<ref name="1924hist">{{cite book |editor1-last=Hutt |editor1-first=Frank Wolcott |year= 1924|volume=I |title=A History of Bristol County, Massachusetts |chapter= Chapter III. The First Comers to Taunton |url= https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=wu.89064065782;view=1up;seq=98|location=New York and Chicago|publisher=Lewis Historical Publishing Company, Inc. |page=74 |quote=Though Elizabeth Poole did not buy 'Taunton,' as the popular account sometimes has it, but only a small portion of the eastern borders of the then unoccupied territory, it is the brief narrative of her coming here that shall always remain like a star in the crown of the beginnings of the city. We have been told of her arrival from England to Tetiquet by way of Dorchester, and how she actively interested herself in every fundamental project of the busy settlement...She was interested in establishing a church here, according to her teaching and light, and with William Hooke and Nicholas Street, Oxford University graduates, she did begin that church. It is plain, too, that here she was accorded equality of rights, whether in the purchase of lands, in the sharing of iron works holdings, or in the establishment of religious interests.}}</ref> having been a financier of the settlement's first dam and mill built for the manufacture of [[wrought iron|bar iron]].<ref name="qmillbook" />{{efn|"Several of the leading citizens of the place, including George Hall, Richard Williams, Walter Deane, James Walker, Oliver Purchis, Elizabeth Poole and others formed a joint stock company with a capital of £600, and built a dam accorss the Two Mile river, on the main road leading to Raynham, and made all the preparations for the manufacture of bar iron from bog ore."<ref name="qmillbook" />}}  Plymouth Colony was formally divided into counties on June 2, 1685, with Taunton becoming the shire town of Bristol County. The counties of Plymouth Colony were transferred to the [[Province of Massachusetts Bay]] on the arrival of its charter and governor on May 14, 1692. The Taunton area has been the site of skirmishes and battles during various conflicts, including [[King Philip's War]] and the [[American Revolution]]. Taunton was re-incorporated as a city on May 11, 1864.