Editing Yarmouth, Massachusetts (section)

===Plymouth Colony settlement===

Yarmouth was organized and incorporated<ref>{{harvnb|Swift|1890|p=460}}: "When the scattered communities which composed the Plymouth colony took upon themselves a quasi legislative form of government, Yarmouth, with the others, joined the association and sent her deputies to the colonial legislature. From that circumstance her incorporation—for she never had any other—is usually dated as September 3, 1639, when she became one of the represented towns in the colony court."</ref> as part of the [[Plymouth Colony]] on September 3, 1639, following a settlement led by John Crowe (later Crowell), Thomas Howes and Anthony Thacher, and is, together with [[Sandwich, Massachusetts|Sandwich]], the oldest town on Cape Cod.<ref name="History: Yarmouth's History">{{cite web| url= http://www.yarmouth.ma.us/index.aspx?NID=833|title=History: Yarmouth's History| publisher=Town of Yarmouth| access-date=July 19, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Swift|1890|p=455}}: "The permanent and authorized settlement of the town commenced early in 1639. The grantees of the court were, Anthony Thacher, John Crow, and Thomas Howes, who had surveyed the lands, preparatory to occupation."</ref> Yarmouth originally included what is now the town of [[Dennis, Massachusetts|Dennis]], which was incorporated as a separate community on June 19, 1793.<ref>{{harvnb|Swift|1890|p=467}}: "One of the peculiarities of the civil economy of Old Yarmouth may appropriately be noted in connection with the events preceding the division of the town. During the [Revolutionary] war it was customary to transact the public business by parishes. The people became so used to transacting public business in this way, that it was thought best to make two townships of Old Yarmouth, and by a vote of eighty-six to four, they decided to divide the town. The act of separation passed June 19, 1793, and took effect in February following."</ref>

Yarmouth is named after [[Great Yarmouth]], a town in the county of [[Norfolk]], on the east coast of England, which is itself at the mouth of the [[River Yare]]. Though none of the initial settlers hailed from that English town, the name was possibly chosen because across the North Sea from Yarmouth is the Netherlands, where a portion of the Mayflower passengers had lived in exile. This group of pilgrims arrived back in England via the port of Yarmouth before heading to the New World.<ref name="History: Yarmouth's History"/>

In 1642 and 1645, Yarmouth furnished soldiers for the Plymouth Colony's expeditions against the [[Narragansett people|Narragansett]].<ref>{{harvnb|Swift|1890|p=460}}: "Expeditions against the Indians were sent out by the colony court in 1642 and again in 1645, the dreaded Narragansetts causing much uneasiness by their unfriendly attitude. The first year Yarmouth furnished two soldiers, and of the second expedition, she furnished five. They were absent fourteen days and saw but little service. This 'war' cost Yarmouth £7, 2s., 6d."</ref> In 1648, the Plymouth Colony's legislature, the General Court, appointed [[Myles Standish]] to adjudicate land disputes among the Yarmouth settlers.<ref>{{harvnb|Swift|1890|pp=460–61}}: "From the beginning of the settlement, there had been a great deal of bitter feeling in relation to the division of the lands…. Captain Standish alone was appointed in 1648, by the court, to 'have a hearing and put an end to all differences' on this subject."</ref> Yarmouth soldiers served the Plymouth Colony in [[King Philip's War]]: fifteen Yarmouth men participated in the [[Great Swamp Fight]] without casualties, but the town did lose five men at [[Rehoboth, Massachusetts|Rehoboth]].<ref>{{harvnb|Swift|1890|pp=460–61}}: "The new book of records opens with a list of the soldiers of Yarmouth who were pressed into the service in Philip's war, together with their wages. The quotas of men required were promptly filled. Fifteen men from this town were in the Narragansett swamp fight, but none were killed. Five men from this town were killed at Rehoboth, in the fight in which Captain Pierce's company was annihilated."</ref> Yarmouth troops also saw service in the early years of [[King William's War]].<ref>{{harvnb|Swift|1890|p=463}}: "Philip's war did not, by any means, finish the troubles connected with the Indian question. The seat of hostilities was transferred to Maine and New Hampshire, and in 1689 Yarmouth was obliged to pay forty-one pounds as her proportion of the war against the Eastern Indians. In 1690 she furnished at one time four, and at another ten men, and paid £104, 2s., 9d., of the debt of what was styled William and Mary's War."</ref> In the early eighteenth century, some of the Yarmouth veterans of King Philip's War were granted lands to settle in [[Gorham, Maine]].<ref>{{harvnb|Swift|1890|p=465}}: "About 1726 commenced a movement from the Cape to seek new homes—this time toward the province of Maine. The division of the common lands had not satisfied the desires of the landless classes, and the legislature of 1727 having granted the heirs of each of the 120 soldiers in the Narragansett expedition during Philip's war, a township in Maine, about forty heirs and their families in 1736 settled the town of Gorham, Me."</ref>