Welcome
... to the UNOFFICIAL* website about the little town of Swansea, Massachusetts. (The OFFICIAL town website can be found here.) The focus of this site is on the history of town. There are lots of old photos and links on our History page and a Books section for books on Swansea and other local towns.
Swansea was established on October 30, 1667 when Pastor John Myles, Captain Thomas Willett and their neighbors petitioned the Court at
Plymouth to establish a town. The fourth town founded in Bristol County, Swansea originally extended from the boundaries of Taunton and
Rehoboth to Mount Hope Bay. The area was reduced three times, first by the incorporation of Barrington as a town in 1717, then by the
annexation of Warren by the state of Rhode Island in 1747, and finally by the incorporation of Somerset as a separate town in 1790.
The first state census taken in 1765 showed Swansea's population to be 1,840. The 1994 town census showed a population of 15,100.
AREA: 22.12 square miles /ELEVATION: 42' above MSL /1997 POPULATION: 15,383 /REGISTERED VOTERS: 9.181 (taken from the 1997 Annual Town Report for the Town of Swansea, published by the Lincoln Press Company Inc.)
